Despite the debut of a couple of goofy big budget movies, Michael Bay's colossal
Transformers: Dark of the Moon remained the box office titan over the weekend.
We'll see if it can remain in the top spot for another week, battling off the advances of a
certain boy wizard…
With another $47.1 million,
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
became the highest grossing film (domestically – remember
Pirates 4 is the global
kingpin) of the year so far, raking in a staggering $261 million total. Not too shabby, huh?
Especially when there are reports that Michael Bay himself should pocket $100 million. I
mean… Wow.
Coming in at #2 was Warner Bros' so-so
Horrible Bosses, which made $28.3 million over the weekend,
which isn't too shabby for an R-rated comedy without any major leads (stars in the smaller
roles of the bosses certainly enticed some). This summer has been largely dominated by
raunchy R-rated fare – between
Bridesmaids (which became the largest grossing Judd Apatow production of all
time),
Bad Teacher and
The Hangover, Part II
- and
Horrible Bosses falls in line with that fare. These films, modestly produced, can
produce big earnings if marketed correctly and the R-rating isn't the hindrance it once was…
Case in point the family-friendly Sony/MGM production
The Zookeeper, which fizzled at third place with
$20 million. The comedy, which stars Kevin James as a pudgier Doctor Dolittle – a zookeeper
who can hear his animal charges speak. There have been truly disturbing accusations that
the animals on the film were badly mistreated, including reports that a giraffe dropped dead
shortly after filming ended. But beyond those claims, the movie looks like a complete mess –
with five accredited writers, the film was produced by Adam Sadler and features an all-star
line-up of big actors doing the voices of animals (people like Sylvester Stallone, Nick Nolte,
and Jon Favreau). It just seems like the worst kind of by-the-number Hollywood fluff. And
hopefully it will continue its decline and we'll never have to hear about it again (or be forced
to endure
Zookeeper 2).
Besides that, it's business as usual for the top 10, although I'd like to point out that J.J.
Abrams'
Super 8 has crossed the
all-important $100 million mark – impressive for any film, for sure, but even more impressive
due to the mysteriousness of the project, its complete lack of above-the-marquee stars, and
its relatively miniscule production budget.
- #1 Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Paramount) - $47.1 million
- #2 Horrible Bosses (Warner Bros) - $28.3 million
- #3 The Zookeeper (Sony) - $20 million
- #4 Cars 2 (Disney/Pixar) - $15.2 million
- #5 Bad Teacher (Sony) - $8.9 million
- #6 Larry Crowne (Universal) - $5.9 million
- #7 Super 8 (Paramount) - $4.8 million
- #8 Monte Carlo (Fox) - $3.8 million
- #9 Mr. Popper's Penguins (Fox) - $3.1 million
- #10 Green Lantern (Warner Bros) - $3.1 million