X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which we will review on our podcast this week, kicked off the summer season in style from a business standpoint, racking up an impressive $87m opening weekend. It’s the second-best opening for an X-Men movie so far, only outdone by the third instalment, X-Men: The Last Stand. Note as well that the big box-office comes on the back of terrible buzz and bad reviews in the lead up to the release.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, which many hoped would rack up a tidy sum through counter-programming against Wolverine, took $15.3m to take up the second spot.
Obsessed, the surprise box-office topper of last week, took a drop of 57 per cent to gross $12.2m and a ten-day gross of $47m, noted to be over twice its overall budget.
17 Again dropped again to fourth, taking $6.3m in its third week of release to have only $48m total, surely a disappointment in light of the success which could have been expected with Zac Efron on board.
Monsters vs Aliens retained a top five place with $5.8m, taking its total to $185m since release.
Meanwhile, The Soloist, the somewhat disappointment from last week managed to hold up quite well, taking a further $5.6m with Disneynature’s Earth documentary and Fighting, the Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard-starring, well, fighting movie, following on with $4.2m apiece.
The Movie Overdose 