BOX OFFICE WATCH: INDEPENDENCE WEEK, WEEK 27 OF 2010

Week 27/2010 US BOX OFFICE WEEKEND 02-04 July 2010

Happy Fourth Of July! It's the Indepedence weekend in USA and that explains why the news have been lacking these few days. Expect full recovery soon! Even it is a holiday, the box office is not. This weekend, the vampires and werewolves conquered the top while some elemental bender settles on second. Overall, the top ten films this weekend grossed an estimated $182.3 million (up from last year's $152.6 million by 19% and 22% from 2008)

[NUMBER 1] Fresh from the opening record on Wednesday midnight, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse generated $69.0 million on the three days proper weekend, propelling the vampire flick to $161.0 million in five days. However, it will not beat the record gross of Spider-Man 2 back in 2004's Independence Day opening of $88.2 milllion, but with additional Monday count, it was expected that Eclipse may beat Spidey for the 6 days Independence record! Do bear in mind that Eclipse has advantage over the webslinging hero by inflated ticket price, more IMAX invasion and more theater counts. From foreign front, Eclipse was hot in with estimated $100.2 million opening since Wednesday. Reviews have been much better than the previous installment, New Moon. Eclipse is opening this week in Malaysia. The stats of comparison sounds confusing? Check the table below:

[NUMBER 2] Paramount's The Last Airbender did some decent opening of $40.65 million on the three-days weekend, to settle for a four days start of $58.0 million. The M Night Shyamalan's action fantasy that based on the popular Nickelodeon's animation Avatar: The Last Airbender survived a critical trashing from the movie critics, planned boycotts from certain quarters and unpopular protests over the casting. The movie was also set to counter-programmed the massive explosion expected from Eclipse. The Last Airbender is the third highest opening for the director behind Signs and The Village. Opening in lower 3,169 theaters, the average was amazingly $12,827, proving that fans did not take into the account of the bad reviews. However, long term business is at stake and would not be good. The Last Airbender is opening on 5 August in Malaysia.

[OTHERS] Toy Story 3 bumped down to third with $30.2 million take for the weekend, bringing its total to $289 million in 17 days. Grown Ups dropped 54% from its opening to settle on with $18.5 million estimate ($77.1 million total) while Knight & Day continued to be ignored with only making $10.2 million for the week ($45.5 million in ten days). Check out the top ten chart below:

Rank	Movie Title	Weekend Gross ($)	Change (%)	Total Gross ($)
1	THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE	69,000,000	NEW	161,000,000
2	THE LAST AIRBENDER	40,650,000	NEW	57,000,000
3	TOY STORY 3	30,174,000	-49.1	289,000,000
4	GROWN UPS	18,500,000	-54.3	77,082,000
5	KNIGHT & DAY	10,200,000	-49.4	45,508,000
6	THE KARATE KIDS	8,000,000	-48.5	151,523,000
7	THE A-TEAM	3,025,000	-51.2	69,116,000
8	GET HIM TO THE GREEK	1,185,000	-62.3	57,427,000
9	SHREK FOREVER AFTER	799,000	-74.2	232,182,000
10	CYRUS	770,000	+155.6	1,488,000

*Note: All figures are estimated only. Courtesy of BOX OFFICE MOJO.