After week after week of big blockbuster cinematic premieres and multi-million dollar first-weekend box office takes, the studio estimates for the weekend of June 20-22 are thoroughly unremarkable, even with the introduction of everyone’s favorite CONTROL agent, Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, to the big screen.
Though I only bother dealing with U.S. box office openings (for an Aussie, this is extremely hard to bear, but necessary, considering you Yanks have a large population in addition to having a lot of money, unlike many of the other large populations), it is a poor showing when a movie such as Get Smart can only rake in $39 million over the weekend period.
What is even sadder is that Get Smart also managed to top the box office charts.
Starring The Office’s Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway (*drool*) as Agent 86 and Agent 99, respectively, Warner Bros. surely had hoped to pull in a better showing with this fan favorite. However, as I mentioned, after weeks of blockbuster hits, maybe the movie-going public was just too tired and broke too see another movie.
Kung Fu Panda and The Incredible Hulk> filled spots 2 and 3, respectively, pulling in $21 million apiece. What is interesting though, but not overly surprising, is that Hulk dropped from 1 to 3, whereas Panda just hung smartly in at number 2, most likely enjoying a return visit from many of the youngsters.
This week’s other big name opening was The Love Guru, starring Mike Myers, which only pulled in a dismal $14 million. With a budget of $62 million, Paramount is most likely hoping to make up some of the numbers … somewhere.
But fear not movie lovers, the best is yet to come. Hancock, Hellboy II, and The Dark Knight all coming to your big screen in 2008. Maybe it was wise of you all to save a few dollars!
As always, thanks to Box Office Mojo for their statistics.
