Although G.I. Joe was plagued by negativity for months before its release, fans came out in droves to see the Real American Heroes on the big screen. The Rise of Cobra grossed an estimated $56.2M achieving the 4^th largest August opening in history. The debut fell short of my $58M target, but as I said in my predictions column, I led with my heart on this one, not with my head. Here’s a list of the top 5 August openings.

 

Paramount declined to screen the film for critics basically due to the critical annihilation of their earlier summer blockbuster, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Fallen raked it in at the box office ($393.7M and counting) despite the terrible reviews, prompting Paramount to consider showing Joe to critics pointless. The reviews have been pouring in since the opening and have been for the most part very bad. The truth is that Joe is an awesome action movie (read my review here) and that most critics have decided to pan it because their egos were bruised because the film wasn’t screened for them. Audience members clearly have a different take on the movie as it scored a B+ Cinemascore and an A- from audience members 18 and under. G.I. Joe will probably fight its way to $150M+ by the end of the battle but will win new fans on DVD and cable and rake in a ton of money from merchandising making a sequel a no-brainer.

Meryl Streep’s latest, Julie & Julia, co-starring Amy Adams cooked up a solid debut in second place, taking in $20.1M, very close to my $18M forecast. The film has received rave reviews and will continue to play well to its target audience of women over the rest of the summer. It was a wise move counterprogramming Streep against the testosterone laced G.I. Joe, a move that worked brilliantly last summer as well when Mamma Mia! opened opposite The Dark Knight and grossed $27.8M. Julie & Julia should find its way to about $85M by the end of its run.

The final new release of the weekend was A Perfect Getaway starring Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich as a couple on their honeymoon who meet up with some psychos or something to that affect. The film was roundly ignored by audiences and managed a 7^th place opening with a paltry $5.8M debut, right on with my $6M prediction. A Perfect Getaway will be lucky to slash its way to $15M before it disappears.

Among holdovers, last weekend’s champ, Funny People starring Adam Sandler, continued to disappoint at the box office. The latest from director/writer Judd Apatow tumbled an alarming 65%, taking in only $7.9M for the frame. This was even lower that the 60% drop I anticipated. To see how the rest of my predictions fared, check out the chart below.

Come back Thursday for my latest predictions column, where I will assess the box office chances of District 9, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, Ponyo and Bandslam.

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