"Green Lantern"

"Green Lantern" falls short at box office
Sun Jun 19, 12:37 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The costly superhero movie "Green Lantern" flickered at the weekend box office in North America, while "Mr. Popper's Penguins" exceeded low-ball forecasts.

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, "Green Lantern" earned about $52.7 million -- at the lower end of expectations -- during its first three days of release across the United States and Canada.

The Warner Bros. 3-D release will need to make up ground overseas to recoup its reported $200 million production budget and its $125 million worldwide marketing tab. The studio said those numbers were too high, but declined to give its own figures.

Ideally, the picture would have opened to about $55 million, said Dan Fellman, the president of domestic theatrical distribution at the Time Warner Inc unit. But it was too early to get an accurate picture of its prospects, he added.

Critics mauled the picture, which stars Ryan Reynolds as an intergalactic space cop. The relatively obscure character originated in a DC Comics book, and is the latest superhero to invade theaters in recent weeks following "Thor" ($65 million opening) and a fifth "X-Men" movie ($55 million).

Somewhat ominously for the 3-D fad, just 45 percent of the "Green Lantern" haul came from engagements where moviegoers paid a premium for the extra dimension. Big movies usually do about 60 percent of their business in 3-D. But the novelty has faded in recent months as moviegoers question the merit of paying more for an experience often considered underwhelming. 3-D accounted for 55 percent of the opening tally for "Thor," and 46 percent for the latest "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequel.

CARREY COLLIDES WITH "CARS 2"

Jim Carrey's family comedy "Mr. Popper's Penguins" came in at No. 3 with $18.2 million, exceeding the diminished $10 million to $15 million expectations of its distributor, 20th Century Fox.

The News Corp unit was confident about the long-term prospects for its $55 million movie, citing strong exit polls. On the other hand "Penguins" has just a few more days to attract families before they all line up for Pixar Animation's "Cars 2" sequel beginning June 24.

The film, based on a 1938 children's book, stars Carrey as a divorced dad who reconnects with his children with the improbable help of a half-dozen penguins who run amok through his Manhattan apartment and across the city. Critics also gave it the thumbs down.

Carrey has not starred in a major hit since "Bruce Almighty" in 2003. His last live-action wide release, "Yes Man," also opened to about $18 million in 1998; the comedy finished up with $98 million domestically, but production costs alone were about $70 million.

Last weekend's champion, "Super 8," slipped to No. 2 with $21.3 million. The sci-fi mystery was distributed by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.

Fox's "X-Men: First Class" fell two places to No. 4 with $11.5 million, followed by Warner Bros.' "The Hangover: Part II" with $9.6 million, also down two places.

While summer is the most lucrative season for the studios, the influx of sequels and comic-book adaptations has not helped business recover from a sluggish start to the year. Ticket sales so far in 2011 stand at $4.6 billion, down 7.7 percent from the year-ago period. The drop would be even steeper without higher ticket prices since the number of tickets sold is down almost 12 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110619/...m/us_boxoffice

'Green Lantern' lights up the box office
Sun Jun 19, 3:05 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Superhero comic book adaptation "Green Lantern" was the box-office champion this weekend, with an estimated $52.6 million in North American ticket sales as it debuted at number one.

Canadian heart-throb Ryan Reynolds stars as superhero Hal Jordan and Blake Lively as love interest Carol Ferris in the $200 million live-action movie in which Green Lantern Corps warriors try to defeat supervillain Parallax.

One foe "Green Lantern" did defeat this weekend was "Super 8," which marked its second box office week with $21 million at the number two spot. The J.J. Abrams sci-fi thriller had debuted at number one last week.

"Mr. Popper's Penguins," starring comedian Jim Carrey, landed at number three in its first weekend and brought in $18 million.

In fourth place, "X-Men: First Class" spent its third week at the box office raking in $11.5 million. The Marvel comic superhero film has brought in almost $120 million domestically and more than $150 million internationally.

But so far this summer the highest grossing domestic release is "The Hangover: Part II," which refuses to let the party die. In its fourth week it took in an estimated $9.6 million, making its grand total $232 million.

On a global level "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," has hijacked ticket sales and grossed $220 million and $952 globally, which makes it the 11th biggest box office hit ever.

"Kung Fu Panda 2" kept up the fight by coming in at number six after four weeks, "Bridesmaids" walked down the aisle to the tune of number seven and Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" clocked in at number nine.

Rounding out the top 10 during its second week was "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer" with $2.2 million in estimated ticket sales.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110619...sfilmboxoffice


Went and saw this tonight - a little dark for the ten year old, the fifteen year old said the storyline was "light" .... but dam Reynold's looked good in the green suit !