In its third week of release The Dark Knight Rises once again trumps all competition to reign supreme in the Box Office battlefield. Honestly, I could have written that sentence two years ago it was such a forgone conclusion.
Bringing in another $36 Million over the weekend, the final Nolan Batman film managed to ease a soft 41% after last week’s rather steep decline. The solid hold helps establish the film third on many of the all time box office speed records.
Unfortunately for the movie, almost across the board it is third to the only two films people want to compare it to, The Avengers and The Dark Knight. It is possible that the movie can climb into the top seven or eight all time and still have a tiny shade of disappointment. Thus is the magic of context.
Two newcomers tried their shot at toppling the Bat-King, and while both did manage to come in second and third, neither was a particular success. The Total Recall remake did manage to come close to Batman on Friday, but poor reviews and worse word-of-mouth killed any chance the film had over the full weekend. Even worse, the $26 Million weekend establishes the film on a Battleship trajectory. I wonder of Tyler Kitsch had a cameo somewhere?
In third place is the third Diary of a Wimpy Kid film. Since the series has a distinct target audience and is cheap to produce the $14.7 Million weekend is not a flop by any means. It is however, the lowest gross yet of the franchise, so Fox no doubt was hoping for better.
This should be the last weekend Batman sees on the top of the Box Office heap, with two potential hits getting unleashed next weekend. The Bourne Legacy has both the heat of a very successful trilogy and a very hot star, Jeremy Renner, so it would be a mild shock to see it not come in first next weekend. That said, never count out a Will Ferrell broad appeal comedy like The Campaign. He is far from consistent at the Box Office, but he is always a risk to open a film big.
Total Weekend Box Office:
1 The Dark Knight Rises $36,440,000
2 Total Recall $26,000,000
3 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days $14,700,000
4 Ice Age: Continental Drift $8,400,000
5 The Watch $6,350,000
6 Ted $5,479,000
7 Step Up Revolution $5,300,000
8 The Amazing Spider-Man $4,300,000
9 Brave $2,890,000
10 Magic Mike $1,380,000
