Tagged: Prince Caspian

Indy posts $100+ million debut!

There are some Orlando vacations in the futures of all the folks involved in making Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The three-day total for Indy 4′s first weekend of release has reached an impressive $101 million domestically. With a Thrusday debut and a Memorial Day Monday added in, the film is set to make big bucks by the end of tonight.

With Monday total not yet in, Spielberg-Lucas-Ford action flick has so far grosses $126 million domestically and $146 million overseas, for a grand total of over $272 million combined; not bad for a movie that had a production budget of $185 million.

Prince Caspian, the second film in the Narnia Chronicles, based on the series of children’s stories by C.S. Lewis, did well enough to retain second place, but at $23 million, saw a huge, 58-percent dropoff from its debut week. Boasting a production budget of $200 million, Prince Caspian’s two-week total is $96 million domestically, and $22 million overseas, for a disappointing two-week total of only $118 million. This could make it difficult for the sequel to make its money back prior to DVD release.

That’s not a problem for Iron Man, which held on to the third spot in the box office race with an additional $20 million domestically. In release not for over three weeks, Iron man has taken in $257 million domestically and $228 million oveseas, for a staggering total of just inter $486 million; considering the film’s relatively slim $140 million budget, Iron Man stands now shoulder-to-shoulder with Spider-Man as one of Marvel Studios’ most profitable franchises.

What Happens in Vegas made just over $9 million in fourth place and then there was a huge dropoff as Speed Racer couldn’t even draw $4 million to take fifth place. Speed Races has only barely topped $36 million, contrasted to its $120 million budget, guaranteeing its stink-bomb status in this summer movie season; even with foreign box office added in, the film has barely made half of its investment back, at $61 million, and with business dropping like a rock, the best hope for producers to make their money back on Speed Racer is DVD/Blu-Ray sales.

This coming weekend is likely to be the least competitive of May, as Sex and the City and the thriller The Strangers are the only two new entries; both flicks seem unlikely to unseat Indy 4, and depending on the dynamics of the weekend, could potentially have trouble unseating Prince Caspian and Iron Man from the Top 3 spots as well.

Narnia roars, but Iron Man still strong

Anyone with decent bathroom lighting can see that The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian has the goods to burst to a powerful debut in the weekend box office, but some folks weren’t sure the film would best the ultra-powerful Iron Man, now in its third week of release.

The good news for Hollywood is that Prince Caspian did beat out Iron Man to get a rock-solid grip on first place, but Iron Man did quite well, too, for its third week of release. Estimates are that Prince Caspian debuted at $56.5 million for first place, while Iron Man showed good staying power by taknig in an additional $31.2 million, bringing its domestic take to $222.4 million, and a startling $378.5 million combined between domestic and foreign box office totals.

Bouyed by good word of mouth, What Happens In Vegas took third place with a $13.8 million weekend, and the stink-bomb that is Speed Racer sank to a depressing fourth-place in its second week of release, luring in only $7.6 million. Speed Racer has a huge $120 million budget and thus far hasn’t even topped $30 million. As Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog might say, Speed Racer is a very warm, exciting movie… for me to poop on! (Apologies to Triumph creator Robert Smigel and Conan O’Brien.)