The Weekend Report: July 10, 2011

Caged Tepidness

As expected the second weekend of Transformers: Dark of the Moon retained top spot at the box office with an estimated $46.7 million tally that transported it to the head of 2011 domestic grossers with a $260.7 million cume. The two incoming national releases followed with the self descriptive Horrible Bosses bowing to $27.9 million and the light comic menagerie of The Zookeeper sweeping up $20.7 million.

Quebecois got the joke of Le Sense de l’humour that bowed Wednesday and posted five-day box office of $680,000. New Bollywood enter Murder 2 wound up with a circumstantial $41,200 from 26 screens and the ultra-violent Ironclad provided a bloodless $24,700 at 25 abattoirs.

Few of the premieres in exclusive engagements displayed growing potential with the exception of the music doc Beats, Rhymes & Life that grossed $119,000 at four venues and the $16,400 solo for biodoc Sholem Aleicham: Laughter in the Darkness.

Overall box office tipped past $150 million that represented a 23% dip from the three-day portion of last weekend’s holiday frame. It was also 19% off the 2010 pace when the opening of Despicable Me led with $56.4 million and the week’s other wide release, Predator, charted third with $24.7 million.

It wasn’t quite the case that the bigger they are, the harder they fall for the third Transformers’ chapter. The film declined by 52% across all formats; retaining a better than average (we’re marking on the current curve) 57% for its 3D engagements.

Pundits and industry trackers generally gave Horrible Bosses a slight edge over The Zookeeper despite the latter’s more accessible rating. The former pretty much fell in line with estimates in the $25 million to $30 million range while the latter came in on the low end of $20 million to $25 million estimates.

Bosses pretty much found equal embrace from the sexes with a slight male tilt of 51%. It was however decidedly older skewing with 64% of the audience in excess of 25 years of age according to exit polling. Meanwhile the family targeted Zookeeper only managed to attract 52% that identified themselves as parent and child. It skewed slightly female with 53% and 59% that were 25 years and older.

The season slate is emerging as one that’s generally benefited from aggressive marketing that’s translated into event titles hitting targets. But few of these films have displayed much stamina and that will only fuel distribution arguments of shorter theatrical windows. The cold war between suppliers and theater owners is expected to intensify with scenarios that indicate a blurring of lines with the majors acquiring screens to display their wares and exhibition looking to bypass conventional distribution channels and possibly starting up in-house acquisition arms.

Midnight in Paris now appears to be headed to doubling the gross of any Woody Allen of the past decade and should shortly exceed the $40 million box office of Hannah and Her Sisters. However it will need mighty legs to equal the 1986 film’s admissions. Meanwhile, the latest mature audience title to expand – A Better Life – looks to fall short of the niche success of the season’s faves that include The Tree of Life, Beginners and Buck.

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