Weekend Box Office Results for July 24–26, 2009

Weekend Box Office Results for July 24–26, 2009

The three new films did better than expected, but that surplus was eaten up by unexpectedly steep declines for Potter, Ice Age and Bruno. Net result: the aggregate was about as expected.

For the second week in a row this year's offerings were not up to the challenge of taking on last year's summer champ, the Dark Knight.

The box office has hit a summer slump. Through week 20, this year was running an incredible 20% ahead of last year. Reality has seeped into the results, however, and the cumulative increase over last year has steadily eroded down to 7%.

While this week's shit-storm of bad movies got distributed to every theater in the known universe, the little engine that could was again 500 Days of Summer, which was in only 85 theaters despite a spectacular 8.5 at IMDb and an impressive 88% positive reviews. (And that included some ecstatic raves.) Despite the mini-distribution, it once again made the top twelve in total gross. It took in about $20,000 per theater. Among films in ten or more theaters, it finished first in average gross per theater, and won that category by so much that it took in more than twice as much as the second place finisher!