CinemaNerdz

Weekend Box-Office: Captain America: The First Avenger Knocks Down the Competition

Seth Paul

Despite its record-smashing debut last weekend, not even a parade of Wingardium Leviosa spells could keep the boy wizard in the top spot a second time…Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 fell to second place behind the debut of Marvel’s newest comic book-to-film adaptation Captain America: The First Avenger. The story of weakling-turned-superman Steve Rogers and his fight to safeguard America from the evil Red Skull (and another set up for next year’s The Avengers, complete with said film’s trailer after the credits) looks to be another winner for Marvel, easily besting DC’s Green Lantern (now almost certifiably a box-office bomb) with $65.8 million in its opening weekend, and much more popular among critics to boot. Potter dropped to a miniscule $48.1 million domestic haul…but the film is still doing well overseas, and at nearly $834.5 million in worldwide gross looks on track to earning over $1 billion, and more than likely topping the year’s current top grosser, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides before long.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon took fourth place to newcomer Friends with Benefits, in both weekend take and reception. Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake appear to be decent box office draws, the $35 million budgeted film earning $18.5 million to Transformer’s $12 million. Not that Transformers is in any danger, having earned a worldwide take that puts it in likely contention to enter the $1 billion club soon (currently $882.3 million). Horrible Bosses comes next, the comedy earning itself $11.7 million, putting it potentially into Bridesmaids territory of surprise comedy hit for Warner Bros. It stands tall over current box office disappointments Zookeeper ($8.7 million; not a bomb per se, but nowhere near a hit with poor reviews and an $88 million worldwide take), Cars 2 ($5.7 million; again, not a failure, but the second-lowest earning Pixar film next to A Bug’s Life and the first critically panned film from the studio), and Winnie the Pooh ($5.1 million; it has earned glowing reviews, but may be suffering from low exposure and the nearly eight years since the cartoon bear’s last big screen appearance).

Sony may be reeling from Zookeeper, but Bad Teacher seems to have pushed the right buttons; its $2.6 million this week adds to a $94 million domestic haul and $164 million worldwide, while Midnight in Paris finds a way to sneak back into the Top 10 for a second week after dropping off, keeping both its spot and its take with $1.9 million.

Weekend Box-Office (July 22 – July 24)

  1. Captain America: The First Avenger…$65.8 million
  2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2…$48.1 million
  3. Friends with Benefits…$18.5 million
  4. Transformers: Dark of the Moon…$12 million
  5. Horrible Bosses…$11.7 million
  6. Zookeeper…$8.7 million
  7. Cars 2…$5.7 million
  8. Winnie the Pooh…$5.1 million
  9. Bad Teacher…$2.6 million
  10. Midnight in Paris…$1.9 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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