Box Office - 'Iron Man 2' Tumbles, Beats 'Robin Hood'

It was expected that Iron Man 2 would roll over Robin Hood at the box office this weekend, and it did. But it also dropped a horror remake- like 69% from last weekend, a bad, bad sign for a movie that plenty of people (myself included) believed would be the gold standard of the 2010 summer box office. While the sequel did launch with one of the top five weekends ever, Iron Man followed it up with a relatively sallow $53 million. The totals after 10 days are about $209 million, plus a hell of a lot more overseas, but that's quite a stumble domestically, and there's no way at all this movie gets to $400 million as some indicated prior to the summer session. In fact, its predecessor made more money in its second weekend ($51 million), even though the sequel's in more theaters and got a much bigger head start. The verdict: The word of mouth isn't nearly as strong. Of course, Robin Hood cost about as much as Iron Man 2 and it may not do half as well as the Marvel movie in the US. The opening weekend certainly wasn't a big deal for the second movie of the summer - $37 million - but that's maybe 10 - 15% higher than a lot of early projections. I can't imagine it will age well, though, and might skate to $100 million but not much more. However, as we're seeing more and more frequently, studios don't have to sweat the American marketplace nearly as much as they used to. In the case of Robin Hood, it's the number one movie in foreign territories, accounting for an additional $75 million. So a worldwide debut of just over $100 million. The international business ought to take care of the budget and marketing expenses, leaving whatever's left over from US audiences as the profit. For Universal, $100 million in profit is a welcome change from recent releases, but that's certainly not all the studio hoped to make, especially with payouts due to Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe. In third place for the second weekend of summer is Letters to Juliet, earning a little north of $13 million. Not bad for a movie that didn't really cost that much and wasn't heavily advertised. It will face direct competition in a couple weeks from Sex and a Bunch of Other Cities, so it shouldn't produce much after that. Just Wright was basically ignored; less than $10 million, so maybe just over a million people paid to see it. Next weekend, it's the final Shrek movie and MacGruber. Those Shrek flicks make a ton of money, and it's the first family film of the summer (in addition to being much better than the last entry in the series), so we'll probably have another $100 million-plus opening there. MacGruber obviously won't do that kind of business, and I really don't have any gauge on how it might do, but it should be able to steal some of what would have been repeat business from Iron Man 2. The Top Five:
1 - Iron Man 2 ($53 million)
2 - Robin Hood ($37.1 million)
3 - Letters to Juliet ($13.8 million)
4 - Just Wright ($8.5 million)
5 - How to Train Your Dragon ($5.1 million)