CinemaNerdz

Weekend Box Office: Bears Big at the Box Office as Ted and Brave Take Two of Top Three Spots

Seth Paul

Seth McFarlane’s name is gold, whether its on his three TV shows on FOX or in the theaters, as his comedy Ted did quite well for itself in its debut weekend. The adventures of the walking, talking, R-rated teddy bear made an estimated $54.1 million (already making back its $50 million budget), and is getting positive reviews as well. So is the second place finisher, Magic Mike, which made an even bigger smash profit-wise. The $7 million film about male strippers and directed by critic favorite Steven Soderbergh made strong gains on its investment with an estimated $39.2 million. Brave, Pixar’s latest, dropped two spots from its strong performance last weekend, but what is truly astonishing is its weekday performance…somewhere between its actual $66.3 million last weekend and its estimated $34 million this weekend, its weekday earnings have pulled the animated film up to $131.7 million. While still short of its reported costs of $185 million (and surprisingly low foreign box office receipts), the film is still performing quite admirably.

Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection debuted in fourth, with Tyler Perry teaming up with Eugene Levy for another profitable venture, if not received with the highest critical praise. Costing $20 million to make, Perry has already made an estimated $26.4 million on the movie and quite likely to earn a bit more than that, keeping his string of low-budget hits continuing (while it is nowhere near his biggest moneymaker, Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail, it has had a better opening weekend than his last two films). Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted has slid a bit, but even picking up only an estimated $11.9 million doesn’t mean failure…in worldwide receipts, the animated comedy and its infamous “Afro Circus” number have turned CG into dollar signs with $424.4 million in four weeks. However, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter seems less likely to succeed, even with audiences and critics divided on its merits. With an estimated $6 million this weekend, its worldwide box office amounts to only $46 million, far short of its production costs and, more likely, its investors’ expectations.

Prometheus has been a bit of a mystery, like the film itself…while it earned an estimated $4.9 million in its fourth week, its worldwide gross of $284.2 million has left many questions in the air, such as whether a sequel would be profitable enough to put into production (never mind the film has gone on to earn twice its production costs, especially for a film so divisive among its viewers). However, its competition for this weekend is closest to Moonrise Kingdom, a decidedly lower budget affair from independent favorite Wes Anderson. While not a runaway success, Moonrise Kingdom has been steadily heading upwards while everyone else heads down…and it has finally seen a glimmer of profit on its $16 million budget, thanks to its estimated $4.9 million this weekend. Finally, Snow White and the Huntsman earned an estimated $4.4 million, and while it falls short of profitability on the domestic side, it has made a solid $334.6 million worldwide…which is a lot more than the debut of People Like Us can say. Unlike the similarly budgeted Moonrise Kingdom, the drama from Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (the writers behind the Transformers films and the TV show Fringe) opened to wide release and mixed reviews…it currently holds an estimated $4.3 million against its $16 million budget.

Weekend Box-Office (June 29th – July 1st)

  1. Ted…$54.1 million
  2. Magic Mike…$39.2 million
  3. Brave…$34 million
  4. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection Program…$26.4 million
  5. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted…$11.9 million
  6. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter…$6 million
  7. Prometheus…$4.9 million
  8. Moonrise Kingdom…$4.9 million
  9. Snow White and the Huntsman…$4.4 million
  10. People Like Us…$4.3 million

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."
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