Sunday, March 21, 2010

THE BOUNTY HUNTER SHOOTS, BUT MISFIRES


Despite looking like a genuine threat to the throne, The Bounty Hunter was just no match for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland this weekend, which stays on top for a third week in a row taking in $34.5 million.  

Diary of a Wimpy Kid from Fox, lands in second spot with $21.8 million after getting much word-of-mouth build-up in the kids' demographic.  The adapted film is the first from its popular children's novel franchise.

The Bounty Hunter placed in third, a romantic comedy with a bit of action, stars Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston as a feuding ex-husband and wife.  Universally panned by critics, the film brought in $21 million this weekend from 3,074 theatres.  It was made for a $40 million budget and isn't looking like a loss for Sony Pictures as it has yet to open overseas... yet.  Read my review of it here.

Jude Law's action vehicle Repo Men from Universal Pictures, lands in a distant fourth spot earning $6.1 million, after being made for a $32 million budget.  Ouch.

Rounding out the bottom is Avatar which has seen better days, earning just $1.06 million in its 13th week and likely final week in the Top Ten.   Finally!  The film is said to be amidst another relaunch shortly with extended footage because clearly it hasn't made enough money the first time around.  God, help us.

As an interesting aside, The Runaways, which I loved,  landed in 13th spot with just $800k in earnings, but one most note that it only opened in approximately 230 theatres this weekend.  It will be expanding to wide release April 9, 2010.  Expect a huge spike in a couple weeks' time.

3 comments:

  1. I guess I don't follow the grosses all that much, because $21 mil doesn't really sound like a bad launch for a romantic comedy, esp if it has bad reviews.

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  2. Jen-An needs another Good Girl (hell, even an Office Space) - I don't like romantic (MF) comedies.

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  3. hey JAH, i think there were really high expectations for The Bounty Hunter, releasing it in 3,700+ theatres. I was looking at forecasts and they were predicting it would make more than it did. And of course with two huge stars like Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston, one would expect it to debut higher than in third. Not a failure by any means but not a big success. It has to make another $20 million to break even.

    Undisco, I agree. I totally forgot she was in Office Space!

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