Box-Office Benjamin$: Bruno Ist #1

Just have to start off saying that Bruno’s baby O.J., is probably the cutest baby ever. Look at him. So adorable. Anyway, as I predicted, Bruno was #1 at the box-office this weekend by taking in a solid $30.6 million. For you nit-pickers, yes I was off by about $12 million in my predictions, but I did accurately choose the the order of box-office postings. I didn’t write a review from Bruno because that review would take so long to dissect and I didn’t have the time, I will say that I absolutely loved it and thought it was great. I nearly peed my pants with shocking laughter, so in a quick review I’ll give it an A-, as the story is not as good as Borat.

Borat opened with just over $26 million in 2006 and ended up making a very impressive $128 million domestic total for Universal Studios. So you’d think, that with a $30 million opening weekend, Bruno would be well on its way to beating it right? Well maybe not. It’s very unusual for a film to drop significantly from Friday to Saturday during it’s opening weekend. It usually goes up since most people don’t work Saturday. Well Bruno was not so fortunate by dropping from a $14 million Friday to an $8 million Saturday. That’s nearly a 50% drop, that like I said, is very unusual. This obviously means that the film suffered from a massive negative word-of-mouth effect. This would most-likely be because of the outrageously pervasive sexual and offensive content including fire extinguisher sex, a penis hole  that shouts “Bruno!!” and a black baby nailed to a cross like Jesus.  But, you know, what the heck did people expect? It’s Sacha Baron Cohen. It’s rated-R for pervasive strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language. And it’s not just mindless hilariously awkward gay sex (although at times it is). It’s a critique on America’s still-present nonacceptance of gay people: ranging from uncomfortable to downright hate. It’s the same fashion of Borat, except Borat exposed America’s nonacceptance of “Arabs:” ranging from uncomfortable to downright hate.

So only time will tell how to see if Bruno has legs, but these statistical drops at the box-office sure don’t help. The parents who weren’t able to get a babysitter to see Bruno, helped Ice Age 3 come in 2nd with a solid $28.5 million, bringing its 12-day domestic total to just over $120 million. Michael Bay’s Transformers 2 continues to rake in the money, coming in third with an impressive $24.2 million, bringing its massive total to $342 million domestically, $711 million worldwide, just passing Lord of the Rings: Two Towers on the all-time chart. That’s pretty damn impressive considering nearly everyone I’ve talked to unfairly hated it. Entertainment writers are calling it, “the most successful bad movie of all-time.” Whatever.

Oooooo. Do you hear that? It’s Potter and Co. coming to massacre the box-office. Harry Potter is back after over a two-year hiatus and it’s gonna be big. Not only does Harry Potter have one of the largest and most intense fan-bases on the planet, but this particular installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has received almost flawless reviews, being hailed as “the best Potter film yet.”

The Harry Potter film franchise has made over $4.5 billion total combined. This latest film was supposed to be released this past November, but Warner Bros President Alan Horn pushed it back to July of 2009 because of the uncertainty of the Watchmen legal battle between WB and Fox. So needless to say the Potter fan’s anticipation is at it’s boiling point and the wait is going to pay-off for Warner Bros. HP and the HPB opens Tuesday at midnight and over the following five days, it’s going to dominate with repeat viewings. I predict that HP and the HPB will obviously be #1 at the box-office this weekend, with a five-day total of $210 million. That will shatter the five-day record held by my precious Dark Knight ($203 million), set last summer. This record was recently threatened by Transformers 2, but came up short with just $201 million over five days just a couple weeks ago. This is a very reluctant prediction as I would like for TDK‘s record to stand for as long as possible.

Ice Age 3 will come in second with a solid $22 million in its third weekend. Bruno will tie with Transformers 2 by both taking in $18 million. I’ve been pretty terrible at predictions so far, but I’m gonna keep at it cuz it’s fun! Challenge?

Here’s a breakdown of the rest of the Top 5 at the Box-Office this weekend.

1) Bruno $30.4 million
2) Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs $28.5 million
3) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen $24.2 million
4) Public Enemies $14.1 million
5) The Proposal $10.5 million

What Do You Think? Discuss.