Twilight And M. Night Score Big At The Box Office
To no one’s surprise, the 4th of July weekend box office was dominated by Twilight: Eclipse‘s glistening vampires. The holiday haul netted it $69 million, which combined with its take from Wednesday and Thursday brought the franchise’s five-day total to $162 million. Very good numbers, but not earth-shattering.
In second place was M. Night Shyamalan’s widely panned fantasy The Last Airbender with a credible $40.6 million. Since its Thursday opening, the flick has grossed close to $57 million. I’ve seen very few if any positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, but Paramount’s strategy of opening opposite Twilight seems to have paid off, at least for one week. I would anticipate a major drop-off next week once word of mouth spreads that it’s a pile of garbage.
Here’s how the Top 10 stacked up: (Source: Box Office Mojo):
1. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse – $69 million
2. The Last Airbender – $40.6 million
3. Toy Story 3 – $30.2 million
4. Grown Ups – $18.5 million
5. Knight and Day – $10.2 million
6. The Karate Kid – $8 million
7. The A-Team – $3.02 million
8. Get Him to the Greek – $1.18 million
9. Shrek Forever After – $800,000
10. Cyrus – $770,000
Toy Story 3 continues its assault on Iron Man 2. It climbed within $20 million in domestic receipts but still trails in worldwide gross by over $150 million. Whether or not it can claim the summer crown remains to be seen. Both Twilight and the upcoming Inception might prove to be contenders as well.
This week the over-hyped Predators and under-hyped Despicable Me enter the box office fray. Neither poses much of a threat, but I will definitely check out Predators. I’m all over anything with a high body count.
