Not much has changed since Friday in regards to the weekend box office rankings for August 3-5. The Dark Knight Rises won the period easily over Total Recall ($36.4 million versus $26.0 million) and Wimpy Kid 3 came in third with a franchise worst opening ($14.7 million.) The story mostly resides with Recall which cost Sony $125 million to produce, but there of course is an extra nod to The Dark Knight Rises for finally showcasing some week-to-week retention.
We begin today’s look at the results by concluding that the Total Recall reboot was more than likely a big mistake on Sony’s part. The first weekend barely edged out the debut of its predecessor over two decades ago despite a bigger budget and the benefits of advanced special effects work. The studio believed that they could attach Colin Farrell to the project and possibly drive up a strong international box office haul to pay for their $125 million production budget, but that remains to be seen.
What we do know is that despite major flaws with this movie, Len Wiseman continues to assert himself as a dominant figure in producing action sequences through his fourth outing. Since the movie will not apparently lose gobs of money like John Carter and Battleship, we can fully expect to see the Live Free or Die Hard director again (hopefully with a better script.)
The Dark Knight Rises only dropped 41% for the weekend, bringing its domestic total to $354.6 million and above $600 million globally. This means the film has already passed the bar for profitability despite its bloated $250 million production budget which pretty much means nothing because Batman looks to be hanging up his cape for a while regardless of box office results as Christopher Nolan’s trilogy has ended.
Simple extrapolation gives us a more refined view of where The Dark Knight Rises might end its run, and it definitely looks like $425 million domestic could be the floor. This is not terrible by any means; however, it would indicate the franchise lost about 15-20% of its revenue from four years ago which is very disappointing as many originally believed DKR could wind up with $600 million from North America alone before the film’s release.
Related:
‘Total Recall’ Reboot Budget Lower Than Earlier Reported: $125 Million, Not $200 Million
‘Total Recall’ Reboot Reviews Are Bad, But Roger Ebert Backs It