'Super 8' exceeds modest expectations with $37 million

By Sarah Sluis

Super 8, with its throwback, Spielberg-influenced sci-fi, kept audiences in the dark about the premise. That's a good thing for preserving the surprise in the viewing experience but a bad thing for opening weekend. Despite a $37 million weekend, which exceeded expectations, Super 8's mission is not over. The real gauge of the J.J. Abrams film's success will be in coming weeks. Will the movie fade quietly or become this summer's popcorn movie of choice? Having seen the film, I feel firmly that it's destined to be the latter. Unlike last week's X-Men: First Class and other tentpoles, Super 8 performed better on Saturday than Friday. The audience members, largely over 25 and slightly skewing male, weren't driven to the theatre by a barrage of television ads giving away the plot, but mysterious ones. The hope is that they'll share their positive experience with friends and family, especially on social networking websites.

Bridesmaids had its lowest drop yet, 15%, keeping it in the eight digits with $10.1 million. Male buddy comedy The Hangover Part II tapered its fall with a 40% dip to $18.5 million. X-Men: First Class halved its gross, but the 53% drop is actually the best experienced by an X-Men film. Following the standard for animated movies, Kung Fu Panda 2 lost just 30% of its audience, finishing the weekend with $16.6 million.

The other new release of the week, Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer, contributed a quiet $6.2 million. That's slightly less than last year's Ramona and Beezus, which also targeted tween girls. With a reported budget of $20 million, this movie will have to hope for a long life on DVD to make up its high cost.

Directly below Judy Moody, Woody Allen had his highest-grossing single weekend ever with Midnight in Paris. The light, comic film tallied up $6.1 million on less than a thousand screens. I've heard nothing but positive word-of-mouth for this film, which seems poised to surpass Allen's last big hit, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The Tree of Life also improved from its previous weekend, adding $875,000 to its coffers while playing on 47 screens.

No more specialty darlings will join Allen and Malick, at least this weekend. British comedy The Trip averaged a mediocre $14,100 per screen playing in six locations. Congo production Viva Riva! earned a low $3,400 per-screen. Dutch romance Bride Flight, casting a wide net with 18 locations, had a light catch of just $3,000 per screen.

This Friday, another comic book hero gets a movie in Green Lantern. Jim Carrey plays opposite Arctic birds in Mr. Popper's Penguins, and emo teens can get release in The Art of Getting By.