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'The Green Hornet' Stings Box Office Easily Wins Big Screen Buddy Battle Date: 1/18/2011 |
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The big screen battle between two new buddy movie comedies proved to be no contest. The Green Hornet easily topped the weekend box office with an estimated total of $34 million, the highest-grossing opening ever for a live-action superhero comedy. The Hornet?s better than expected total was nearly double that of the non-superhero buddy comedy The Dilemma, which starred Hollywood heavyweights Vince Vaughn and Kevin James and brought in an estimated $17.4 million. Overall the box office was still down about 25% from last year when Avatar and The Book of Eli dominated. Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): January 14 - 16, 2011 Film Weekend Gross Screens Avg./ Screen Total Gross Wk# 1 The Green Hornet $34,000,000 3,584 $9,487 $34,000,000 1 2 The Dilemma $17,419,000 2,940 $5,925 $17,419,000 1 3 True Grit $11,200,000 3,459 $3,238 $126,412,000 4 4 The King's Speech $9,070,000 1,543 $5,878 $44,595,000 8 5 Black Swan $8,125,000 2,328 $3,490 $72,993,000 7 6 Little Fockers $7,138,000 3,394 $2,103 $134,224,000 4 7 Tron: Legacy $5,674,000 2,439 $2,326 $156,913,000 5 8 Yogi Bear $5,345,000 2,702 $1,978 $82,095,000 5 9 The Fighter $5,125,000 2,414 $2,123 $65,770,000 6 10 Season of the Witch $4,500,000 2,827 $1,592 $17,998,000 2 Sony fielded a potent marketing campaign for The Green Hornet with plenty of spots ads placed during key football and basketball sports telecasts as well as a major promotion with Carl?s Jr. The Green Hornet, which features Seth Rogen as the eponymous hero and Taiwanese star Jay Chou as his more competent buddy/sidekick Kato, attracted an audience that was predominantly male (61%), but split nicely between young and old (50% under 25). The Green Hornet is on track to earn over $40 million for the full MLK holiday weekend, which would rank as the second best MLK debut ever behind 2008?s Cloverfield. Of course it should be noted that the higher 3-D ticket prices played a role in The Green Hornet?s box office performance--the 3-D screens accounted for 69% of the film?s three-day total. The move to MLK weekend launch proved to be a wise one for The Green Hornet. A number of less-than-top-tier superheroes including Daredevil in 2003 ($40.3 million) and Ghost Rider in 2007 ($45.3 million) have opened well in the first quarter when box office competition is typically not as strong as the summer. The question for The Green Hornet will be--can it build on it strong opening in the coming weeks? Meanwhile The Dilemma, a film that stirred up controversy with the use of an anti-gay slur in an early trailer, opened lower than many had expected, though comedies tend to have a chance to recover if audiences find them entertaining. The opening weekend audience for The Dilemma was predominantly female (60%) and older (58% over 30). The Coen brothers? True Grit topped the holdovers. The western saga dropped just 23.3% as it raised its cumulative to $126.4 million. Two critical darlings, The King?s Speech ($9 million) and Black Swan ($8.1 million) followed in the fourth and fifth positions ahead the fading Little Fockers ($7.1 million). Tron: Legacy earned a solid $5.6 million in its fifth weekend of release, bringing its domestic cumulative to $157 million, while Yogi Bear kept on showing some furry ?legs? as it earned $5.3 million in its fifth weekend. The medieval fantasy Season of the Witch, which opened in the number 2 spot last week, dropped 57.6% and ended up at #10. |
| Source: ICv2 |
