The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.
After three weeks at #1, DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek Forever After met some competition it couldn’t withstand in two retro projects that harked back to the mid-’80s – Harald Zwart’s remake of The Karate Kid (Sony) and Joe Carnahan’s action flick based on the television show The A-Team (20th Century Fox).
It was expected to be a very close race but The Karate Kid, teaming Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, far exceeded all expectations opening with $19 million on Friday and an estimated $56 million in its first weekend in 3,663 theaters for an impressive per-site average of $15,288. That’s the third-biggest opener of a summer in which many sure-things failed to deliver on expectations and the fifth-highest opening of the year so far.
The A-Team, starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Jessica Biel and Patrick Wilson, ended up doing less than half that business in a similar number of theaters, bringing in an estimated $26 million in its first three days. That was an opening closer to comedy TV adaptations like Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson’s Starsky & Hutch rather than the summer action movies like S.W.A.T.. Budgeted at $110 million, The A-Team will have to bring in a good amount of international business to make that back.
Shrek Forever After (DreamWorks/Paramount) dropped to third place, down 42% with $15.8 million in its fourth weekend and a gross of $210 million after a month in theaters. It’s currently the fourth-highest grossing movie of the year and it should move up to third place past DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train a Dragon by Friday.
The Jonah Hill-Russell Brand road comedy Get Him to the Greek (Universal) dropped two places to fourth with $10.1 million and $36.5 million in ten days, while the Ashton Kutcher-Katherine Heigl action-comedy Killers (Lionsgate) dropped 47% in its second weekend for an estimated $8.2 million to bring its total to $30.4 million.
Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time dropped to sixth place with $6.6 million and a weak $72.3 million total domestically, while continuing to do well overseas, bringing in $19.7 million for an international gross of $190.3 million.
It was followed by the family movie Marmaduke (20th Century Fox) with $6 million in seventh place–a considerable 48% drop from its opening week–and New Line/Warner Bros.’ Sex and the City 2 with $5.5 million for eighth place with a total gross of $85 million.
Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2 (Paramount/Marvel Studios) edged closer to $300 million this weekend with another $4.5 million to land in ninth place.
The top 10 was rounded out by Vincenzo Natali’s sci-fi thriller Splice (Warner Bros.) with $2.9 million, down a staggering 61% from its disappointing opening weekend.
The release of two strong new movies helped the box office recover from the last few weeks with the Top 10 being up 9% from last year when the strongest offering was Sony’s remake of The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta, which opened in third with $23.4 million.
Click here for the full box office results of the top 12 films.
