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SUNDAY AM: Today’s numbers show that Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight is the No. 1 movie in North America for the 3rd weekend in a row. All the Hollywood studios agree that the Batman mega-blockbuster’s Friday, Saturday and estimated Sunday total take of $43.8M bested the $42.4M opening weekend of Universal’s The Mummy 3: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor which had finished in 1st place on Friday with $15.3M but decreased 4% Saturday to $14.7M. It’s called the threequel curse, but the Brendan Fraser actioner lost its mojo after a 7-year delay and terrible reviews to run well behind its hoped-for $50M. But the pic did well overseas, opening No. 1 in 26 of the 28 territories launched beginning Thursday for $59.5M for the weekend — 3 times what the previous versions did. In this country, exit polls showed Mummy 3 moviegoers were 44%/56% under vs over 25 years of age, 52%/48% male vs female. More than 93% had seen previous Mummy pics. The main reason given for choosing to see the film was the “action” (62%) and the “story” 49%. As for Dark Knight, its domestic gross of $17.4M on Saturday went up 38% from Friday’s $12.7M and down only 42% from a week ago. Meanwhile, Dark Knight is about to set another record for the fastest approach to $400M domestic with its cume now at $396M.
Sony’s holdover Will Ferrell comedy Step Brothers dropped only 47% from a week ago to finish #3 with a $16.3M weekend and $62.9M cume. That’s great for an R-rated comedy under mogul Judd Apatow’s banner. Universal’s 3-week-old Mamma Mia! was 4th with a $13.1M weekend and $88M cume. Warner Bros’ month-old Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D came in No. 5 with $6.9M and a new cume of $73M. But Disney’s Kevin Costner starrer Swing Vote opened stillborn with an embarrassing $6.3M weekend, falling to 6th place after earning just $2M Friday and $2.6M Saturday. Hollywood saw this bomb coming. So why in the world make this pic with box office poison Kevin Costner? Well, Costner claimed to reporters he put up $20+ mil of his own money to finance it. Ouch!
At No. 7, Sony’s Hancock did another $5.2m this weekend and is now at $216M domestically and on its way to over $600M worldwide. In 8th place, Pixar/Disney’s Wall-E ended the weekend with $4.7M and surged over the $200M mark on Friday for a new cume of $204.2M now. For 9th, Fox’s X-Files 2: I Want To Believe fell 66% from last weekend to make $3.4M for a sad cume of $17M. And, rounding out the Top 10, Starz/Fox’s Space Chimps earned $2.8M over the weekend for a $22M cume.
SATURDAY PM: It’s still neck-and-neck between The Mummy 3 and The Dark Knight. Both look like $42M-$44M for the weekend. Dark Knight is down only -35% from last Saturday. This could come down to Sunday’s take.
SATURDAY AM: North American box office numbers show that, despite a 7-year-absence and a locale switch fom Egypt to China, Universal’s The Mummy 3: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor opened No. 1 with a sizeable $15.3 million Friday from an enormous release into 3,759 theaters. Obviously, the adventure pic’s good marketing campaign trumped dreadful reviews — only 27% positive among top critics. And while the Brendan Fraser starrer won’t hit the $50 million that the studio thought was possible, it could finish the weekend with a solid $43.6 million. (That’s even steven with the first Mummy weekend of $43.3M in 1999. But far less than the sequel The Mummy Returns’ opening of $68.1M in 2001. And let’s not forget that 2002 spin-off The Scorpion King‘s $36M.) As one analyst asked me about the $145M negative cost pic: “How many times can Uni go to the well and manage to pull it off? It’s certainly possible for it to lose its mojo.” (But not overseas. See below.)
That’s why Warner Bros thinks Mummy 3‘s Saturday will dip a lot and its own mega-blockbuster The Dark Knight could stay on top post-Sunday after earning $12.6 million Friday from its still record release into 4,366 venues. Even falling -46% from last weekend, the latest Batman installment will still take in $41 million gross this weekend from the U.S. and Canada combined. “But if Dark Knight is down less than 45% it could give Mummy a run for the money,” a rival studio exec told me. Of course, Warner Bros is sitting pretty while every day the Batman pic sets speed records on its fast approach to $400M cume.
Meanwhile, The Mummy 3 opened No. 1 in 26 of the 28 territories launched overseas beginning Thursday for an estimated $59M for the weekend — 3 times what the previous versions did — making it an instant global hit. The pic still has 38 territories to release including the U.K., France and Germany next weekend. In this country, as if NBC viewers weren’t bombarded enough about the August 8th start of the Beijing Summer Olympics, moviegoers to Universal’s pic were assailed by a series of co-branding theater ad spots promoting sister company NBC’s coverage.
Sony’s Will Ferrell holdover Step Brothers finished Friday #3 with $5 million, down 57%. It should end the weekend with a $15.5M weekend and new cume of $62M. Universal’s Mamma Mia! placed 4th on Friday with $3.8 million for probably another $12.5M Friday-Saturday-Sunday and new cume of $87.5M. Warner’s Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D also starring Brendan Fraser continues doing business Friday with $1.8M. It should earn a $6.5M weekend and new cume of $73M — good enough for No. 5 by Sunday. That means Disney’s Swing Vote starring Kevin Costner which opened in the 5th spot Friday after making just $1.9 million from 2,213 theaters should drop to 6th place by weekend’s end with a humiliating $5.6 million.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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I love movies. I can forgive some elements and suspend disbelief and sit back and have a good time. If you want to spend $20 and kill some brain cells I would recommend any alcoholic beverage including paint thinner before I would ask you to see the Mummy 3.
Anybody want to start taking bets on how big a bomb ‘W’ will be?
Many are saying Costner’s claims about self financing are nothing but PR fabrication. There is a buzz around town that Paris Hilton’s ex fiance Paris Latsis the Greek Shipping guy financed Kevin Costner’s Swing Vote. He’s credited as executive producer. Looks like poor Paris might be the sucker on this one.
I’m actually bummed that Swing Vote didn’t do better, if only because I admire that Costner put up his own money. Ease up on schadenfreude, maybe Nicki — the values behind taking a chance on yourself should be something you’re rooting for.
If the Mummy takes in up to $40 this weekend, I’ll be stunned. I had to leave the movie after about half an hour (when I really wanted to leave after ten) and when I went to get a pass for another movie instead, the boys at Guest Services howled and wailed as to why I’d purchased the ticket in the first place. They made a show of a ritual burning of the tickets in trash can.
Past the opening sequence, the movie didn’t deserve a theatrical release. So many inexplicably embarrassing and cringe-worthy things things about the performances of Fraser and Bello. And thankfully I left before I could witness the weird – again – inexplicable sexual tension I’d been told about between Evie and her son. I’m sorry, but Gough & MIlar wrote a ludicrous script. At least the first two films had a sense of the characters and their relationships, as well as managing to be fluidly, if basically, entertaining. This is most likely the end of the Mummy franchise (at least for now), but please God, let it also be the end of Rob Cohen.
Saw Swing Vote….probably one of the funniest movies I have seen in YEARS! Sad thing however that the theater was empty for the most part. Most people were either seeing Dark Knight or Mummy 3….of the two Dark Knight was hands down getting the most business. Look for Dark to win the weekend with a 48 million weekend with the Mummy 3 close behind at around 44 million. Nikki is right that Universal had better be happy for overseas because the reboot of the Mummy is going to fail.
Paris Latsis didn’t pay for Swing Vote… he and his partner at 1821 Pictures helped develop the story with the writer/director. They developed the script but did not pay for the film. Kevin “box office poison” Costner’s claims that he self-financed are way overblown. The city of New Mexico helped pay for this film with all their tax breaks and film financing incentives. Poison is just patting himself on the back like everyone does in movieland.
New Mexico is a state.
Most larger films these days utilize tax breaks from various states around the country, so Swing Vote is no different. The New Mexico “film fund” still requires a financier who can secure the amount of the loan in an escrow account. New Mexico bears no risk on any of the film loans it makes. Whoever secured this loan (possibly Costner) will take a hit if the film doesn’t earn enough to pay back the loan.
People ranting on “Mummy3″ for ranting purposes only, I would think. I saw it and from where I sat the new “Mummy3″ entry is as good as the “IJ4″ entry Spielberg served up a month or so ago and the critics just ate up. Maybe if Spielberg name was on this film it would have done better with the ranter on this page. Don’t get me wrong I thought both entries were just …Blah…Heck I am back to viewing HELLBOY2 again this weekend.
I made a conscious decision to forget about this Mummy flick when I heard Rachel Weisz wasn’t in it….
What a bunch of haters.
Kevin Costner’s Open Range kicked ass.
I’m floored that the third part of a previously well-grossing franchise is barely holding off a movie in its third weekend that has made massive amounts of money already, even if that movie is the [seemingly unstoppable] Dark Knight. I honestly expected Mummy 3 to easily overtake DK this weekend, even with its horrid reviews, just because I thought by now DK’s audience must finally be drying up. Wow. Even if M3 is doing better overseas, Universal can’t possibly be happy with this result.
As for Swing Vote, people don’t want to go see movies where they’re reminded of the sad state of real life. Seeing a movie about a fake election will only make you think about the real election and no one wants to think about that when they bought a movie ticket to escape their problems. I mean, what next, a movie about a family facing foreclosure?
Marlowe, you’re not too swift when it comes to film financing. New Mexico incentives net the average production between 18-20%. Costner did put up a significant portion of the budget himself.
….and BTW, when did NM get downgraded to a city.
You gotta give this guy credit. The last several movies he did, He did by putting his own money at risk. How many others ever do that. May not be Box office any more, but he’s a courageous guy.
Hi, Just wanted to remind Marlowe that I’m an entire STATE, not a city.
Have to say, I agree with gooner…I think it’s to be admired when someone puts up their own cash. And it’s sad when original and meaningful storytelling like SWING VOTE gets buried by corporate crap like THE MUMMY….
And there are things in New Mexico that you can see that you can’t see anywhere else in the world. There’s a gallery on my website (the link in my name.) If you’ve ever seen a thousand balloons in the sky at the same time, it’s hard to forget. And hundreds of balloons playing among the Red Rock cliffs of Gallup are so spectacular. Even Taos, with the balloons playing in the snow covered fields, is unforgettable.
The two other Mummy movies were so much fun that I’ll buy the DVD for the third one when it comes out. But New Mexico is so big that the nearest theater is seventy miles away. Think about that for a second. What type of movie would you drive 140 miles te see? None so far this year.
This discussion on the Mummy movie is really a waste of time coz Dark Knight still soars man.
When I saw a “Swing Vote” trailer, I thought of “Welcome to Mooseport.” The political comedy graveyard seems pretty full, with movies like “Primary Colors,” “Bulworth,” “Head of State and “Speechless” (also shot in “the city of New Mexico”).
Only successful political comedies I can recall are “Mister Smith Goes to Washington,” “The Candidate,” “Dave” and “Wag the Dog.”
Maybe people go to the movies to escape politics.
Nikki, DK’s only down 35%? Or 45%?
Hancock was a horribly flawed movie that was as ridiculous as it was poorly executed. That crap kept my butt in the seat but not shouting its praise when I left the theater. The kind of movie that makes me get up and leave “mid-story” is a special kind of lower tier of crap that makesme want Dante to start digging out new levels of hell. Do not go see the Mummy 3 (or is it 4 with Scorpion). If you enjoyed it then I am sorry but there is no help for you. Start helping Dante with that new ditch he started.
Still hearing Sunday’s numbers will determine a lot since the gap is less than 2-3 mill. Might even come down to Monday’s final tally?
I would rather go and see the Dark Knight again. Then risk going too see the MUMMY!! Kevin Costner, I do like him. Howerver, That movie I think I can wait til, it comes out on DVD. I am a second timer going back too see batman!!
Of course SWING VOTE bombed. When was the last time a political comedy has been a hit?
That sound you hear is crickets chirping.
Plus, those kinds of movies (like sports movies) don’t do well overseas so they have to rely on the American audience to make any money. And when Americans couldn’t be bothered to see it…
Mummy 3 is as bad as Batman 3 was. I believe we will see a much better Mummy six just like Batman six.
Swing Vote? It’s been done.
There was a Popeye cartoon made in the 50s where a presidential election between Popeye & Bluto came down to one vote – Olive Oyl’s, of course. Both spend most of the cartoon schmoozing her. If you know the pattern of most Popeye cartoons, you can figure out how it ended.
Popeye should sue Kevin Costner!