Universal’s “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” heated up the weekend box office with an estimated $35.9 million in its debut weekend.
Sadly, 20th Century Fox and New Regency’s “Meet Dave” only took in an estimated $5.3 million and fell flat on its face with one of the worst openings ever for a film featuring Eddie Murphy.
Guillermo del Toro’s “Golden Army” sent the Will Smith superhero flick “Hancock” to No. 2 in its second week and opened $12 million higher than the first “Hellboy” film.
Universal credited the success of Hellboy’s weekend on an aggressive marketing campaign. The film’s strong opening could give the Hellboy franchise (based on the Dark Horse Comics character) a firm home at Universal. The studio is said to be already exploring a third film for the demon hero.
In Variety, Universal prexy of distribution Nikki Rocco stated: “This is an incredible result. No other studio wanted to do this, but Universal had the wherewithal to do it. You had a very talented filmmaker, plus a great marketing campaign that created a huge demand.”
Sony’s “Hancock” dropped 47% in its second weekend and took in an estimated $33 million from 3,965. The film has taken in $165 million domestically and $345.2 million worldwide in its two weeks of release.
New Line and Walden Media’s 3-D adventure flick “Journey to the Center of the Earth” saw a decent opening with an estimated $20.6 million from 2,811 runs. The bulk of the weekend gross came from the higher priced 3-D tickets. The movie was able to open in the No. 3 spot, according to information in Variety.
The Brendan Fraser adventure managed to attract the family audience (which made up 60% of ticket buyers) and was the first live-action movie shot in digital 3-D.
The film opened on 854 digital 3-D screens (Paramount’s “Beowulf” opened on about 650 digital 3-D screens last fall), and managed to take in $11.7 million from the 3-D screens - where tickets run $3 to $4 higher on average. The film had a production budget of just under $55 million.
“Meet Dave” opened with a No. 7 placing on the weekend box office and was the second “big” summer comedy to find difficulty drawing an audience following Mike Myers’ “The Love Guru” - which struggled with a $13.9 million opening. Both “Meet Dave” and “The Love Guru” cost an estimated $60 million to make.
“Meet Dave” managed to have the third worst opening for a Murphy comedy following 2002’s “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” (which had a $2.2 million opening) and the 1998 “The Holy Man” (which had a $5.1 million opening). “Nash” tanked hard at the box office with only an estimated $4.4 million domestically. “Holy Man” managed to take in a bit more with a $12 million domestic run.
“Meet Dave” features Murphy in two roles - an alien spaceship designed to look human, and the ship’s miniature alien captain. The film was originally titled “Starship Dave,” and its poor opening could be seen as a rare misstep by Fox and its marketing team.
In Variety, Fox senior VP of distribution Bert Livingston stated: “Obviously, the concept was tough for us to get across. It’s good family entertainment, but it was hard to get traction. Not enough people came.”
Some of the blame for the film’s weak opening could be placed on Murphy – who tends to not enjoy doing pre-release press junkets and failed to make the film’s premiere in Westwood.
Disney-Pixar’s “Wall-E” continued to see a strong run at the box office and claimed the No. 4 spot in its third week. The film dropped 43% and took in an estimated $18.5 million from 3,849 runs. It has made an estimated $162.8 million domestically since its release.
DreamWorks Animation and Paramount’s “Kung Fu Panda” kicked past the $200 million mark this weekend thanks to an estimated $4.3 million. The film dropped 41% in its sixth week, but has earned an estimated $202 million domestically.
Picturehouse’s “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl” managed to stay on the weekend charts with a No. 10 placing. The film dropped 29% and earned an estimated $2.3 million from 1,849 runs. It has managed to make an estimated $11 million domestically in its two weeks of release.
Picturehouse’s specialty film “Mongol” earned an estimated $517,872 from 252 runs during the weekend and has taken in an estimated $4.3 million domestically since its release.
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