Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno tops the weekend box office grosses, according to BoxOfficeGuru.com. The lewd, crude comedy sold an estimated $30.4 million in tickets, better than Cohen's Borat, but there's a catch before he begins celebrating.
Borat opened to $26.4 million in 2006, on nearly one-third fewer screens (and with slightly lower ticket prices). Cohen's breakout hit had legs, though, expanding to more theaters and winding up with $128.5 million in domestic revenues.
Bruno has already opened as wide as it will. Given the usual weekly dropoff in ticket prices -- 35 percent lower is still considered a successful encore -- it'll be tough for Bruno to match its predecessor's total.
Bruno didn't exactly dominate the weekend race. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs placed second with $28.5 million. Beating a second-week movie by less than $2 million in the summertime takes a bit of glitter off Bruno's victory. And with the Harry Potter flick opening Wednesday, it won't become a winning streak like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
Steve Persall is the movie critic for the St. Petersburg Times. He was conceived behind a drive-in movie theater his father operated and raised in projection booths and concession stands. He doesn't care how you did it up north.
Sorry, Douglas. Slip of the tongue. (Oops, did it again.)
Posted by: Steve Persall | July 13, 2009 at 07:30 AM
There's just something inherently wrong about saying Bruno "opened wide". Just saying...
Posted by: Douglas Arthur | July 12, 2009 at 09:14 PM