Batman Rises Again

Weekend Recap: 7/27-29/2012

It was a slow few days this past weekend as neither of the two new movies was able to dethrone Christopher Nolan’s epic conclusion to his Batman Saga. The Dark Knight Rises (review here) grossed an estimated $64.1 million for a ten day total of $289.1 million and a worldwide total of $537.3 million.


That’s not quite as strong as The Dark Knight, but still a very strong showing for a movie in what has come to be a rather weak summer.

	Batman Begins	The Dark Knight	The Dark Knight Rises
Early Release	$24.2 million
1st Weekend	$48.7 million	$158.4 million	$160.9 million
Week 1	$70.8 million	$238.6 million	$225 million
Gross to Date	$94.9 million	$238.6 million	$225 million
2nd Weekend	$27.6 million	$75.2 million	$64.1 million
Gross to Date	$122.5 million	$313.8 million	$289.1 million

Actually, the two new movies couldn’t even take second place. Ice Age: Continental Drift (review here) took that honor with $13.3 million, bringing its total domestically to $114.8 million and worldwide to $564.8 million.

That left third and fourth place to newly released films, The Watch (review coming soon), which earned $13 million, and Step Up Revolution (review here), which brought in $11.8 million - $4 million less than Step Up 3D’s opening weekend in 2010. However, The Watch did have a better per-location average than Ice Age 4, while Step Up 4 surprised with a better per-venue average than both of those!

Ted (review here) continues to do well, grossing another $7.4 million, putting it in fifth place and another step closer to the $200 million mark, while The Amazing Spider-Man (review here) continued to disappoint financially with $6.8 million for sixth place. Spider-Man’s one-month total of $242.1 million has already been eclipsed by Batman’s 10-day total; ouch!

Brave (review here) took seventh with $4.2 million and Magic Mike took eighth with $2.6 million, while Savages (review here) and Moonrise Kingdom (review here) rounded out the Top 10 in ninth and tenth place, respectively, each earning over $1 million.

Meanwhile in limited release, Killer Joe took in $38,000 from 3 theaters for an average of $12,666. Ruby Sparks, playing in 13 theaters, grossed $151,000 for an average of $11,615 and a five day total of $192,000 since opening Wednesday. Finally, earning $28,500 in three locations was Searching for Sugar-Man with an average of $9,500 per-venue. All three of these films’ per-location gross far surpassed all other films this weekend, aside from The Dark Knight Rises, proving what a slow weekend it was. Thanks a lot Olympics!

Here’s a snapshot of the Top Ten Weekend Films domestically:

#	Title	Weekend Gross	Theater Average	Total Gross
1	The Dark Knight Rises	$64.1 million	$14,554	$289.1 million
2	Ice Age 4	$13.3 million	$3,437	$114.8 million
3	The Watch	$13 million	$4,103	$13 million
4	Step Up Revolution	$11.8 million	$4,596	$11.8 million
5	Ted	$7.4 million	$2,364	$193.6 million
6	The Amazing Spider-Man	$6.8 million	$2,151	$242.1 million
7	Brave	$4.2 million	$1,646	$217.3 million
8	Magic Mike	$2.6 million	$1,253	$107.6 million
9	Savages	$1.8 million	$1,272	$43.9 million
10	Moonrise Kingdom	$1.4 million	$1,641	$38.6 million