With a budget of $200 million and a huge spend on marketing, Warner was hoping Green Lantern would come roaring out of the gate in the US, and tracking last week suggested it was likely to see an opening weekend close to $60 million. However, due to a drop-off in attendance on Saturday, it ended up with only $52.6 million, which many will see as a disappointment. That’s lower the the other summer superhero contenders so far, Thor and X-Men: First Class.
However while many will already be calling the movie a flop, many schools are already out in the US, meaning weekeday grosses will now be important. And there’s something else we need to take into account – the international box office. While the US is always used as a bellweather of how a movie is doing, with the big movies it’s not being as good an indicator as it used to be. The most notable case of that this year is Pirates Of The Carribbean: On Stranger Tides, which has so far taken $220 million in the US. That’s been seen as pretty weak, considering the film cost more than that to make, and the movie has pretty much zero chance of passing the $300 million US gross mark that all the other Pirates movies crossed there.
However, if you look outside the States, the film has taken an enormous $731 million, which last week made it the biggest international earner in Disney history, taking more than the likes of Alice In Wonderland around the world (as long as we ignore North America). Despite the weak US showing, On Stranger Tides should now join the elite band of movies to gross a billion worldwide. By next week it will have outdone At World’s End globally and by the end of its run should give Dead Man’s Chest’s $1.06 billion a run for its money. It’s been a huge success – just not in the US.
The same has been true of several other movies this year. Thor has been seen as weak for only taking $176 million in America (which admittedly is less than a lot of other supehero movies), but globally has passed $435 million – a very respectable total. Likewise Kung Fu Panda 2 caused a lot of hand-wring and a drop in the Dreamworks Animation share price when it opened weakly in the US. Its gross there now stands at $143 million there – pretty low for a CGI sequel to a hit – but it is already over $400 million globally, and it hasn’t even opened everywhere yet.
So Green Lantern doesn’t need to panic yet. International grosses could well pull things back, especially as while sales for 3D screenings have been weak in the US (dropping from about 65% of a movie’s tickets last year to around 45% this year), elsewhere they’re still bouying up the box office massively.
The only other entry in the US top 10 was Mr. Popper’s Penguins, which was undoubtedly a flop, coming in behind the second weekend of Super 8 and taking only $18.2 million. Jim Carrey used to be able to knock this sort of film out of the park, but it seems his drawing power has waned and that perhaps penguins, while cute, are only a draw in CG animated movies.
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 (estimated) for the weekend of June 17th-19th.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Green Lantern | $52.6 | $52.6 |
| 2 | Super 8 | $21.2 | $72.7 |
| 3 | Mr. Popper’s Penguins | $18.2 | $18.2 |
| 4 | X-Men: First Class | $11.5 | $119.9 |
| 5 | The Hangover Part II | $9.6 | $232.6 |
| 6 | Kung Fu Panda 2 | $8.7 | $143.3 |
| 7 | Bridesmaids | $7.7 | $136.8 |
| 8 | Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | $6.2 | $220.3 |
| 9 | Midnight In Paris | $5.2 | $21.7 |
| 10 | Judy Moody And The NOT Bummer Summer | $2.2 | $11.1 |