Considering how bad fairly good Hancock was, I agree disagree with you.

My thoughts...

The Dark Knight simply smashed everything in its way. Delivering the biggest opening weekend of all-time and beating Spider-Man 3's unprecedented $151 million start is even more impressive than it seems at first. Keep in mind that Spider-Man 3 opened on an empty weekend with no compettiions from the week holdovers whatsoever. The Dark Knight opened in mid-July, against another $25+ million opener and three holdovers that made $20+ million last week. All that considered, it's a simply astounding start. It easily claimed the biggest opening day ever. The biggest Sunday remains iffy, as Spider-Man 3 is ahead with TDK's estimates, but that could change as well of course. The most impressive grosses however, are its opening weekend and its midnight showings grosses as it managed to top the hugely fanbase-driven Revenge of the Sith in midnights. Obviously the film is very frontloaded, but on the other hand it's enjoying simply terrific WoM and critical reception. All the hype surrounding its and now this humongous opening will propel its exposure in the media even more and create even more hype if that is even possible.

The Dark Knight will manage the same as Spider-Man did in 2002 - it'll become THE must-see movie event for weeks to come. Remenber how Spider-Man held well even when Attack of the Clones arrived and made $110 million in its first four days? I expect The Dark Knight to survive its competition as well. The only really big blockbuster compettiior left is The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Iexpect it not to hurt The Dark Knight too much. Obviously we'll see a large drop next weekend, I think a 55+% decrease is almost a lock, but it will rebound. It might not get Dead Man's Chest's legs, simply because it doesn't have nearly as much family appeal, but you can't deny great WoM (which is something Spider-Man 3 never had for instance).

With Spider-Man 3's multiplier, The Dark Knight would reach around $346-347 million. Keep this in mind: Spidey 3 didn' have the summer weekdays, it had Shrek the Third in its third weekend and At World's End in its fourth, both formidable $110+ million openers and its WoM was mediocre. None of this applies to The Dark Knight. Dead Man's Chest's multiplier would put it at $485 milion. Do I expect that to happen? No because of the lack of said family appeal and more frontloading. However, I expect it to pass a multiplier of 2.5. That'd bring it close enough to $400 million to pass it, even if it needs help by the studio. It won't need that, though, in my opinion. I expect it to stand at $270-275 million after ten days in release. Yep, that's right. I also expect it to become the fastest movie to $200 million without much of a problem. It should actually pas it within 6 days. It is hard to project the total gross at this point, but I#d say that it'll land in the range of $400-425 million, depending on how hard it'll drop in its second weekend and how hard The Mummy 3 will hit it.


Mamma Mia! was clearly the victim of lacking capacities this weekend as The Dark Knight simply stole its thunder in terms of sold out showings and getting the biggest screens. But you know what? Now that many many people saw The Dark Knight, I believe some of them will turn to Mamma Mia! It looks like perfect summer fun for moviegoers and remember that Hairspray managed very solid legs last year. I expect no less of Mamma Mia! It's the first film since Sex and the City to target adult females and will remain without compettiion in this field for some time. It didn't break $30 million this weekend because of simple lack of screens, but I still think that the $100 million barrier will be broken. It's good for Streep to have a hit after the double-whammy of flops Rendition and Lions for Lambs. I expect Mamma Mia! top end up with $105-115 million in the bank domestically and certainly over $250 million worldwide.


Hancock was hit very hard by The Dark Knight which is not surprising considering its superhero theme and the fact that Hancock used to be the big must-see blockbuster until The Dark Knight hit the screens. I still think that Will Smith has got nothing to complain about with Hancock's performance. It'll pass $200 million on Friday and will take course towards a $225 million finish, making it Smith's 4th biggest film after ID4, I am Legend and Men in Black.


Journey to the Center of the Earth's hold is terrific considering it has had the 3D gimmick to push its first week and considering how hard almost all films around it dropped. Hell, Journey's 43.3% drop is better than WALL-E's! It shows the solid WoM for the flick and the lack of new family-oriented competition in the marketplace. I now expect it to develop some very solid legs on course to a multiplier close to 4. It should actually outdo Hellboy II's total by the end of its run. I expect it to wind up with $80 million.


Hellboy II: The Golden Army's drop outdid even the worst expectations. Dropping over 70% in its second weekend is still almost unheard of nowadays for a major opener. To be honest, I can't recall the last time a #1 opener dropped that badly. Even the first Hulk had a slightly better hold. The Dark Knight just anihilated it and it's too bad considering Hellboy II is supposedly a solid flick as well. I hope it doesn't hurt the chances of another sequel. The sad thing is that Hellboy II's 2nd weekend gross is even lower than the original Hellboy's 2nd weekend take. However, it's still just $3 million away from topping the first film's total. It'll go on to make $75-80 million by the end of its run, making it a solid hit for Guillermo del Toro. The terrible legs in this case should definitely not be seen as an indicator of WoM.


WALL-E simply can't catch on. Dropping over 40% on three weekends in a row now, this definitely has the worst legs of all Pixar flicks. Is WoM really not that great? Hardly imagineable. Looks like it's just the conbination of little appeal to kids and huge frontloading thanks to the Pixar name. What originally looked like a certain $250+ million grosser will now actually have to duke it out with Kung Fu Panda for the title of this year's biggest animated flick. WALL-E will finish its run with around $216 million.


Space Chimps' opening isn't great, but surprisingly above most people's expectations. It should ave a quiet run to around $22-25 million in the bag before it vanishes from the screens.


Despite great reviews and good WoM Wanted is another case of a competition-victim. The Dark Knight definitely cut very deep into its target demographics, causing it to drop over 55%. Still, budgeted at a modest $75 million, this movie is poised to become a big success story for the studio, delivering a fine $135 million final gross and ensuring a sequel to come our way.


Similar to Journey to the Center of the World, Get Smart delivered a great hold despite the circumstances and now has almost reached $120 million. It'll be definitely passing $130 million at this point and should settle for a $133 million total. I think that Carrel and the team should be back for a second one since this definitely has franchise potential and the sequel would at least gross as mch as the fairly well-liked original.


Kung Fu Panda suffered a terrible drop this weekend caused by a huge loss of screens and theatres on the one hand andthe arrival of some competition (Space Chimps) on the other. It's good for $212 million now and has an outside chance at becoming the year's biggest animated flick, beating WALL-E if its terrible legs continue.


Meet Dave's hold was pretty much as bad as one would expect of it. This huge flop for Eddie Murphy won't quite reach Pluto Nash's heighst as far as the financial loss goes, but don't expect more than $11-12 million of this stinker in total.


Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had its worst drop to date that should be attributed to The Dark Knight's arrival as well as to the loss of theatres and screens (which, then again, is also thanks to TDK). Nevertheless, I see it firmply occupying the position of the #2 movie of the year, just slightly ahead of Iron Man with around $316-317 million.


Kit Kittredge: An American Girl isn't a big success on its own with its likely total gross of $15-16 million, but it's the 3rd biggest movie ever for Picturehouse...


Sex and the City's position as the main film focus for adult women is lost to Mamma Mia!, but I think that in the end Sex and the City had an amazing run and can't complain about anything. Even its legs were quite solid after it has rebounded. The total of $152 million will make it the 21st-biggest R-rated movie of all-time which is very impressive for a chick flick.


The Incredible Hulk is just having one terrible drop after another, but will soon pass the first film's total. Nonetheless, a $133 million finish is decent, but less than great for this movie.


Iron Man on the other hand keeps climbing the spots on the list of the all-time biggest movies domestically. It'll finish within less than $1 million of Indy, methinks, but still below it. I'm looking at a $316 million take.


Mongol's expansion has peaked and it's now losing theatres rather rapidly due to growing competition. I think it hasn't used its full potential, but fairly close to it and will end up with about $6 million.

IMO it has a great shot of increasing on Sunday.

My theater ends Sunday's at 10:45 pm but they have added more showtimes mostly due to the fact that high school students aren't doing anything and are going to the theaters.

Ah, you#re right, I misread the numbers for Spidey.

If that happens, my pants will fly off from amazement.

Its Sunday is like Saturday today...

I know.

Yes. Also known as the guy on HSX who I said was being overly negative about Batman and won't shut up about it (me calling him out for being negative, I mean) now.

^^

I think u meant secretstalker. His NRG tracking numbers were way off.

Sunday is huge straight sellouts from 4:15 pm to 10:45 pm...


That means the shows from 11 - 4 were mostly 90% packed and the 3pm I went to was 90% full.


Also there was oneh MIDNIGHT shows today and they are sold out, so Monday's gross may be boosted.

Isn't he the same person who does The Weekend Warrior? Or am I totally wrong

The important thing is, this weekend was a hugeeee win for quality!

Gotta what what Rothman n co. over at Fox are thinking about why FF2 couldnt do this

I wonder if Brandon Grey is trying to find a nit to pick in this weekend for his article before he posts it.

That would be incorrect, though. TDK sold more tickets than SM3 did on OW.

He'll probably say that TDK is overestimated or something.

That would be facually wrong, so he'll probably go for something vague.

"TDK's opening weekend, while impressive, still probably didn't meet its potential due to poor scheduling against the female-aimed Mamma Mia!, which most likely absorbed a lot of its potential female audience. Ultimately this was probably a poor scheduling move on WB's behalf."

I didn't think the internet hype would completely match the weekend, but, boy it did!

Are we still sure Indiana Jones will still pass Iron Man??? It's still a solid $2 million behind and it made less than a mil this weekend while Iron Man is still bringing in some.

Indy's strong July 4th weekend practically guaranteed it would pass Iron Man.

No, it's not a given just yet. We'll see...


But frankly, I couldn't care less. TDK owned them like Oprah owns Stedman.

Iron-Man will definitely win this battle.

Iron Man still had the more impressive run.

That's Edward Douglas.

Right, I thought secretstalker was Edward Douglas. Maybe not?

oh secret stalker. I like how he always gets into a long winded argument with alot of people who dont agree with him and I couldnt count how many times he calls other people "jr" because hes supposedly older than most folks there.

One of the greatest threads ever!