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Sunday August 04, 2013
Weekend Box Office: '2 Guns' Riddles 'Smurfs 2' with Bullets
Two movies opened wide this weekend, “2 Guns,” with Washington and Wahlberg (Denzel and Mark), and “The Smurfs 2,” with smurfs (and Neil Patrick Harris).
Correction: “Smurfs” actually opened Wednesday and in those five days has grossed what “Guns” grossed in three: about $27 mil. No great shakes either way. For the weekend, they finished 1st and 3rd.
Yawn. Yep, must be August.
“The Wolverine” didn't get great word-of-mouth and fell off by 59% for second place. A 59% fall-off ain't bad (“Wolverine” fell off by 69% in 2009) but the movie already opened below expectations and needed better-than-expected second weekend. Didn't get it. Bub.
How is summer box office shaping up overall? Here are the top 10 grossers:
Movie | Total Gross | Thtrs | Opening Wknd | |
1 | Iron Man 3 | $407,436,786 | 4,253 | $174,144,585 |
2 | Despicable Me 2 | $326,668,000 | 4,003 | $83,517,315 |
3 | Man of Steel | $287,214,823 | 4,207 | $116,619,362 |
4 | Monsters University | $258,597,000 | 4,004 | $82,429,469 |
5 | Fast & Furious 6 | $238,015,000 | 3,771 | $97,375,245 |
6 | Star Trek Into Darkness | $226,209,000 | 3,907 | $70,165,559 |
7 | World War Z | $195,889,000 | 3,607 | $66,411,834 |
8 | The Heat | $149,566,000 | 3,184 | $39,115,043 |
9 | The Great Gatsby | $144,333,501 | 3,550 | $50,085,185 |
10 | Grown Ups 2 | $116,400,000 | 3,491 | $41,508,572 |
What a tepid lot, really. A bunch of shrugs, really. Plus a few stinkers. You know who I'm looking at, Adam Sandler.
Where are movies like “Up” (2009), “Toy Story 3,” “Karate Kid” and “Inception” (2010), “Bridesmaids” (2011) and “The Avengers” (2012)? The industry should be happy box office isn't down more. Or at all.
Summer underperfomers include “The Wolverine” ($95m), “Pacific Rim” ($92m), “The Lone Ranger” ($86m), “White House Down” ($71m), “After Earth” ($60m), “Reds 2” ($45m), “The Internship” ($44m), and “R.I.P.D.” ($30m).
The weekend numbers here.
“My, my, my! Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains!” — Philip Marlowe, “The Big Sleep” (1946)