"The Dark Knight Rises" Winning Streak is Over - "The Bourne Legacy" Debuts at #1

[JamesG]

Weekend Report: Legacy Debut Keeps Bourne Franchise Alive
by Ray Subers
August 12, 2012


Even without Matt Damon, The Bourne Legacy easily debuted in first place this weekend ahead of Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis political comedy The Campaign and box office behemoth The Dark Knight Rises.

Also, after a quiet mid-week start Hope Springs saw a nice jump in attendance over the weekend. The Top 12 grossed an estimated $138.3 million, which is up a bit from the same weekend last year.





Reboot/spin-off The Bourne Legacy debuted to an estimated $40.27 million at 3,745 locations. That's on par with recent Bond franchise reboot Casino Royale ($40.8 million) and is in between The Bourne Identity ($27.1 million) and The Bourne Supremacy ($52.5 million).

Legacy's debut was off 42 percent from 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum (the last entry with Damon in the lead), and that decline is directly in between those for recent franchise reboots X-Men: First Class (off 53 percent from The Last Stand) and The Amazing Spider-Man (down 30 percent from Spider-Man 3 over its first five days).





In second place, The Campaign scored an estimated $27.44 million from 3,205 locations. That's a bit behind similar Will Ferrell Summer comedies Anchorman ($28.4 million) and Step Brothers ($30.9 million), and more noticeably off from The Other Guys ($35.5 million) and Talladega Nights ($47 million).

That being said, it's a fantastic opening for the box-office-challenged political satire genre: in fact, it's the highest debut ever for a movie centered around a political campaign.





After leading for three-straight weeks, The Dark Knight Rises fell to third place with an estimated $19.54 million (a 45 percent drop from last weekend).

The conclusion to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy has now earned $390.2 million, which is good for 15th on the all-time domestic chart.





Hope Springs opened in fourth place with $15.6 million this weekend, which brought it's five-day total to $20 million. That five-day figure is identical to star Meryl Streep's Julie & Julia's three-day debut at the same time in 2009.

That movie went on to hold very well and make it all the way to $94.1 million: Hope Springs almost certainly won't get to that level, but the fact that it's geared so specifically towards older audiences suggests it could hang on strong in the long-run.





In its second outing, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days fell 44 percent to an estimated $8.2 million.

That's a much better hold than either of the previous Wimpy Kid movies (both of which dropped at least 54 percent), though its weekend gross and gross-to-date ($30.6 million) were both lower.





Thanks to some truly toxic word-of-mouth, the Total Recall remake plummeted 68 percent to an estimated $8.1 million this weekend. That drop is identical to that of last Summer's much-maligned Conan the Barbarian remake, which suggests that maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger movies need to just be left alone.

Total Recall has now earned a meager $44.2 million, and is going to need some outstanding overseas grosses to avoid being dubbed one of the biggest bombs of 2012.





Way down in 13th place, Nitro Circus the Movie 3D debuted to an estimated $1.17 million this weekend for a five-day total of $2.15 million.

That's better than X Games 3D The Movie's $837,216 debut in August 2009, but it's still a pretty weak figure for a nationwide release.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3500&p=.htm









August 10-12, 2012 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. The Bourne Legacy $40,265,000
2. The Campaign $27,440,000
3. The Dark Knight Rises $19,540,000 / $390,149,000
4. Hope Springs $15,600,000
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days $8,200,000 / $30,554,000
6. Total Recall $8,100,000 / $44,188,000
7. Ice Age: Continental Drift $6,750,000 / $144,064,000
8. Ted $3,290,000 / $209,915,000
9. Step Up: Revolution $2,850,000 / $30,165,000
10. TIE The Amazing Spider-Man and The Watch at $2,200,000