The only question box office prognosticators this weekend was how much money Disney/Pixar’s “Toy Story 3” was going to bring in. Well, with an $109 million haul on Father’s Day weekend, the film enters the history books as Pixar’s eleventh number one opening, and only the third film in history to crack the $100 million ceiling on a 3-day opening. Just to give you an idea of the lasting power of Pixar’s brand, “Toy Story 2” opened to $57 million back in 1999; it seems that with audiences looking for something decent at the ticket counter, the Pixar brand continues to be highly trusted as a mark of quality with all audiences. And certainly, across the board rave reviews for the film didn’t hurt in drawing families and the big kid in adults into theaters.
The only other competition “Toy Story 3” potentially faced was last week’s surprise blockbuster “The Karate Kid.” Coming in at number two, the kung-fu movie starring Will Smith’s son had a 52% drop, hauling in $28.5 million, giving the $40 million budgeted film a total box office of $105 million after two weeks, and pretty ensuring a sequel is on the way with Sony hearing pitches from writers already. “The Karate Kid” is the rare case of a remake that actually seems to have resonated loudly with filmgoers ensuring that more studios will try and replicate Sony’s approach: find a familiar franchise, keep the budget low and hit all the notes audiences will expect from the film.
Which leads us right into Fox’s disappointing “The A-Team,” the polar opposite of Sony’s lean approach. After spending years in development, running through eleven writers and with a budget north of $100 million, the roided out version of the ’80s show failed to connect, with the film dropping to third place in its second weekend, with a paltry $13 million haul. With $49 million to date, and with stiff competition from “Knight & Day” arriving next weekend, it looks like the film will have to go to DVD to break even.
And speaking of big budget disasters Warner Bros., who knew they had a stinker on their hands with “Jonah Hex,” were probably hoping the film would do a bit better than the $5 million take it had this weekend, placing it in an embarrassing sixth place. With Warner Bros. keeping the official budget numbers close to the chest (though estimates put it at around $80 million), “Jonah Hex” marks the second comic book adaptation to go bust for the studio this year (the other one being “The Losers”), which pretty much ensures that for the immediate future, WB will focus their energy on their much more well known and bankable DC Comics franchises (or at least one hopes if they know what’s good for them).
Rounding out the weekend, “Get Him To The Greek” lands in at fourth with $5.7 million, and a total of $47.8 million to date. While Universal might have been hoping for more from the film, with a couple more decent weeks, it will likely end up in the same ballpark as $62 million take as “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” “Shrek Forever After 3D” added another $5.5 million to its $200 million plus box official haul. “Killers” landed in seventh place with $6.1 million with the film way off from breaking even on its budget of $75 million (really?!). Expect the similarly themed “Knight & Day” to force this one out of the top ten next weekend. While Disney’s big budget “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time” looks like a failure landing in eighth place in week four, with only a $5 million this weekend and a total of $80 million to date domestically, the film is killing it overseas, already earning more than double of its North American haul with a total haul of $267 million. Not too bad. In ninth, “Marmaduke” proves that no reads that shitty cartoon and less wants to see a movie about it; the 2.7 million weekend brings it’s total take to $27 million and finally, in tenth, “Sex And City 2” inches toward $100 million with a $2.5 million weekend.
1. Toy Story 3 $109 million (Debut)
2. The Karate Kid $28.5 million ($105.7 mil.)
3. The A-Team $13.7 million ($49 mil.)
4. Get Him To The Greek $6.1 million ($47.8 mil.)
5. Shrek Forever After $5.5 million ($223 mil.)
6. Jonah Hex $5 million (Debut)
7. Killers $5 million ($39.2 mil.)
8. Prince Of Persia $5.1 million ($80.2 mil.)
9. Marmaduke $2.7 million ($27.9 mil.)
10. Sex And The City 2 $2.5 million ($90.2 mil.)