The Summer of the Threes continues apace, with the latest third chapter of a successful franchise following the success of such similar chapters as Shrek 3, Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Next week closes the trend off with the third film in the Rush Hour franchise, but in the meantime Jason Bourne collected a very healthy $70m in its opening frame.
Drawing an impressive $19,000-plus per theater, The Bourne Ultimatum was the latest in a line of successful openings this summer, indicating that audiences are satisfied enough with this season’s offerings to continuing frequenting their local theaters. Indeed, the third chapter of the series drew an impressive 34% more than the $52m opening of the second film, The Bourne Supremacy.
It also set a new record for August opening weekends, beating the $67.4m drawn by Rush Hour 2 way back in 2001. Meanwhile, Ultimatum’s first frame has beaten the openings of any James Bond or Mission: Impossible film, indicating that Matt Damon’s Bourne is truly the spy of the 21st century. Certainly the film could not have been hurt by an atypically favorable collection of reviews, drawing a superlative 94% collective approval rating at Rottentomatoes.com. Nor do the numbers tell the whole story, as the reviews tend to be not just positive, but strongly so.
As The Bourne Supremacy ended up collecting $176 in total domestic receipts, a final take of nearly $250m for the third chapter is not out of the question. Even so, the film might well be relying on the foreign take (it hasn’t opened overseas yet) for any profit, as the fact that an official budget figure has not been offered substantiates reports of a comparatively high $175m production figure.
Last week’s number one movie, The Simpsons, took a dramatic 65% tumble, dropping to $25.6m for the weekend, indicating that its theatrical salad days are already drawing to a close. Even so, with an aggregate $128.5m in domestic box office so far, it’s clear the $75m production is a sizable success, given that the film has also picked up an additional $107m in overseas receipts. Moreover, one can only assume the film will sell extremely well on DVD when it’s released, presumably, in time for Christmas.
The aptly named new film Underdog opened at number three, treeing $12m. Given the paucity of kid’s films right now, it may remain in theaters a bit longer than otherwise, but if there had been hopes of a Garfield-type success, they have been solidly dashed.
Two comedies followed in the fourth and fifth spots. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry draw an additional $10.5m for an aggregate $91m so far, but with an $80m budget and typically weak overseas prospects for American comedies, the Adam Sandler vehicle will clearly be hoping for extremely strong ancillary monies to provide even a modest profit. In similar straits is Hairspray, which added another $9m to approach $80m total, assuming the reported budget of $75m (!) is even close to correct. It’s hard to believe that Hairspray would have cost nearly as much as an Adam Sandler movie, but there you go.
Meanwhile, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is beginning to run out of steam, manifesting another $9.3m for a $261m total. However, with the film probably headed towards roughly $275m in domestic receipts, the far more muscular $509m it’s already drawn overseas ensures the series remains extremely profitable, especially given Phoenix’s reported, and comparatively modest, $150m production budget. That easily helps make up for the smaller worldwide take compared to the third chapters of Pirates ($950m) and Spider-Man ($890m), since both of those films cost in the $300m range.
Following that were the weak $6.5m opening of the romantic comedy No Reservations; another $6m for Transformers (the domestic total of which will soon pass the eye-popping $300m mark, added to another $250m plus in overseas receipts); a bad $5m for the Adam Sandberg comedy Hot Rod, which drew under $2,000 per venue; and $4.3m for BRATZ.
