Ferrell’s “Other Guys” tops box office

The Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg buddy cop parody finally takes down "Inception" with a $35.6 million opening

By Christy Lemire, Associated Press

Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell in"The Other Guys."

Topics:Box office report, The Other Guys

“The Other Guys” are the main guys at the box office, knocking off “Inception” to take the No. 1 spot.

The buddy-cop parody starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg made $35.6 million in its opening weekend, according to Sunday estimates from Sony Pictures.

It’s the second-highest debut for a film in which Ferrell has starred, and yet another strong showing for the movies he’s made with his frequent collaborator, writer-director Adam McKay. Their biggest opening was “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” which debuted at No. 1 with $47 million in August 2006. “Step Brothers” made $30.9 million and came in second place when it opened in July 2008. And their first film together, “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” opened in second place in July 2004 with $28.4 million.

“Inception,” which had been the top film in the country the past three weeks, fell to No. 2 with $18.6 million. Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending dream thriller from Warner Bros. has now made $227.7 million since its debut July 16.

Rory Bruer, Sony’s president of worldwide distribution, said the studio had a good idea that “The Other Guys” would open at No. 1, but estimated it would make around $30 million. Ferrell plays a nerdy, uptight New York police detective who’d rather solve crimes from his desk than run into danger on the streets. Wahlberg is his hot-tempered, frustrated partner who’s desperate for action, and the supporting cast includes Michael Keaton, Eva Mendes, Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson.

“The tracking on the film has been really terrific — just the buzz on the film, reviews are 80-percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes,” Bruer said. “From all the screenings we had on the film, people just loved it and thought it was hilarious so we felt pretty good about it.”

Ferrell-McKay productions have a solid track record, Bruer said, because “they’re the ultimate funny.”

“The chemistry between those two men in regards to comedy is at the top of their game,” he said. “They bring out the best of each other.”

The fact that “The Other Guys” and “Inception” are both so popular shows that audiences are hungry for a variety of ideas this time of year, said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

“How much different could these two films be? They both have action elements but that’s where the comparison between these two films ends,” he said. “That’s the cool thing about summer movies: They can run the gamut from silly, off-the-wall comedies to serious, intense fare.”

The other new movie opening nationwide this weekend, the dance sequel “Step Up 3-D” from Disney and Summit Entertainment, came in third place with $15.5 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Other Guys,” $35.6 million.

2. “Inception,” $18.6 million.

3. “Step Up 3-D,” $15.5 million.

4. “Salt,” $11.1 million.

5. “Dinner for Schmucks,” $10.5 million.

6. “Despicable Me,” $9.4 million.

7. “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” $6.9 million.

8. “Charlie St. Cloud,” $4.7 million.

9. “Toy Story 3,” $3 million.

10.”The Kids Are All Right,” $2.6 million.

——

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

: More Christy Lemire

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Film fans want to know who's up and who's down every Monday, but the revenue numbers never tell the whole story

By Emma Mustich

What the weekend box-office numbers leave out

Topics:Box office report, Movies

Movie obsessives study the weekend’s box-office report the way baseball fans pore over the standings during a pennant race. Every Monday morning, the sales numbers are fuel for wild pop-culture extrapolations. Are superhero movies unstoppable or finished? Which star vehicle performed worse than expected? Whose career is on the rise? Do ticket buyers feel insulted if a movie is only available to them in 3-D?

But sometimes the numbers are misleading. Take last weekend, when “Glee” opened in 11th place, grossing just under $6 million. It would be easy to declare the movie a failure — except the rankings don’t take into account the movie’s tiny $9.5 million budget, and (for example) the popularity its DVD version and soundtrack could potentially have in years to come.

No pundit has more control over the analysis than Paul Dergarabedian, the resident expert at Hollywood.com, who often parses box office figures for the Associated Press and the New York Times.

Curious as to why these numbers have the media clout they do — and what they really mean (or don’t mean) about the movies they describe — Salon asked him for his take.

“You know what it is?” he begins, launching a discussion of box office figures’ general appeal. “It’s commerce tied to art. … There’s a way to quantify, to turn the whole thing into a horse race.”

But just as the political horse-race coverage is sometimes criticized for being myopic, there’s a danger in paying too much attention to these figures. After all, you’d miss all the good stuff if you limited your viewing to what hits the top of the charts. And these numbers, Dergarabedian says, can have a real effect on people’s actions, inspiring them to flock to certain titles, and avoid others, based simply on first-weekend performance.

“It’s a double-edged sword, you know. If it’s reported that Harry Potter broke a record, that’s great, because everybody wants to jump on that bandwagon … [But] sometimes, if a movie underperforms, people react in the opposite way — ‘I was gonna see that, but it didn’t do very well at the box office …’ — which to me is sort of an anathema to how you should feel about movies.

“[People shouldn't think that] if it made money, it’s good, and if it doesn’t, it’s bad. There are a lot of great movies that don’t make a lot of money for whatever reason, but nonetheless, there’s sort of a pack mentality as people read this stuff, where they want to see what the fuss is about.”

Can a movie that does badly at the start make up for its poor opening through DVD sales, video rentals and the like? Dergarabedian says that although box office figures do affect marketing, and can be strong early indicators of a film’s potential, they aren’t the final word.

“Luckily for studios, the theatrical [opening] is sort of the first attack, and then there are a lot of sort of ancillary markets, like you mentioned: home video, Netflix, video on demand, [soundtrack].” Overseas markets play a significant role as well. Bad opening weekends are only really problematic for movies with enormous budgets — like some of these infamous underperformers.

Some movies that perform poorly on their opening weekends can eventually break even through extra, non-cinema sales, but it doesn’t often work the other way around, Dergarabedian says; early winners at the box office tend to see sustained sales, both in theaters and in these other markets, rather than radical dropoffs.

“Usually if a movie does well opening weekend or the first two weekends, it’s pretty much set that it will have a successful life in the ancillary markets, because whatever inspired people to make it a hit in the first place will continue to hold that film in good stead over the coming weeks — unless of course you have a movie that opens big and then drops 70 or 80 percent the second weekend, reflecting really bad word of mouth. Then you may have a tougher road down the line trying to be successful. … But with Twitter and social networking platforms, it’s really difficult to hide a bad movie now.”

: Emma Mustich is an assistant editor at Salon. Follow her on Twitter: @emustich. More Emma Mustich

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The weekend's two big films come to a surprising tie at the box office

By Emma Mustich

Topics:Box office report, Movies

Conspiracy theories which suggested the Smurfs are Satanists, Klansmen or Nazis didn’t keep kids from movie theaters. Weekend box office estimates show that viewers were at least as willing to brave a couple of hours with these big-eared blue beasts as they were to spend their money chasing some newfangled “Cowboys and Aliens.”

According to Box Office Mojo, both films collected an estimated $36.2 million at the box office this weekend — quite a surprise, given the tenor of “The Smurfs’” less-than-encouraging early reviews. (Unlike “Cowboys and Aliens,” “The Smurfs” was available in 3D, so some tickets were slightly more expensive.)

: Emma Mustich is an assistant editor at Salon. Follow her on Twitter: @emustich. More Emma Mustich

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In a showdown between former box office champs, Sly Stallone muscles out Julia Roberts

By David Germain, Associated Press

Topics:Box office report

Sylvester Stallone has proven that he’s not quite expendable yet at the box office.

Stallone and his pumped-up pals lifted Lionsgate’s 1980s-style action romp “The Expendables” to a No. 1 debut with $35 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

While the macho “Expendables” lured male audiences, Julia Roberts delivered a crowd-pleaser for women with Sony’s “Eat Pray Love,” which opened at No. 2 with $23.7 million.

The previous weekend’s top movie, Sony’s cop comedy “The Other Guys,” slipped to third place with $18 million, raising its 10-day total to $70.5 million. The Warner Bros. blockbuster “Inception” was fourth with $11.4 million, lifting its total to $248.6 million.

Opening in fifth place with $10.5 million was Universal’s graphic-novel adaptation “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” starring Michael Cera as a slacker caught up in duels to the death with his new girlfriend’s seven evil ex-boyfriends.

“The Expendables” continued a box-office uptick for Stallone, who has had a career resurgence in recent years revisiting his past with fresh sequels to his “Rocky” and “Rambo” franchises.

The movie features such action stars as Jet Li and Jason Statham — along with cameos from Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger — in a tale of mercenaries aiming to overthrow a dictator.

It’s a throwback to the brawn and body counts of 1980s and ’90s action, a genre whose top three stars were Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger. The cast also includes such actors with 1980s roots as Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren and Roberts’ brother, Eric Roberts, as well as wrestler Steve Austin, ultimate fighter Randy Couture and former NFL player Terry Crews.

“By combining all that star power, they really had a strong debut,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. “Maybe star power doesn’t work with just one star, but when you throw in a dozen, it really looked fun. In the action world, these guys are big names.”

Adapted from Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir, “Eat Pray Love” stars Julia Roberts as a woman traveling the world in search of enlightenment after her divorce.

Lionsgate deliberately chose this weekend to open “The Expendables” since it would be aiming for a different audience than “Eat Pray Love.”

“We figured anybody going to see ‘Eat Pray Love’ would not want to see ‘Expendables,’ and vice versa,” said David Spitz, head of distribution at Lionsgate.

Still, the hunky-men factor brought in a solid female crowd for “The Expendables,” whose audience was 39 percent women, a bigger ratio than many male-driven action flicks.

Women made up 72 percent of the audience for “Eat Pray Love.” Older women dominated the crowds, with 56 percent of the audience over 35.

“We definitely had the women and they definitely had the men,” Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony, said of the split between “Eat Pray Love” and “The Expendables.”

Sony is counting on a long shelf life for “Eat Pray Love” because of its appeal to women, who are less likely than males to rush out to see a movie over opening weekend.

“This is the type of picture that really will hang in there. I would be very surprised if the picture doesn’t play right into the fall,” Bruer said.

The year’s biggest hit, “Toy Story 3,” took in $2.2 million over the weekend to climb to $400.8 million domestically. The blockbuster from Disney’s Pixar Animation became the 11th movie to top $400 million and only the second animated film to hit that mark, after “Shrek 2″ at $436.7 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Expendables,” $35 million.

2. “Eat Pray Love,” $23.7 million.

3. “The Other Guys,” $18 million.

4. “Inception,” $11.4 million.

5. “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” $10.5 million.

6. “Despicable Me,” $6.8 million.

7. “Step Up 3D,” $6.6 million.

8. “Salt,” $6.4 million.

9. “Dinner for Schmucks,” $6.3 million.

10. “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” $4.1 million.

——

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

——

Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney’s parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue Pictures is owned by Relativity Media LLC; Overture Films is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corp.

: More David Germain

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Leo DiCaprio's thriller wins the box office for the third weekend in a row, bringing its haul near $200 million

By Derrik J. Lang, Associated Press

Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "Inception."

Topics:Box office report, Inception

“Inception” is still kicking at the box office.

The mind-bending Warner Bros. thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio remained the No. 1 movie for the third-straight weekend with $27.5 million, bringing its total to $193.3 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. “Inception” edged out the weekend’s new releases: “Dinner for Schmucks,” “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” and “Charlie St. Cloud.”

“‘Inception’ has seeped into the cultural zeitgeist,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. “It’s something that everyone is talking about right now. When a movie is able to do that and something just clicks, it becomes a national — even an international — discussion, and it’s seemingly impervious to any of the newcomers.”

“Dinner for Schmucks,” the Paramount comedy starring Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, followed closely behind “Inception” with $23.3 million, while the Warner Bros. 3-D sequel “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” fetched $12.5 million in the No. 5 spot. “Charlie St. Cloud,” the Universal Pictures drama starring Zac Efron, debuted at No. 6 with $12.1 million.

“For us to clearly be the runaway of the three new films this weekend and come as close as we did to ‘Inception,’ which is a wonderful movie, is pretty solid,” said Don Harris, Paramount’s vice president of distribution. “With a Zac Efron movie and a 3-D sequel to a popular movie, I think people expected it to be a horse race, but it really wasn’t.”

“Salt” clung to No. 3 with $19.2 million in its second weekend, bringing its total to a solid $70.8 million. The Sony spy caper starring Angelina Jolie as a CIA operative who goes rogue suffered a 47 percent drop from its $36.5 million opening weekend. During the busy summer movie season, top hits often drop 50 percent or more in the second weekend.

Overall revenues rose for the fifth-straight weekend as Hollywood continued to recover from a lackluster box office earlier in the summer. Receipts totaled $145 million, up over 15 percent from the same weekend last year, when receipts totaled $125.7 million and the Judd Apatow film “Funny People” debuted in the No. 1 spot with $22.6 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “Inception,” $27.5 million.

2. “Dinner for Schmucks,” $23.3 million.

3. “Salt,” $19.2 million.

4. “Despicable Me,” $15.5 million.

5. “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” $12.5 million.

6. “Charlie St. Cloud,” $12.1 million.

7. “Toy Story 3,” $5 million.

8. “Grown Ups,” $4.5 million.

9. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” $4.3 million.

10.”The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” $3.9 million.

——

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

: More Derrik J. Lang

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The latest Leonardo DiCaprio venture is the actor's best opening weekend ever

By David Germain, Associated Press

Topics:Inception, Box office report

Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” is anything but a sleeper as the thriller opened big with $60.4 million and a No. 1 finish at the weekend box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Warner Bros. action tale about a team that sneaks into people’s dreams is DiCaprio’s biggest opening weekend, topping his previous best of $41.1 million for last winter’s “Shutter Island.”

“Inception” falls far short of director Christopher Nolan’s best, though. Nolan is the man who directed the Batman blockbuster “The Dark Knight,” which opened over the same weekend two years ago with a record $158.4 million.

Warner Bros. has carved out a niche with this particular mid-July weekend. The studio followed “The Dark Knight” with a $77.8 million opening for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” over the same weekend last year.

“We like this spot. Not to sound superstitious, but stay away from this weekend. I own it,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros.

The final “Harry Potter” movie debuts on the same weekend next summer. Warner plans to open Nolan’s third “Batman” movie over that weekend two years from now, though Fellman said the studio could move it to an earlier date that summer.

Strong reviews helped “Inception,” which stars DiCaprio as leader of a team that normally breaks into people’s dreams to steal their secrets but now has been hired to do the opposite — plant an idea in a wealthy heir’s subconscious.

Slipping to second place with $32.7 million was the previous weekend’s No. 1 movie, Steve Carell’s animated hit “Despicable Me.” The Universal release raised its 10-day total to $118.4 million.

Disney’s family adventure “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” was a dud, opening at No. 3 with $17.4 million, lifting its total to $24.5 million since premiering Wednesday.

“It’s disappointing to say the least,” said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney, which had high hopes for the movie. “I’m perplexed. I have no response, because I honestly don’t know what went wrong.”

The movie reunites the team behind the hit “National Treasure” movies — Nicolas Cage, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Jon Turteltaub — for an action comedy about an ancient wizard training an awkward apprentice (Jay Baruchel) to take down an evil sorceress in modern Manhattan.

Bruckheimer has been a blockbuster producer for Disney with such hits as “The Rock,” “Armageddon” and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise.

But “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” was the summer’s second Disney-Bruckheimer production to come up short at the domestic box office, following “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” which was unable to crack the $100 million mark.

“Jerry’s working on ‘Pirates 4′ as we speak,” Viane said of the Johnny Depp sequel due out next summer. “I’ll go to bat with Jerry any day, because his track record is pretty darn good.”

With “Inception” and “Despicable Me,” the weekend marked a rare instance when two original stories — not sequels, spinoffs or adaptations of comic books, best-sellers or other properties — led the box office.

Hollywood relies on familiar titles such as “Iron Man 2,” “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” and “Toy Story 3″ for most of its big summer releases, though the occasional fresh idea manages to score with audiences.

“We let all of the sequels and popcorn films come out and get the summer rolling, then we come in here with this original concept,” Fellman said of “Inception.” “We’re in a good place to run now for the rest of the summer.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “Inception,” $60.4 million.

2. “Despicable Me,” $32.7 million.

3. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” $17.4 million.

4. “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” $13.5 million.

5. “Toy Story 3,” $11.7 million.

6. “Grown Ups,” $10 million.

7. “The Last Airbender,” $7.5 million.

8. “Predators,” $6.8 million.

9. “Knight and Day,” $3.7 million.

10. “The Karate Kid,” $2.2 million.

——

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

——

Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney’s parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue Pictures is owned by Relativity Media LLC; Overture Films is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corp.