‘Tropic Thunder’ Opens to $26 million in 3 days and $37 million thus far – will it be a hit?
Tom Cruise, one of Ben Stiller’s favorite people to make fun of, makes fun of himself in “Tropic Thunder“
Ben Stiller spent a pretty penny on action comedy “Tropic Thunder” with budget estimates at around $90 million dollars. That means that the “action” quotient for the comedy film that co-stars Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and a host of others needed to hit hard with audiences in order to justify the budget cost.When comparing to another action-comedy like “Pineapple Express” that cost about $28 million (and has grossed $63 million dollars in over 2 weeks of release), “Tropic Thunder” is far more action-friendly and after viewing it, I can assure you there are more laughs. So when looking at stoner film “Pineapple Express” and the $23 million it opened to and comparing it to “Tropic Thunder“’s tally of $26 million this weekend, the numbers can be misleading and to some dissapointing.
“Tropic Thunder” opened on a Wednesday however and grossed a total of $37 million in the first 5 days, also the key with this film will be “word-of-mouth” which for “Pineapple Express” has been good, but not great.
“Tropic Thunder” hits so many nerves – bad and good – that it is likely that there will be strong mid-week and 2nd weekend numbers for the film. Also, surprise cameos that are in the film and were heavily gaurded secrets before the film’s release are now leaking onto the inter-web and therefore we see these added cast-members being known as additional ammo to sell the film to American moviegoers.
Ultimately, a film like “Tropic Thunder” can open at $26 million and perform anywhere from three to five times its opening number. Five times its opening would surpass $130 million and would not surprise me, although such a great opening weekend multiplier is rare, for a film with this many talking points at the end of summer, it is plausible.
In other box office news, it was a good weekend for the 2nd largest grossing film in domestic box office history – “The Dark Knight” which raised its domestic total by $16 million to $471.1 million surpassing “Star Wars” and finding its place behind “Titanic” at $601 million. (”Titanic” will remain the #1 film in box office history for the time-being.)
1. “Tropic Thunder,” Paramount, $25,812,796, 3,319 locations, $7,777 average, $36,845,588, one week.
2. “The Dark Knight,” Warner Bros., $16,379,293, 3,590 locations, $4,562 average, $471,082,150, five weeks.
3. “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” Warner Bros., $14,611,273, 3,452 locations, $4,233 average, $14,611,273, one week.
4. “Mirrors,” Fox, $11,161,074, 2,664 locations, $4,190 average, $11,161,074, one week.
5. “Pineapple Express,” Sony, $9,808,295, 3,072 locations, $3,193 average, $62,740,789, two weeks.
6. “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” Universal, $8,205,720, 3,363 locations, $2,440 average, $86,245,775, three weeks.
7. “Mamma Mia!”, Universal, $6,096,250, 2,771 locations, $2,200 average, $116,013,715, five weeks.
8. “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2,” Warner Bros., $5,785,250, 2,714 locations, $2,132 average, $32,002,712, two weeks.
9. “Step Brothers,” Sony, $4,807,904, 2,648 locations, $1,816 average, $90,695,938, four weeks.
10. “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” MGM, $3,755,575, 692 locations, $5,427 average, $3,755,575, one week.
11. “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” Warner Bros., $3,348,341, 1,405 locations, $2,383 average, $88,002,999, six weeks.
12. “Fly Me to the Moon,” Summit, $1,900,523, 452 locations, $4,205 average, $1,900,523, one week.
13. “WALL-E,” Disney, $1,836,332, 1,403 locations, $1,309 average, $214,129,943, eight weeks.
14. “Hancock,” Sony, $1,720,241, 1,277 locations, $1,347 average, $225,022,587, seven weeks.
15. “Swing Vote,” Disney, $1,137,385, 1,281 locations, $888 average, $14,687,549, three weeks.
16. “Henry Poole Is Here,” Overture Films, $805,219, 527 locations, $1,528 average, $805,219, one week.
17. “Space Chimps,” Fox, $775,152, 768 locations, $1,009 average, $27,568,802, five weeks.
18. “Brideshead Revisited,” Miramax, $740,030, 501 locations, $1,477 average, $4,650,150, four weeks.
19. “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” Universal, $541,150, 481 locations, $1,125 average, $74,616,780, six weeks.
20. “Bottle Shock,” Freestyle Releasing, $392,440, 117 locations, $3,354 average, $837,155, two weeks.
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