Box Office: 'Potter' Loses to 'G-Force'

It's time to admit I was wrong about the box office potential of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Not completely, utterly wrong, but when a movie starts out with the biggest midnight opening ever and trails off rather quickly from there, it's tough to keep up with projections. And that's the case here: It's still over $200 million, it still made almost $30 million in its second week, but it should be a little higher. Potter didn't complete back-to-back turns at number one, and the last big, big blockbuster of the summer will now face a more difficult time going for the all-time record in the series, currently $319 million. Instead, Half-Blood Prince slipped to second place behind the new release G-Force and a little bit ahead of The Ugly Truth. Overall, Harry Potter stands at $222 million, which isn't bad for 12 days, but much like Transformers, an overwhelming amount of that cash came in the first couple of days. The family friendly G-Force picked up the win this weekend, due as much as anything to Potter's 61% drop from last weekend, which is like falling down an elevator shaft for a movie with outstanding reviews. G-Force earned $32 million in three days, which is a few million more than expectations, but probably not enough to put this in Ice Age territory, or north of $120 million. For the R-rated romantic comedy The Ugly Truth with Katherin Heigl and Gerard Butler, a $27 million start is pretty good, really, and like G-Force, is better than initial projections. But more than a third of that came on Friday. It's going to make plenty of money versus its budget, but won't be a success on the order of The Proposal. Some good news for films aimed at counterprogramming: The Hurt Locker and (500) Days of Summer, both well-reviewed films enjoying wider releases this weekend, flirted with the top ten. Overall, (500) Days made $1.6 million in 85 theaters, and The Hurt Locker added another $1.5 million to its total. The Top Five:
1 - G-Force ($32.1 million)
2 - Harry Potter ($30 million)
3 - The Ugly Truth ($27 million)
4 - Orphan ($12.7 million)
5 - Ice Age ($8.2 million)

Comments

[Krystal]

Could the fact that Harry Potter is not yet in IMAX be a factor in why it may not be doing as well as expected? I'm hoping there's a whole bunch of fans waiting to see it next week when it opens in IMAX.

[Get The Big Picture]

I don't know; three weeks is a long time to wait for something you can go see for less money down the street. Plus, I'm not sure what this movie gains in IMAX. The cinematography's great, but it won't be known for its special effects in the long run. Transformers and Dark Knight both had IMAX cuts, because footage was shot specifically for that format.

But it's Warner Bros.' fault if it doesn't do much in IMAX, because when they moved Potter to summer, IMAX already had a contract for five weeks with Transformers, so I guess that's part of the company's calculated risk.

[frnkln0385]

Every kid in America sees every kids movie in theaters.

[andrew]

I loved, loved, loved 500 Days of Summer. The best film i've seen this summer with Star Trek a close second. I respect The Hurt Locker, but it wasn't as suspensful and thrilling as i thought it would be. a well-made, well-acted film but just didn't hook me in as much. though the lead character in that is a bad-ass. glad to see these two films are getting some attention in limited release.