Box Office - 'G.I. Joe' Does an Average $56 Million

Although nowhere near the best openings of the summer, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra nevertheless did win this weekend running away. I don't think there was much doubt about that so much as what that final number would be. A grand total of $56.2 million is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but that's closer to Fast and Furious that Transformers. I wouldn't say it's a real vote of confidence given its presence in over 4,000 theaters at a time when it has no direct competition. There is plenty of name recognition for the brand, but it didn't necessarily translate to ticket sales despite the fact that this is the biggest movie release for probably the next two months. Worldwide, G.I. Joe added over $40 million more, so its three-day global total was just over $100 million. Playing the profit margin game, this still needs to make at least another $350 million to come close to being a massive success; the price tag was nearly as high as Transformers, if you can believe it, but there's no way the final tallies will be anywhere near what that film has made. The dramatic comedy Julie & Julia opened in second place, with just over $20 million. This might sound strange, but in a certain way, this is actually the winner this weekend. Think about it: The movie cost $40 million to make, or less than a quarter of the cost of G.I. Joe, it made half of that money back this weekend in 1,500 fewer theaters than the Hasbro toy movie, and did so with a fraction of the marketing expenses. And, again, playing the profit margin game, I'd say this has a much easier road to $100 million worldwide than G.I. Joe has to roughly $500 million. The week's other new release, A Perfect Getaway, did about what every third-biggest movie does in August, which is not very much. Three other quick notes: Funny People is really dead. It lost over 65% of its audience, which wasn't that strong to begin with. The Hangover is now $20 million away from being the highest-grossing comedy of all time, not that it can get there at this point, having finally dropped out of the top ten. (500) Days of Summer cracked the top ten and has now earned $12 million, which is a great number for a movie that's never been in 1,000 theaters. The Top Five:
1 - G.I. Joe ($56.2 million)
2 - Julie & Julia ($20.1 million)
3 - G-Force ($9.8 million)
4 - Harry Potter ($8.8 million)
5 - Funny People ($7.9 million)

Comments

[Chris]

Doesn't surprise me about funny people. I saw it last night and it sucked big time. Go back to comedy Judd.