MONDAY AM UPDATE: Here is the tentative summer total through today's holiday -- $4.12 billion, compared to Hollywood's best-ever $4.16 billion for summer 2007 or just 1.3% behind. The summer box office may have run up near-record numbers, but it crawled to a close this Labor Day weekend with some very uneven films. After 20th Century Fox's Vin Diesel sci-fi starrer Babylon A.D. (3,390 theaters) opened No. 1 Friday with a narrow margin of victory, holdover DreamWorks/Paramount's moviemaking spoof 
Tropic Thunder (3,473) finished the 3-day weekend and 4-day holiday on top for the third straight week. The Ben Stiller comedy made $3 million Friday and $4.2 million Saturday for an $11.5M weekend and $14.3M holiday for a $86.6M cume. No. 2 Babylon A.D. took in $3.1M Friday and $3.3M Saturday for a $9.5M weekend and $12M holiday. Coming in 3rd place was Warner Bros' The Dark Knight (2,750) which on Sunday will pass the $500 million mark domestically in record time. It's already the second-highest grossing pic of all time behind only Titanic's $600.8 million domestically. It took the latest Batman installment only 6 weeks and 3 days, whereas it took Titanic 13 weeks, to hit $500M. Don Cheadle's star turn in Overture's political thriller Traitor (2,054) stirred some interest when it debuted Wednesday to $792K from 2,054 venues, but managed to come in only 5th on Friday. Lionsgate's ill-timed and badly done spoof Disaster Movie (2,642), savaged by New Orleans film critics for opening on the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, managed only 7th place. Element/MGM's imbecilic R-rated laffer College (2,123) was roundly rejected for only a 15th place opening Friday. And Focus Features' well-cast laugher Hamlet 2 (1,597) opened Wednesday with a disappointing $245K in 1,530 theaters and managed just No. 17th Friday. Meanwhile, Universal released its Mamma Mia! sing-along prints at 299 out of a total 1,968 theaters across the country, and they delivered 20% of the total gross for the 3-day weekend.
Top 10 Movies -- Fri & Sat Totals, 3-Day Wkd Rankings, 4-Day Holiday Ests:
1. Tropic Thunder (DWorks/Paramount), $3M Fri, $4.2M Sat, $11.5M wkd, $14.2 holiday
2. Babylon A.D. (20th Century Fox), $3.1M Fri, $3.3M Sat, $9.7M wkd, $12M holiday
3. The Dark Knight (Warner Bros), $2.1M Fri, $3.2M Sat, $8.6M wkd, $11M holiday
4. The House Bunny (Sony), $2.5M Fri, $3M Sat, $8.3M wkd, $10.2M holiday
5. Traitor (Overture), $2.2M Fri, $2.9M Sat, $7.8M wkd, $10M holiday
6. Death Race (Universal), $1.7M Fri, $2.3M Sat, $6.2M wkd, $8.1M holiday
7. Disaster Movie (Lionsgate), $2M Fri, $2.1M Sat, $5.7M wkd, $6.8M holiday
8. Mamma Mia! (Universal), $1.1M Fri, $1.6M Sat, $4.3M wkd, $5.7M holiday
9. Pineapple Express (Sony) $960K Fri, $1.2M Sat, $3.5M wkd, $4.5M holiday
10. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Weinstein/MGM), $735K Fri, $1.1M Sat, $2.8M wkd, $3.5M holiday
15. College (Element/MGM), $707K Fri, $717K Sat, $2.1M wkd, $2.6M holiday
18. Hamlet 2 (Focus), $511K Fri, $615K Sat, $1.6M wkd, $2.1M holiday
It is HILARIOUS that Fox is reporting $3.09 million for Babylon A.D.’s Friday against Tropic Thunder’s $3 million. Is there a soul who believes ANYTHING from Fox? Could it be more obvious that they’re lying? This padding to be number one is a joke. Desperation! Serves them right for their TV news division trying to destroy this country.
Comment by KirkLazarus — August 30, 2008 @ 9:42 am
Hoping DARK KNIGHT stays out long enough to finally beat TITANIC.
Comment by MARK11 — August 30, 2008 @ 9:59 am
I saw Babylon AD last night…ugh.
I was shocked at how bad the storytelling and editing were done.
The premise had such promise, but the director and editor turned it into a pathetic series of poorly joined action skits.
Comment by Fuddlebunk — August 30, 2008 @ 12:11 pm
some props for VCB (vicky cristina barcelona) it’s doing great. it dropped only 11%, ranked 10th on friday (went up 3 spots) and had the best per screen average of any movie in the top 10. on 692 screens.
Comment by tom — August 30, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
Anyone know if Warners intends to keep
The Dark Knight in theatres long enough to
beat Titanic?
That could happen by the middle of October,
I would guess.
Comment by The Dude — August 30, 2008 @ 12:51 pm
Finally, people are seeing “Disaster Movie” for what it really is (and even though “Dark Knight” is in its seventh week, the fact that it’s trouncing DM is a blessed testament to moviegoers’ taste). Friedberg and Seltzer deserve to be thrown out of Hollywood for fostering these crappy “parodies” on us.
Comment by Matt C — August 30, 2008 @ 1:28 pm
So happy for Tropic Thunder. What a great movie. But i have to admit, the competition seriously stinks.
Comment by Ben — August 30, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
Nikki,
Can you shut up about the Katrine/Disaster Movie BS? Stop giving them the publicity. If anything, you should only mention that waste of celluloid in a footnote that champions America for not giving it a double digit opening.
And, boy did Hamley 2 flop or what? I live in Tucson and watched the movie in an EMPTY theatre last night. So sad that they couldn’t put people in the seats in the city that the film is set in. They didn’t get a single bit of press on local TV and they refused to send any media materials/set up any cast/crew interviews with TucsonFilmmaker.com. It’s a great movie, but they deserve the lack of box-office they get since they didn’t market it worth a crap.
Comment by Phillip — August 30, 2008 @ 3:25 pm
hey “the dude”…. dark knight can’t beat titanic.. it can’t make another 100 million. it’s dropping 30-40 percent every week. even if warner’s forced theaters to keep it (which they can’t) it’s impossible. the best comparison would be with last year’s bourne movie. it was near the end of it’s run like dark knight and on the labor day weekend took in 13 million hitting the 200 mark. dark knight will do less this weekend and hit 500. for the rest of it’s run bourne took 27 more million and that’s it. dark knight no matter how good it is… is still dropping every week. the fall will see a lot of less weekday money and weekends are smaller. sorry… can’t happen. but it’s still a good movie if that makes you feel better.
Comment by tom — August 30, 2008 @ 6:08 pm
Tom — thanks for that.
I have no personal stake in TDK beating Titanic.
Just curious about whether it’s possible.
I agree it’s a good movie.
Comment by The Dude — August 30, 2008 @ 9:37 pm
Beating Titanic takes much more than just leaving it in theatres longer. It has had great legs, but there just aren’t enough people still seeing it for it to make 100 million.
Just think about it, what’s the most a movie has ended up making AFTER having a 10 million dollar weekend? To reach 600 it would have to have NO drop at all and repeat that ten million dollars per weekend for ten weeks. Never gonna happen.
The best thing it probably has going at this point is imax numbers, which will probably stay pretty good for a while, as people get around to seeing it that second time in imax. But that won’t be 100M worth.
Comment by milo — August 31, 2008 @ 5:58 am
Just wanted to bring this up. Saw COLLEGE last night (don’t make fun of my taste–I know) and they sold me a ticket for Babylon AD…I only noticed it when the teenagers walking into the actual theater were talking about the same thing to each other… Could this be box office manipulation??? BTW, it was a MAJOR theater outside Philly.
Comment by realworldperson — August 31, 2008 @ 8:52 am
Just a thought:
Perhaps they leave TDK in theaters for another month or two (anybody think of anything that can satisfy the overwhelming action + contemplative niche in the near future?), then, hopefully, WB will give a good Oscar push rerelease.
Naturally, the second time around won’t create the same stir as it did in its initial release, but given those receipts combined with its slow petering-out from this run, it might have enough to push it over $600?
Maybe? Hopefully?
Titanic’s release was an anomaly, actually GATHERING steam and maintaining a militantly loyal teenage-girl fanbase, but I don’t think anyone would shed a tear to have TDK holding tight to the highest grossing record.
Granted, I haven’t considered what the DVD release will do to any Oscar season receipts for Dark Knight. We should all consider that, also, that when Titanic was released, the DVD market was just emerging, and the VHS market had a much longer wait-period for releases, as opposed to the current standard 4-5 month wait. After a quick glance on IMDB, I couldn’t find a dvd release date prior to August 1999, almost two full years after the initial theatrical release. That’s two full years to keep them coming back for more, whereas today, BO can be cut off at the ankles by dvd. Just a thought.
Comment by Rabble, Rabble. — August 31, 2008 @ 10:07 am
The Dark Knight will pass $600M in January when it’s re-released for Oscar season.
It’s going to get nominated for Best Picture. It’s a lock now that it passed $500M.
Comment by Phil — August 31, 2008 @ 10:44 am
I just looked at the figures - the only above average weeks since May were the opening of Indiana Jones, opening of Wall-E and of course opening for Dark Knight. If it doesn’t end up being a so-so year overall, it will be because prices went up ( again) and because of three movies - Dark Knight, Ironman and Indiana Jones. Critically, I have read no critics who have universally liked anything yet, except for the mass-hysteria( read, greed ) on Dark Knight’s opening weekend. Another mediocre year, really.
Comment by moraliste — August 31, 2008 @ 11:00 am
realwordperson, I think there’s a strong possibility that ticket manipulation happens in theaters. I’ve heard too many accounts of that kind of thing not to think there may be some truth to it. It’d be a great topic for some journalist to investigate.
Comment by robinson — August 31, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
TDK is not really in the same league as Titanic which makes its ascent to the top rather disappointing. Titanic gathered steam because it was so good and people had to see it. TDK got all its hype from Heath Ledger’s death…where he gives the only good performance for a superhero movie. I have a feeling they will pull TDK soon because that’s just hot they do now, movies aren’t allowed to grow as much, it’s rare to see this again 10 years later.
Comment by Anon — August 31, 2008 @ 1:00 pm
jeez will you fanboys stop it with dark knight. even if it does manage to eke out 600M here it’s still WAY behind titanic worldwide. yes, it’s one of the better movies - certainly comicbook movies - in a long time, but it doesn’t justify the hysteria on these pages
Comment by Anonymous — August 31, 2008 @ 2:10 pm
Wouldn’t $600 million from TDK be slightly hollow considering ticket prices have gone up sigificantly since Titanic. I prefer inflation adjusted lists for comparison. Of course DVD’s and the internet have changed the movie industry quite a bit so that there can never be true comparisons.
Comment by Twist — August 31, 2008 @ 2:32 pm
No surprise BABYLON AD bombed considering Vin Diesel was in diva mode throughout the production (that’s when he even bothered to show up). Even the director has called it a turd because he never got to do a single scene of the movie the way he wanted. Too many wannabe cooks in the kitchen…
So much for TROPIC THUNDER being a bomb. So much for the “outrage” over the humor.
The real reason DISASTER MOVIE bombed is because it “stars” Carmen Electra. I mean, Americans are a stupid people but they’re not that fucking stupid.
No surprise TRAITOR isn’t doing great business. Don Cheadle may be a good actor but he’s not a star and never will be. GOLDEN PALACE anyone?
Comment by Crystal Diane Stevens — August 31, 2008 @ 4:04 pm
“The Dark Knight will pass $600M in January when it’s re-released for Oscar season.
It’s going to get nominated for Best Picture.”
I’m not sure which of those two statements is more laughable?
” It’s a lock now that it passed $500M.”
What’s a lock? That it will get 600? Or that it will get an Oscar nomination because of BO? Ridiculous.
Comment by milo — September 1, 2008 @ 7:33 am
“[TDK is] going to get nominated for Best Picture.”
Everyone knows Best Picture rarely goes to either the best, or most popular movie. It goes to whatever prestige pic the Academy thinks best represents the stuck-up way they view themselves.
Case in point: “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” over “Nashville” and “Jaws”.
Another: “Shakespeare in Love” over “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Thin Red Line”.
It would be an exception if TDK was nominated. A supernatural occurrence if it won.
Comment by Alexander — September 1, 2008 @ 12:50 pm
I saw Hamlet 2 over the weekend. 15 people in the theatre. Fun little movie it was.
Too bad the studio didn’t do more to promote it than a free give away of “Rock Me Sexy Jesus” ringtones. If they spent 1/4 of the promotional budget that Disaster Movie did, I’d be surprised. Shows what happens when marketing pin heads don’t get behind good product.
Comment by The Joker Smiles — September 2, 2008 @ 2:32 am
When they were making Babylone AD i think they were trying really hard to combine the Fifth Element and Minority Report with Vin Diesel starring as himself
Comment by movie junkie — September 2, 2008 @ 3:33 am
So it looks like Tropic Thunder will be comfortably in the black. So much for trying to spin it as a flop, NIkki. And the controversy (did it even really exist on the “racial” side?) probably helped instead of hurting it.
And I’ll probably take some heat for this, but Shakespeare in Love is a MUCH better movie than the vastly overrated Saving Private Ryan. I guess people were so blown away by the amazing opening battle that they didn’t notice that the rest of the movie pretty much sucked, awful corny dialogue, and weak performances.
Comment by milo — September 2, 2008 @ 6:56 am
totally enjoyed coming upon this blog - it’s truly a thread to read more of!
Comment by Trading Options — October 11, 2008 @ 8:49 am