Captain America knocks down Harry Potter

After breaking all kinds of box office records last week, it only took an American icon to end Harry Potter’s spell over the box office as the latest comic book movie of the summer Captain America: The First Avenger starring Chris Evans opened to a big $65 million. That was on par with Thor’s opening from earlier this summer, and the fact that the film is actually quite good (I gave massively entertaining film a “A-” grade) should help it have legs in the weeks ahead. It also towered over the opening for X Men: First Class which has been a modest hit this summer and The Green Lantern which tanked…. Now, back to Harry. Despite falling into second, the last Potter film still took in a strong $47 million for a huge $273 million easily on its way to being the highest grossing film of the series…. The other news at the movies this weekend was the opening of the Justin Timberlake/Mila Kunis comedy Friends with Benefits which took in a decent $18.6 million, just a hair behind the $19 mil that the similarly themed (and much less funny) No Strings Attached grossed in January when it opened. We’ll see how Friends holds up as the smart and hilarious romantic comedy Crazy Stupid Love hits theatres this weekend… For all your box office news, head to Box Office Mojo here and check out the new top ten below.

TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count / Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week #
1 N Captain America: The First Avenger Par. $65,058,524 – 3,715 – $17,512 $65,058,524 $140 1
2 1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 WB $47,422,212 -72.0% 4,375 – $10,839 $273,539,281 – 2
3 N Friends with Benefits SGem $18,622,150 – 2,926 – $6,364 $18,622,150 $35 1
4 2 Transformers: Dark of the Moon P/DW $12,051,735 -43.5% 3,375 -542 $3,571 $325,841,185 $195 4
5 3 Horrible Bosses WB (NL) $11,884,319 -33.1% 3,104 -30 $3,829 $82,566,703 $35 3
6 4 Zookeeper Sony $8,702,055 -29.4% 3,215 -267 $2,707 $59,206,255 $80 3
7 5 Cars 2 BV $5,655,857 -32.7% 2,668 -581 $2,120 $176,375,295 $200 5
8 6 Winnie the Pooh BV $5,162,046 -34.3% 2,405 – $2,146 $17,594,297 $30 2
9 7 Bad Teacher Sony $2,610,925 -49.3% 2,034 -625 $1,284 $94,365,688 $20 5
10 10 Midnight in Paris SPC $1,804,662 -3.8% 621 -85 $2,906 $44,783,206 $30 10

Two Times the Timberlake

Grammy winning pop star turned A-List actor Justin Timberlake (The Social Network) is about to take over your summer. The Emmy winning performer (Saturday Night Live) has 2 big summer comedies headed your way and both have the makings of big hits. First hitting theatres is Bad Teacher which features Cameron Diaz as the titular character in what looks like her funniest performance in ages. Timberlake shows up as a new teacher who sparks her interest and possibly helps her turn around her bad behavior. I’m betting this wacky comedy could be the big surprise hit of the summer when it hits theatres on June 24th… A month later Justin returns to the silver screen in his first romantic comedy opposite recent Golden Globe nominee Mila Kunis (Black Swan) in Friends with Benefits. Ok, sure, the film looks and sounds a whole lot like the recent Natalie Portman/Ashton Kucther movie No Strings Attached. But, I say there’s one big difference. This one actually looks funny. Plus, it gives us JT’s first big sex scene so swoon away people. You can check that one out on July 22nd…. Now, I wanna hear which one you’re more excited about. Watch trailers for both films below and enjoy two times the Timberlake!

Bad Teacher trailer

Friends With Benefits trailer

The Rite rules another Weak Weekend

It was another lackluster weekend at the box office that saw two films open to middling results continuing the downward trend at the movies for 3 months now. Opening in first was Anthony Hopkins new thriller The Rite with $ 15 million while Jason Statham’s latest action film, The Mechanic, landed in 3rd with $11.5 million. With no new blockbusters hitting theatres, last week’s chart topper No Strings Attached held well only dropping 30% and several films got some nice box office boosts due to their Oscar nominations, most notably The King’s Speech, Blue Valentine, True Grit and 127 Hours. Take a look at the new top ten below and for all your chart needs, head to Box Office Mojo here.

TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count / Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week #
1 N The Rite WB (NL) $15,005,000 – 2,985 – $5,027 $15,005,000 $37 1
2 1 No Strings Attached Par. $13,650,000 -30.5% 3,022 +4 $4,517 $39,742,000 $25 2
3 N The Mechanic CBS $11,500,000 – 2,703 – $4,255 $11,500,000 – 1
4 2 The Green Hornet Sony $11,500,000 -34.9% 3,524 -60 $3,263 $78,800,000 $120 3
5 4 The King’s Speech Wein. $11,102,000 +41.3% 2,557 +877 $4,342 $72,217,000 $15 10
6 5 True Grit Par. $7,600,000 +3.7% 3,120 -344 $2,436 $148,388,000 $38 6
7 3 The Dilemma Uni. $5,476,000 -39.9% 2,901 -42 $1,888 $40,634,000 $70 3
8 6 Black Swan FoxS $5,100,000 -13.1% 2,315 -92 $2,203 $90,704,000 $13 9
9 8 The Fighter Par. $4,055,000 -2.6% 1,914 -361 $2,119 $78,373,000 $25 8
10 9 Yogi Bear WB $3,165,000 -17.1% 2,133 -377 $1,484 $92,507,000 $80 7

Natalie Portman, What were you Thinking?

Oh, dear, Natalie Portman what is going on in your pretty little head? You’re about to win a bunch of critics awards, grab Golden Globe and Oscar nominations and likely fight in an Oscar death-match for the statue with Annette Bening due to your fierce and amazing performance in the psychological thriller Black Swan. You are the toast of Hollywood, the critics love you and you’ve made good on the promise of your previously Oscar nomm’d and Globe winning performance in Closer…. So, why oh why do you have two dreadful movies and one potentially really bad film on the way? Sure, they are all commercial, but you can’t tell me the scripts for the upcoming romantic comedy No Strings Attached and the juvenile comedy Your Highness really seemed that good. Can you? If so, I sure hope they’re better than the terrible trailers for both films co-starring box office poison Ashton Kutcher (Strings) and comedy dim bulb Danny McBride (Highness). I’ll at least give you some slack for Highness because it stars soon to be Oscar nomm’d James Franco (but we all know he makes lots of wacky decisions~ hello General Hospital)…. AS for the upcoming tent pole action pic Thor, I have to think you are just getting a giant paycheck and that your agents pushed you into that one. Or maybe you just wanted to have fun doing a comic book picture with a ridiculously hot Australian (Chris Hemsworth) and Hannibal Lecter (Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins). Whatever the case, the trailer for that one looks pretty underwhelming too…. So, Natalie, please let me know just what you were thinking and help me understand these choices… And hopefully, all the pics will be better than their first trailers. Take a look at all three pics heading your way in 2011 and watch Natalie all over the awards circuit this winter for her current film Black Swan.

No Strings Attached (opens 1/21/11)

Your Highness (opens 4/8/11)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx_zo5CCURs

Thor (opens 5/6/11)