Last weekend it was clear that Dark Shadows would be fed into the woodchipper that was The Avengers, completely lost in the continuing hype of the year's biggest movie. When The Avengers made $103 million last weekend and Dark Shadows made $29 million, it didn't even seem like a fair fight. This weekend's biggest new release is Battleship, which stands at least a slightly better chance, but it's still looking like The Avengers's weekend to lose.
According to pre-release audience surveys and sources at The LA Times, The Avengers is poised to be #1 again this weekend with about $50 million, basically on the rule that you make half of what you did opening weekend the second weekend, then half of that the third weekend, etc. Battleship is poised to come in not far behind with $40 million, a pitiful fraction of an Avengers or Transformers opening, but about on par with how Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows opened last year, and at least better than John Carter, which had a $30 million opening weekend in March. That's good news for Taylor Kitsch, who starred in both films, and the better news is that Battleship has already made $215 million overseas, recouping its reported production budget of $209 million.
The weekend's other new releases, The Dictator and What To Expect When You're Expecting, are likely to perform about the same, with $20 million projected for each. The Dictator brought in $4.2 million from its Wednesday opening, which puts it on track for an opening even lower than Bruno's, which made $30 million when it opened in 2009. The Dictator is getting much better reviews, though, which should help it hang in there a bit longer.
Let us know in the comments what you're seeing this weekend, and we'll have the official box office numbers updated for you throughout the weekend.
