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Sunday
19Jul2009

Box Office - 'Potter' Cools Off, Still Hits $160 Million

DateSunday, July 19, 2009 at 12:17PM
Even though the film dropped below ballooning expectations following one of the biggest opening days ever, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince still generated $160 million in five days, $79 million of it coming on the traditional three-day weekend.

Historically, of course, it's too early to tell where this weekend will guide Potter, but it should hit $220 million by this time next week almost by default. Once it clears $250 million, it will be in that comfort zone where most films in the series have wound up. After that, it will just depend on how long it can keep wind in its sails; $300 million is definitely possible.

Looking around at the rest of the top ten, Brüno suffered one of the biggest drops I can remember: Nearly 73% from last weekend. The comedy only made $8.3 million, outgrossing the seven-week-old Hangover by about $50,000. Among movies that opened at number one, I can only find the recent Friday the 13th that suffered a bigger stumble, losing 80% of its debut audience. Doom was number one a few years ago and also dropped 72.7%, although its opening weekend was about half of what Brüno's was.

Speaking of The Hangover...it's now the third highest-grossing rated R movie ever made, passing Beverly Hills Cop. Even though we predicted it would get very close to $200 million a week after it came out, the movie kept performing very well and will hit $250 million next weekend, if the current numbers hold. To become the number two R-rated film, it would have to pass The Matrix Reloaded at $285 million. Seems unlikely, but then, so did $200 million about four weeks ago.

The Top Five:
1 - Harry Potter ($79.5 million *$159 million five-day)
2 - Ice Age ($17 million)
3 - Transformers ($13 million)
4 - Brüno ($8 million)
5 - The Hangover ($8 million)

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

From what I've heard from a couple of people is that Bruno is too gay to the point of not being funny. That made me not really interested in seeing it. I don't mind gay characters but most people that I've heard that seen it said that they were too disgusted and almost walked out.

Sunday, July 19, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterChris

It's certainly extreme, but what I thought was telling was how far Bruno had to go to get the reaction the movie is based on. Unlike Borat, who meant well and didn't know any better, Bruno really pushes people, and almost none of them reacted at all, much less strongly enough, unless Bruno dropped his pants or something.

Sunday, July 19, 2009 | Registered CommenterColin Boyd

Colin it just goes to show how dumb some Americans truly are... They are not shocked or aghast at anything and willing to do whatever "BRUNO" pretty much told them to do no matter how foolish, ridiculous, or sickening it was......

But in the end BRUNO does get laughs... GO SEE IT Chris and decide for yourself.....!!!!

It is gay all be it very gay but it has its moments and is funny!
Your jaw will drop

Monday, July 20, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSean

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