'Green Lantern' flickers to $52 million

By Sarah Sluis

Superhero fatigue is setting in. Green Lantern debuted to $52.7 million, lower than both Thor and X-Men: First Class. People turned out on Friday, but Saturday showed a 20% drop-off in business, much more than either Thor or X-Men: First Class. Even for superhero movie fans, three in two months feels like too much. This reporter is not a fan of the superhero genre, save for early 1990s after-school cartoon Captain Planet (He's our hero/Going to take pollution down to ze-ro). Sadly, he is not to be confused with patriotic superhero Captain America, this summer's final, august superhero. Norse comic book demigod Thor fell out of the top ten heavens for the first time this week, adding $1.1 million to its $176 million total. X-Men: First Class dropped by half in its third week, depositing $11.5 million to its current $119 million domestic gross. These superhero movies are expensive to make, and the U.S. box office barely covers their production costs without marketing. The reality is that films make their money overseas and through merchandising.

Super 8 fell 40% to $21.2 million its second weekend. This Spielberg-influenced sci-fi tale is one of the few action-y tentpoles not to come from a comic book or other pre-sold property, so it didn't open as high. Its redemption was supposed to occur in its second week, but a 40% fall isn't word-of-mouth gold. In comparison, surprise smash Bridesmaids dipped just 20% in its second week, but most other tentpoles this summer having been diving further: 56% (X-Men: First Class), 63% (Hangover II), 56% (Pirates 4)

Mr. Popper's Penguins did better than Fox expected, tallying up $18.2 million from family audiences. Most broad family pictures this summer have been animated, and I think the CG/live-action mix drew families interested in mixing it up.

Fox Searchlight's Sundance pickup The Art of Getting By bombed. With just a $1,100 per-screen average at 610 locations, the high school romantic comedy ended up with just $700,000. The timing of the release seems a little off, too. The core audience, high schoolers, is busy with end-of-year activities and graduation right now, leaving them with less time to see a movie.

The Irish dancing documentary Jig had a foot-tapping debut of $13,000 per screen on five screens. The horse whisperer documentary Buck also opened to a cantor, averaging $16,100 on four screens. The real winners, though, are the rock star specialty releases Midnight in Paris and The Tree of Life. Woody Allen's Midnight fell just 10% in its second weekend deployed at around 1,000 locations, adding another $5.2 million to its over $20 million total. The Tree of Life went up 34% to $1.1 million. The poetic film is taking it slow, doubling the number of locations for a still-tiny grand total of 114 screens.

This Friday, Pixar will unveil Cars 2, and the R-rated shock comedy Bad Teacher makes its debut.