Reject Update: $70 Million Opening for Bourne
Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 5, 2007
We’re going to make a long story short this week. The Bourne Ultimatum made $70 million dollars. Seventy million smackeroos for Matt Damon. I should have known. Instead of predicting big things, I went bearish again in my predictions. But this flick outperformed even the most optimistic estimates.
Underdog, meanwhile, underperformed at $12 million. As for last week’s champ, The Simpsons Movie dropped 66%. 66%!!! That’s a big drop, folks, for this movie. It seems typical of Hollywood these days, though. One week you open big; the next, you drop like a rock. Maybe it’s because nobody wants to pay again to see what you could get on TV for free.
As for Underdog, well, it’s dog performance speaks for itself. Never attempt a live-action remake of a cartoon show, folks– it is always bound to backfire. (The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo etc.) I hear that coming soon to a theater near you might be a live-action version of The Jetsons. You heard me right. This is another disaster waiting to happen, just as this Alvin and the Chipmunks movie they have cooked up is a disaster waiting to happen.
Flopping completely this weekend was Hot Rod and BRATZ. Meanwhile the Jennifer Lopez-Marc Anthony flick El Cantante was twelfth at $3.2 million in spite of being shown in only 500 theaters.
The list, courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
| Release | Studio | Estimated Gross |
| The Bourne Ultimatum | Universal | $70,181,000 |
| The Simpsons Movie | Fox | $25,600,000 |
| Underdog | Disney | $12,009,000 |
| I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry | Universal | $10,500,000 |
| Hairspray | New Line | $9,325,000 |
| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | Warner Bros. | $9,285,000 |
| No Reservations | Warner Bros. | $6,570,000 |
| Transformers | Paramount / Dreamworks | $5,950,000 |
| Hot Rod | Paramount | $5,015,000 |
| Bratz | Lionsgate | $4,310,000 |
The end of the summer movie season is clearly in sight— rats. See you again Friday.
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