Summit Entertainment, Sony PicturesGuess vampires are mortal, too.
The lure of a new New Moon trailer didn't hook much business for Vanessa Hudgens' Bandslam, which despite good reviews debuted with just $2.3 million at the weekend box office, per estimates, and failed to finish in the Top 10. Or even the Top 12.
District 9, meanwhile, had a fantastic start, with the $30 million Peter Jackson-produced alien flick grossing $37 million and handily topping the likes of G.I. Joe.
As for Bandslam, its bad weekend probably started on Thursday. When the New Moon trailer was leaked online.
It's believed the widespread leak cut into Bandslam ticket sales. Considerably. The promise of the trailer had been central to the Bandslam marketing campaign.
To Exhibitor Relations box-office analyst Jeff Bock, relying on trailers to help sell tickets is an increasingly dicey strategy.
"Whether or not you attach an exclusive trailer onto a film," Bock said in an email today, "it will be available online for download practically minutes after it debuts."
If not a day before it debuts.
More from the weekend that was:
• Not to rub it in, but Bandslam only made about a thousand bucks off each of its 2,121 screens. The guitar-hero documentary It Might Get Loud, by comparison, made $14,440 off each of its seven screens.
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra picked up another $22.5 million, moved its domestic total to $98.8 million—and needed to make a mere $75 million more or so to match its reputed budget.
• For the record, G.I. Joe's No. 1 finish last weekend wasn't as big as originally estimated: The film ended up with $54.7 million, $1.5 million lighter than anticipated.
• On Friday night, The Time Traveler's Wife outgrossed G.I. Joe. Now the Eric Bana-Rachel McAdams romantic drama is estimated to finish third for the weekend, behind District 9 and G.I. Joe, with $19.2 million.
• Julie & Julia fell from second to fourth but held well with $12.4 million. The $40 million movie has now hit $43.7 million domestically.
• Should Katherine Heigl be keeping score, The Ugly Truth ($4.5 million) has outlasted Judd Apatow's Funny People in the Top 10—four weekends and counting to two weekends and out. The $38 million Heigl comedy has outgrossed the $75 million Apatow comedy: $77.5 million to $47.9 million.
• The Jeremy Piven-Ed Helms comedy The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard debuted in sixth, with a Fired Up-esque $5.4 million.
• In its 11th weekend, The Hangover lost 500 screens and made more money than Bandslam: $2.1 million.
• Worldwide, the animated Ponyo is already a hit. Here, its $3.5 million debut was, theater for theater, less spirited when compared to director Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
Here's a complete look at the weekend's top-grossing films based on Friday-Sunday estimates as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
- District 9, $37 million
- G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, $22.5 million
- The Time Traveler's Wife, $19.2 million
- Julie & Julia, $12.4 million
- G-Force, $6.9 million
- The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, $5.4 million
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, $5.2 million
- The Ugly Truth, $4.5 million
- Ponyo, $3.5 million
- (500) Days of Summer, $3 million
(Originally published Aug. 16, 2009, at 9:07 a.m. PT)