Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
June 23, 2012
Brave
Pixar's latest starts solidly with $24.5 million on Friday. Brave is a great rebound from the cash grab that was Cars 2, which was also the worst received film in Pixar's history. The Friday take for Brave is the third best opening day of box office for any Pixar release, behind Toy Story 3 ($41.1 million) and, yes, Cars 2 ($25.7 million). It's also ahead of the last two original Pixar films, Up ($21.4 million) and WALL-E ($23.1 million), so despite what you may have heard, the Pixar brand was not tarnished with sequelitis, though 3D probably kicked in a few bucks. Brave ends the two weekend run of Madagascar 3 and does so very easily, with a weekend of $71 million.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
The history lesson conveniently left out of the textbooks starts with $5.9 million. That's probably about right for something being sold entirely on the title. I'm sure this is going to be a cult classic on DVD and Netflix. It will end up with a weekend of $16.5 million, which is a completely acceptable amount.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
With a title like that, the obvious choice feel good movie of the year comes in tenth on Friday with $1.2 million. It's in just 1,600 theaters and isn't exactly the cheeriest subject, so it should be happy with the $3.5 million it's going to earn this weekend.
Notable Holdovers
After two weekends at the top, Madagascar 3 gets kneecapped by Brave as it takes a 41% hit from its second Friday to $6.1 million. That is less than it fell from opening Friday to second Friday but traditionally, animated films (especially sequels) see much lower weekly declines beyond the first weekend. While it's currently neck and neck with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, it will easily take second, well ahead of Abe but way behind Brave. Give it a third weekend of $20 million.
Rock of Ages drops 54% from its opening Friday to $2.5 million, showing that '80s nostalgia just ain't what it used to be. The Tom Cruise film will have a second weekend of around $8 million.
That's My Boy only drops 48% from last Friday, but that's mostly because it just didn't have all that far to fall. Adam Sandler's biggest flop in years (and also cursing Andy Samberg as box office poison), That's My Boy will come in with about $7 million in weekend number two.
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