It’s certainly not a surprise to see Men in Black 3 claim the top of the box office chart, but it’s also worth noting that the Rentrak posted numbers are a bit disingenuous. With this being a four day weekend, the numbers that have come out are for the Friday to Sunday run and the Sunday numbers are estimated. The real totals will be finalized sometime on Tuesday. One of the reasons that the Memorial Day Weekend is a big release weekend for at least one movie every year is that it is a four day weekend and that total is what’s counted, not the three day. Men in Black 3 still isn’t going to salvage itself though when it comes to the domestic market, but it’s going to come out a bit better internationally as the total there so far is $132,000,000, which with today’s US take will bring it north of $200 million by a hare. With estimates of the film, distribution and marketing going upwards of $375 million though, this is going to be a tough road to work for the film, especially as serious competition is a week away with Snow White and the Huntsman and then Prometheus a week later. It won’t have the room of huge word of mouth that The Avengers did. Which itself added another $37 million to its ledger, hitting $514 million domestically and $1.3 billion total worldwide.
And what of Battleship? Sinking, of course, as it brought in just $11 million over the weekend so far, which does help bring its worldwide take to $277 million.
One new movie that did do well, deceptively of course, is Chernobyl Diaries, which has not opened overseas yet. The film made a paltry $8 million in theaters while being on 2000 less screens compared to Men in Black 3 and nearly the same less than The Avengers, but it also has a budget of $12 million before marketing, so it should do well overall and especially through home video, rental, PPV and premium channel distribution.
RANK | TITLE | DISTRIBUTOR NAME | WEEKEND REVENUE | CUME REVENUE | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
REVENUE | # OF LOCATIONS* | LOC AVG | ||||
1 | Men In Black 3 | Sony | $55,000,000 | 4,248 | 12,947 | $55,000,000 |
2 | Marvel’s The Avengers | Disney | $36,987,000 | 3,918 | 9,440 | $513,672,000 |
3 | Battleship | Universal | $10,754,310 | 3,702 | 2,905 | $44,259,655 |
4 | Dictator, The | Paramount | $9,600,000 | 3,014 | 3,185 | $41,448,463 |
5 | Chernobyl Diaries | Warner Bros. | $8,000,000 | 2,433 | 3,288 | $8,000,000 |
6 | Dark Shadows | Warner Bros. | $7,515,000 | 3,404 | 2,207 | $62,997,896 |
7 | What To Expect When You’re Expecting | Lionsgate | $7,150,000 | 3,021 | 2,366 | $22,171,248 |
8 | Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The | Fox Searchlight | $6,350,000 | 1,233 | 5,150 | $16,553,496 |
9 | Hunger Games, The | Lionsgate | $2,200,000 | 1,421 | 1,548 | $395,208,785 |
10 | Think Like A Man | Sony | $1,400,000 | 786 | 1,781 | $88,271,941 |
11 | Pirates! Band of Misfits, The | Sony | $1,100,000 | 884 | 1,244 | $27,304,304 |
12 | Bernie | Millennium Entertainment | $870,154 | 194 | 4,485 | $2,221,960 |