I nearly did a spit take when I read G-Force beat Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the box office this weekend. Seriously? Then again, I guess I shouldn’t underestimate the power of a kid movie – even one about Special Ops guinea pigs – to be an alternative activity on a hot summer day. Personally, though, given the choices of new movies this weekend, I’d have seen Half-Blood Prince again.
Here’s the top five at the box office this weekend:
1. NEW! G-Force (Buena Vista) – $32.1 mil; 3,697 theaters; $8,697 PT
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner Bros.) – $30 mil; 4,325 theaters; $6,936 PT; $221.8 mil cume
3. NEW! The Ugly Truth (Sony) – $27 mil; 2,882 theaters; $9,368 PT
4. NEW! Orphan (Warner Bros.) $12.7 mil; 2,750 theaters; $4,644 PT
5. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Fox) – $8.2 mil; 3,300 theaters; $2,485 PT; $171.2 mil cume
Newcomers The Ugly Truth and Orphan also managed to snag a few coins, but overall the box office was down, which makes sense since summer is nearly at its end, as far as big action blockbusters go. The only thing left is G.I. Joe, which opens Aug. 7.
This coming weekend we’ve got another kid flick Aliens in the Attic, with Ashley Tisdale fighting mini-E.T.s, and another horror film The Collector. But my bet is on the Judd Apatow/Adam Sandler collaboration Funny People, which will most likely win, if not win big.