The two new releases this weekend didn't make a dent in the new Iron Man franchise, as combined they weren't able to knock last weeks box office champ off the pedestal.
Iron Man took the No. 1 spot again this weekend, with a hefty $50.5 million take; a decent 48.8 percent drop, which brings the total since release to $177.1 million. Their closest two closest competitors combined were only able to reach $40.2 million.
As of estimates today, "Speed Racer" is the weekends second place finisher, as it so far is ahead of "What Happens in Vegas" by $200,000. We won't know if that will hold until the actual numbers come out. This can only be called a disaster for Warner Bros.
Hopefully filmmakers will start to learn they can't put together these glitzy productions without a good story to go with it. You'd think this would be obvious, but they keep making this mistake over and over again.
I didn't have a lot of hope for the film, as even when the announcement was made that the Wachowski's were going to pursue it as a project, much of the response was disappointment from fans. Most of the critics and commentators were also brutal in their critiques of the film, giving it another hurdle to climb over.
Another problem is even with kids getting out of school soon it will be shadowed by "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," which will be released next weekend, and is sure to perform strongly while competing in a similar demographic as Speed Racer.
Finishing third this weekend was "What Happens in Vegas," which surprised with its strong showing, bringing in $20 million. As mentioned earlier, it could end up in the No. 2 spot once official numbers come out.
This was definitely the counter-programming for the weekend, and people were evidently willing to take a chance on it. I don't expect this film to do very well next weekend, and it'll probably experience a sharp drop.
Weekend box office top ten:
| 1 | Iron Man | $50,500,000 |
| 2 | Speed Racer | $20,210,000 |
| 3 | What Happens in Vegas | $20,000,000 |
| 4 | Made of Honor | $7,600,000 |
| 5 | Baby Mama | $5,766,000 |
| 6 | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | $3,778,000 |
| 7 | Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay | $3,155,000 |
| 8 | The Forbidden Kingdom | $1,900,000 |
| 9 | Nim's Island | $1,325,000 |
| 10 | Redbelt | $1,140,000 |
Other Box Office Sites:
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