Weekend Roundup: You Can't Kill the Batman

By Katey Rich

Despite the Joker's best efforts, pretty much nothing can kill the Batman. The Dark Knight dropped just over 50% in its second weekend, bringing in $75 million to set two records-- the highest-grossing second weekend ever, and the fastest film to reach $300 million. Optimistic prognosticators are now saying Dark Knight could break $500 million domestically, shooting past all films other than Titanic.

Unbelievably, Dark Knight wasn't the only movie to have a stellar weekend-- Step Brothers, the R-rated John C. Reilly & Will Ferrell comedy, opened to $30 million, despite aiming for the exact same young audience that was seeing Dark Knight a second and third time this weekend. X-Files: I Want to Believe, on the other hand, floundered in its debut, bringing in just $10 million and landing at #4.

In-between the newcomers was Mamma Mia!, which fell just 35% in its second weekend and made another $17 million. It has a partner in solid performance with Journey to the Center of the Earth, dropping just 23% in its second weekend to come in at #5 with $9 million.

The rest of the top 10 was filled with a few blockbusters and a few not-so-blockbusters. Hancock came in at #6 with $8.2 million, good enough to cross the $200 million mark. Right behind it was Wall-E, with $6 million for the weekend and looking poised to cross $200 million itself. Hellboy II: The Golden Army, on the other hand, is experiencing a far-faster box-office death than it deserved; it made $4.9 million this weekend as it starts dropping theatres.

Wrapping things up, Space Chimps continues to fail to make an impression on moviegoers, bringing in $4.3 million. And making its last appearance in the top 10, Wanted earned $2.7 million, bringing its total to a healthy $128 million.

Outside the top 10, and even the top 20, there were a whole lot of interesting specialty debuts, so we'll include them courtesy of Box Office Mojo. Brideshead Revisited, another adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel, debuted strong with a $10,000 per-theatre average from 33 locations. Man on Wire was an even stronger contender, becoming the only movie to beat Dark Knight's per-theatre average for the weekend with $48,000 from two theatres. American Teen was right behind it but notably less competitive, with just $42,800 from five theatres. And CSNY: Deja Vu, which sounds more like another "CSI" spinoff than the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young documentary it actually is, made a meager $36,100 from 24 theatres.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	1	The Dark Knight	WB	$75,630,000	-52.3%	4,366	-	$17,322	$314,245,000	$185	2
2	N	Step Brothers	Sony	$30,000,000	-	3,094	-	$9,696	$30,000,000	$65	1
3	2	Mamma Mia!	Uni.	$17,865,000	-35.6%	2,990	+14	$5,974	$62,714,000	$52	2
4	N	The X-Files: I Want to Believe	Fox	$10,200,000	-	3,185	-	$3,202	$10,200,000	$30	1
5	4	Journey to the Center of the Earth	NL	$9,415,000	-23.7%	2,688	-142	$3,502	$60,185,000	$60	3
6	3	Hancock	Sony	$8,200,000	-41.6%	3,309	-467	$2,478	$206,371,000	$150	4
7	6	Wall-E	BV	$6,349,000	-37.0%	3,044	-266	$2,085	$195,235,000	$180	5
8	5	Hellboy II: The Golden Army	Uni.	$4,934,000	-51.2%	3,018	-194	$1,634	$65,894,000	$85	3
9	7	Space Chimps	Fox	$4,375,000	-39.1%	2,538	+27	$1,723	$16,006,000	$37	2
10	8	Wanted	Uni.	$2,727,000	-46.2%	1,754	-679	$1,554	$128,616,000	$75	5
11	9	Get Smart	WB	$2,300,000	-44.2%	1,420	-715	$1,619	$124,214,000	$80	6
12	10	Kung Fu Panda	P/DW	$1,030,000	-44.6%	917	-588	$1,123	$208,972,000	$130	8
13	13	Kit Kittredge: An American Girl	PicH	$593,000	-37.7%	535	-234	$1,108	$15,267,000	-	6
14	12	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	Par.	$550,000	-42.5%	477	-280	$1,153	$313,626,000	$185	10
15	14	Sex and the City	NL	$460,000	-36.2%	347	-168	$1,325	$150,854,000	$65	9
16	17	Tell No One	MBox	$430,000	+7.2%	77	+22	$5,584	$1,661,000	-	4
17	15	The Incredible Hulk	Uni.	$425,000	-32.2%	403	-253	$1,054	$132,543,000	$150	7
18	11	Meet Dave	Fox	$375,000	-77.4%	503	-2,508	$745	$10,833,000	$60	3
19	N	Brideshead Revisited	Mira.	$332,000	-	33	-	$10,060	$332,000	-	1
20	16	Iron Man	Par.	$289,000	-36.0%	274	-101	$1,054	$314,905,000	$140	13
21	25	The Wackness	SPC	$241,000	+59.9%	120	+86	$2,008	$1,072,000	-	4
-	20	Mongol	PicH	$165,000	-35.9%	144	-51	$1,145	$5,174,000	$18	8
-	31	Brick Lane	SPC	$62,200	-25.4%	49	+1	$1,269	$653,000	-	6
-	N	Man on Wire	Magn.	$48,000	-	2	-	$24,000	$48,000	-	1
-	N	American Teen	ParV	$42,800	-	5	-	$8,560	$42,800	-	1
-	N	CSNY: Deja Vu	RAtt.	$36,100	-	24	-	$1,504	$36,100	-	1
-	30	The Love Guru	Par.	$36,000	-58.4%	107	-76	$336	$31,891,000	$62	6
-	48	Before the Rains	RAtt.	$32,850	+10.9%	16	-6	$2,053	$910,000	-	12
-	46	Transsiberian	First	$26,500	-23.4%	2	-	$13,250	$80,000	-	2
-	44	The Fall	RAtt.	$19,500	-45.8%	30	-8	$650	$2,140,000	-	12
-	61	War, Inc.	First	$17,400	+42.6%	25	+5	$696	$566,000	-	10
-	109	Baghead	SPC	$17,200	+2,023.5%	7	+5	$2,457	$49,200	-	7
-	N	Boy A	Wein.	$11,400	-	2	-	$5,700	$13,100	-	1
-	68	Lou Reed's Berlin	TRR	$4,070	-50.8%	2	-	$2,035	$19,000	-	2