The Dark Knight Rises easily took the top spot in the domestic box office for the third straight weekend. The film is down only 41%…earning an estimated $36 million.
Two new films hit the market this weekend, Total Recall and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days. One of the movies was supposed to be real competitive with The Dark Knight Rises. Despite being heavily marketed, the Sci-Fi action thriller Total Recall, proved to be no match for the caped vigilante. Total Recall reportedly cost $150 million to make, and only made $9.1 million in its opening night. The film ended up in second place for the weekend with $26 million over all.
According to Sony, the audience was 58% male and 53% over 30 and with a C+ CinemaScore the studio can’t expect word-of-mouth to help drive ticket sales. Total Recall didn’t perform any better overseas where it opened in 12 Asian markets and earned only $6.2 million.
Recall also didn’t survive the assault from critics either; “Since the new ‘Recall’ is totally witless, don’t expect laughs. Originality and coherence are also notably MIA,” Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote. “This ‘Total Recall’ will make you feel robbed as well. It’s two hours you’ll never get back and every minute is a bad memory.”
Total Recall wasn’t the only failure at the box office this weekend, Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days only made $14.7 million, that’s significantly lower that the $20 million the previous two installments made in 2008 and 2010.
Perhaps the London Olympics and the residue from the Aurora movie theater shootings are the cause for the weak ticket sales this weekend.
