By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
Mummy Dearest
Pundits predicted that The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor would unseat The Dark Knight as the top ticket seller in the domestic market place this weekend. Tracking studies suggested the third edition of The Mummy franchise would open to between $45 million and $50 million and that the ebony Bat would once again experience a 50% drop at the box office.
Instead the swathed nightmare grossed 90% to 95% of expectation and the Knight’s estimated decline was 41%. It’s all within statistical margin of error with estimated results favoring The Dark Knight with $44.1 million and The Mummy 3debuting to $42.6 million.
The session’s other national debut was the political satire Swing Vote that ranked sixth with $6.2 million. In Quebec there was warm response of $180,000 for the family drama Un Ete sans point ni coup sur while the regional bow of horror entry Midnight Meat Train got the deep freeze treatment with less than a $300 average at 102 lockers. Best of the limited releases was the $69,000 debut of Sundance-prized Frozen River from seven sites and a single screen gross of $3,100 for The Exiles, the rediscovered independent social drama from the 1960s.
Overall business was down from last year and hopes of a repeat of the 2007 August surge now appear remote.
While the Mummy didn’t quite hit its anticipated number domestically, its international bow was formidable with close to a $60 million salvo in 28 countries including Russia and Korea but not China where it will open following the Beijing Olympics. The film will emerge as the weekend’s top global grosser and with major foreign openings next week should hold onto the claim for at least two weeks.
Like countless real life presidential campaigns of the past year, Swing Vote shaped up as a commercial long shot and failed to build up the momentum to get close to a $10 million opening. The mixed critical response didn’t help but far worse was the fact that its scenario was considerably less interesting, inspired or dramatic than the actual events that have led up to the current political fracas for the Commander in Chief election looming in the fall.
Weekend box office inched toward $157 million (53% generated by the top two movies) to ebb back 14% from seven days earlier. It was 14% off the 2007 frame when The Bourne Ultimatum debuted to $69.3 million and Underdog bow-unwowed in third place with $11.6 million.
Aficionados of graphic horror have been screaming for months of plans to send Midnight Meat Train directly to disc with definite intent to pass the theatrical Go window. It hasn’t literally come to pass due to contractual obligations but might as well with low end exposure in secondary markets that leave one to ponder whether something of this stripe might have been a viable commercial alternative this time of year.
Strong reviews translated well for bows of American independents Frozen River and In Search of a Midnight Kiss as well as non-fiction holdovers American Teen and Man on Wire. The potency of alternative fare this summer has yet to be writ but anecdotal success holds out hope for a conclusion that cannot be dismissed as mere anomaly.
Estimates – August 1-3, 2008
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average | % chang | Theater | Cume |
| The Dark Knight | WB | 44.1 (10,340) | -41% | 4266 | 395.2 |
| The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Em | Uni | 42.6 (11,330) | – | 3760 | 42.6 |
| Step Brothers | Sony | 16.1 (5,210) | -48% | 3094 | 62.8 |
| Mamma Mia! | Uni | 13.0 (4,250) | -27% | 3062 | 87.9 |
| Journey to the Center of the Earth | WB | 6.8 (2,980) | -30% | 2285 | 73.1 |
| Swing Vote | BV | 6.2 (2,790) | – | 2213 | 6.2 |
| Hancock | Sony | 5.0 (1,790) | -40% | 2782 | 215.8 |
| Wall-E | BV | 4.7 (1,840) | -27% | 2555 | 204.2 |
| X-Files: I Want to Believe | Fox | 3.3 (1,040) | -67% | 3185 | 16.9 |
| Space Chimps | Fox | 2.8 (1,300) | -39% | 2134 | 22 |
| Hellboy II: The Golden Army | Uni | 2.4 (1,240) | -53% | 1959 | 71.2 |
| Wanted | Uni | 1.2 (1,310) | -57% | 895 | 131.3 |
| Brideshead Reisited | Miramax | 1.1 (5,870) | 227% | 189 | 1.6 |
| Get Smart | WB | .92 (1,260) | -60% | 728 | 126.4 |
| Kung Fu Panda | Par | .61 (1,170) | -42% | 520 | 210.5 |
| Iron Man | Par | .57 (1,400) | 84% | 407 | 315.7 |
| The Incredible Hulk | Uni | .44 (1,090) | -38% | 403 | 132.9 |
| Kit Kittredge: An American Girl | Picturehouse | .41 (910) | -35% | 450 | 16.2 |
| Tell No One | Music Box | .39 (4,760) | -8% | 82 | 2.2 |
| Indiana Jones: Kingdom of Crystal Sk | Par | .36 (1,080) | -40% | 332 | 314.3 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | – | $151.40 | – | – | – |
| % Change (Last Year) | – | -12% | – | – | – |
| % Change (Last Week) | – | -14% | – | – | – |
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Un Ete sans point ni coup sur | Alliance | .18 (3,210) | – | 55 | 0.18 |
| The Wackness | Sony Classics | .19 (1,410) | -19% | 133 | 1.4 |
| Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis | Link | .17 (3,890) | -21% | 45 | 0.6 |
| American Teen | Par Ventage | .16 (4,180) | 257% | 39 | 0.24 |
| Frozen River | Sony Classics | .07 (9,930) | – | 7 | 0.07 |
| Midnight Meat Train | Lions Gate | 29,200 (290) | – | 102 | 0.03 |
| In Search of a Midnight Kiss | IFC | 14,400 (7,200) | – | 2 | 0.01 |
| Man on Wire | Magnolia | 51,200 (12,800) | -1% | 4 | 0.14 |
| Sixty Six | Sky | 8,700 (4,350) | – | 2 | 0.01 |
| The Exiles | Milestone | 3,100 (3,100) | – | 1 | 0.01 |
Domestic Market Share – To July 31, 2008
| Distributor (releases) | Gross | Market Share |
| Warner Bros. (18) | 1161.5 | 19.50% |
| Paramount (12) | 1112.5 | 18.60% |
| Sony (17) | 741.7 | 12.40% |
| Universal (14) | 738.6 | 12.40% |
| Fox (16) | 701.3 | 11.80% |
| Buena Vista (10) | 615.3 | 10.30% |
| Lions Gate (8) | 204.2 | 3.40% |
| Fox Searchlight (5) | 150.9 | 2.50% |
| Paramount Vantage (10) | 72.1 | 1.20% |
| New Line (4) | 61.8 | 1.00% |
| Focus (5) | 60.1 | 1.00% |
| Miramax (6) | 48.7 | 0.80% |
| MGM (9) | 46.5 | 0.80% |
| Summit (2) | 34.9 | 0.60% |
| Picturehouse (6) | 34.1 | 0.60% |
| Other * (199) | 185.3 | 3.10% |
| * none greater than 0.5% | 5969.5 | 100.00% |
Top Domestic Releases – To July 31, 2008
| Title * | Distributor | Gross |
| The Dark Knight | WB | 351,086,846 |
| Iron Man | Par | 315,107,589 |
| Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Cryst | Par | 313,972,312 |
| Hancock | Sony | 210,795,466 |
| Kung Fu Panda | Par | 209,854,538 |
| Wall-E | BV | 199,474,897 |
| Horton Hears a Who | Fox | 154,423,552 |
| Sex and the City | WB | 151,169,251 |
| The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Casp | BV | 140,415,913 |
| The Incredible Hulk | Uni | 132,805,330 |
| Wanted | Uni | 130,080,115 |
| Get Smart | WB | 125,506,819 |
| Juno * | Fox Searchlight | 115,568,583 |
| You Don’t Mess with the Zohan | Sony | 98,440,404 |
| 10,000 B.C. | WB | 94,819,450 |
| The Bucket List * | WB | 92,781,554 |
| National Treasure: Book of Secrets * | BV | 86,700,433 |
| 21 | Sony | 82,823,812 |
| Jumper | Fox | 80,172,128 |
| Cloverfield | Par | 80,048,433 |
