After I almost killed myself watching the last Twilight movie, I vowed never to see another one unless someone paid me to review it. As that wasn't the case this time, I did not and will not catch THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE. (I almost went to make a boy happy but fortunately he changed his mind and I narrowly avoided disaster.) Plenty of other people did go out to catch the latest Edward-Bella-Jacob love triangle tale. It busted out of the gate with $30 million in midnight screening receipts, beating the record the second installment previously held. By the end of its first five days though, it was trailing the NEW MOON by a few million. That's hardly a set back though so it seems like the summer finally has a another tentpole that actually delivered.
M. Night Shyamalan's THE LAST AIRBENDER actually surprised most industry insiders with a very strong $40 million weekend and $57 million opening. Reviews were horrible, as seems to be the case with most of Shyamalan's later releases, but that did not stop fans from coming out and giving Shyamalan a $10 million increase on the debut of his last film, THE HAPPENING. Perhaps more impressive though is the Top 10 showing of the Duplass brothers indie hit, CYRUS. On just 77 screens, the John C. Reilly / Jonah Hill starrer amassed a $10K per screen average for a 155% increase. I guess all my talking the film up is actually working. Finally, outside the Top 10, the Taylor Hackford prostitution dramedy, LOVE RANCH, pulled in a tepid $4.5K average amidst abysmal reviews.
NEXT WEEK: Steve Carrell tries tot take down TOY STORY 3 with DESPICABLE ME on 3200+ screens. Adrien Brody tries for a second summer hit but will likely end up with another flop with PREDATORS on 2700+ screens. Lisa Cholodenko's Sundance favorite, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, starts out on just 7 screens before expanding. The second installment from the popular book series, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, hits a handful of theatres. And the GREASE SING-A-LONG starts its run on 12 screens.
Source: Box Office Mojo