Weekend Box Office Analysis: July 8-10

A very impressive and strong hold for Transformers: Dark of The Moon tops the headlines in this weekend's Box Office Analysis as the Michael Bay directed sequel adds another $47M to it's domestic total and another $93M to it's international cume.


Neither of this weekend's new comedies came close to catching Transformers 3 on its second weekend. While Horrible Bosses became the latest R-rated comedy to top expectations this summer, Zookeeper became the latest family film to fall flat. Both films combined barely topped this weekend’s estimate for Dark of the Moon, which became the  highest-grossing domestic release of 2011 as of Sunday. In North America, the Paramount Pictures release has earned $261M and internationally it is up to $384M, for a massive worldwide total of $645M after less than two weeks in theaters. The sequel, which cost a reported $195M to make, has passed up The Hangover Part II ($250.8M) to become the top grossing domestic film so far this year. The film has yet to open in China or Japan but it is sure to top its predecessor Revenge of The Fallen's $836M worldwide total in the coming weeks. Additionally, TF3 has a good chance of breaking the one billion mark. That would make it the second film of 2011 and the ninth of all time to pass that particular barrier.

New Line's R-rated comedy Horrible Bosses opened in second place with an estimated $28.1M. Even with Bad Teacher still a force in the top ten, Horrible Bosses bested all projections and its weekend figures place the ensemble comedy in between the debuts of the summer’s other comedy originals: Bridesmaids ($26.2M) and the aforementioned Bad Teacher ($31.6M). Audiences sampled Horrible Bosses with 51% of men rating it an 'A-' and 49% of women rating it a 'B+'. Directed by Seth Gordon, the $35M-budgeted film stars Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Julie Bowen and Jamie Foxx.

This weekend's other new release Zookeeper didn't reach its mass potential despite its family-friendly talking animal cast and summer release slot, earning an estimated $21M to claim third place. That is a bit higher than projections placed it going into the weekend but nowhere near the $30M plus the film was once expected to earn. Exit polling showed that audiences were 48% general moviegoers and 52% parents and children; overall 47% were male and 53% female, with 41% under age 25 while 59% over age 25. But it doesn't bode well that the PG Zookeeper didn't get a Saturday kiddie bump especially when it had been tracking well enough with audiences and families to convince Sony execs to move it from October 2010 into a coveted July 2011 slot. Internationally, the Kevin James led film brought in $7.5M for a worldwide total of $28.5M. The comedy was budgeted at $80M.


Pixar's Cars 2 dropped two spots to fourth its third weekend with $15.2M. The sequel has collected $148.8M domestically and $121.6M overseas for a worldwide total of $270.4M. The film cost about $200M to make. Columbia's Bad Teacher rounded out the top five, collecting $9M its third weekend for a total of $78.8M. The comedy is said to have cost $20M.

Here's how the entire Top 10 shakes out:


1. Transformers 3 3D (Paramount) Week 2 [4,088 Theaters]
Friday $14.9M, Saturday $18.4M, Weekend $47M (-54%), Cume $261M

2. Horrible Bosses (New Line/Warner Bros) NEW [3,040 Theaters]
Friday $9.9M, Saturday $10.3M, Cume $28.1M

3. Zookeeper (MGM/Sony) NEW [3,482 Theaters]
Friday $7.4M, Saturday $7.5M, Weekend $21M

4. Cars 2 3D (Pixar/Disney) Week 3 [3,990 Theaters]
Friday $4.8M, Saturday $6M, Weekend $15.2M, Cume $148.8M

5. Bad Teacher (Sony) Week 3 [2,962 Theaters]
Friday $3M, Saturday $3.5M, Weekend $9M, Cume $78.7M

6. Larry Crowne (Vendome/Universal) Week 2 [2,976 Theaters]
Friday $2M, Saturday $2.4M, Weekend $6.3M (-52%), Cume $26.4M

7. Super 8 (Paramount) Week 5 [2,292 Theaters]
Friday $1.5M, Saturday $1.9M, Weekend $4.8M, Cume $118M

8. Monte Carlo (Fox) Week 2 [2,473 Theaters]
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $1.3M, Saturday $3.8M, Cume $16.1M

9. Green Lantern 3D (Warner Bros) Week 4 [2,015 Theaters]

Friday $945K, Saturday $1.2M, Weekend $3.1M, Cume $109.7M

10. Mr. Popper's Penguins (Fox) Week 4 [1,996 Theaters]
Friday $1M, Saturday $1M, Weekend $2.8M, Cume $57.7M