'Bourne Ultimatum' Accepted
by Brandon Gray
August 5, 2007
Though the camera work is shaky as ever, Jason Bourne remained steady in his third outing, delivering the best initial grosses of the series.
The Bourne Ultimatum commanded an estimated $70.2 million on approximately 5,200 screens at 3,660 theaters, driven by the good will and intrigue that its predecessors generated and a marketing campaign that promised a thrilling closure.
Handily topping the weekend,
The Bourne Ultimatum logged the highest-grossing opening for a spy thriller and for an August release, ahead of
Rush Hour 2's $67.4 million. Although, adjusted for ticket price inflation,
Rush Hour 2 is still the champ as its start would equal nearly $80 million today.
The previous picture,
The Bourne Supremacy, opened to $52.5 million and closed with $176.2 million, while the original,
The Bourne Identity, started with $27.1 million and ended with $121.7 million.
The Bourne Ultimatum's production budget bulked up to well over $100 million, compared to $75 million for
Supremacy and $60 million for
Identity.
Bourne distributor Universal Pictures' Saturday night exit polling indicated that 96 percent of
The Bourne Ultimatum's audience had previously seen
The Bourne Identity and 94 percent
The Bourne Supremacy. Furthermore, it suggested that moviegoers generally liked
Ultimatum better than
Supremacy with a 66 percent "excellent" rating for
Ultimatum versus a 44 percent "excellent" for
Supremacy when it opened.
Nationwide holdovers dropped a steep 53 percent on average, compared to the low 40 percent range of recent weekends.
Hairspray had the smallest dip and it was still down 41 percent. It scored an estimated $9.3 million for $79 million in 17 days and could become one of the ten most attended musicals of the past 30 years.
Last weekend's leader, The Simpsons Movie, collapsed by 65 percent to an estimated $25.6 million, though it became the highest-grossing animated television adaptation with $128.6 million in ten days. A massive fall was expected for the cartoon feature as its first weekend alone exhausted the fan base, posting greater viewership than an average first run episode of the series.
After spending weeks as one of the best holding wide releases,
Live Free or Die Hard plummeted 61 percent to an estimated $2.2 million. The action sequel took a big hit in its theater and screen counts, leading to a 55 percent drop in the number of showings. Its 40-day haul is $130.2 million.
Closer to their established ranges, the market's current biggest blockbusters,
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and
Transformers, were down about 48 percent apiece.
Order of the Phoenix leads its predecessors through the same point, while
Transformers remains in the running to surpass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End as the third-biggest grosser of the summer.
Aside from
The Bourne Ultimatum, new releases were soft. Disney's
Underdog landed with an estimated $12 million at 3,013 sites, which was middle of the pack among dog movies and below par for a talking animal picture. Much worse were the comedies
Hot Rod and
BRATZ with openings of an estimated $5 million and $4.3 million, respectively.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2364&p=.htm
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