The following comes courtesy of India.com...this is what happens when you hire a director with a rapper's name who promises a gritty R-rated masterpiece and delivers a teen-friendly Transformers-clone. Hey "McG," maybe if you'd made a film for adults, some adults might have actually gone to see it!
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Terminator Salvation not only got bad reviews but poor word of mouth pretty much sent it to its doom at the US box office.
After taking in $13.37 million on Thursday, including Wednesday
midnight showings, Terminator Salvation was unable to hold down Night
at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
The comedy took an estimated $15.3 million while Terminator followed
with $14.9 million. Many box-office prognosticators expected a tight
battle between the two films at the top of the list and even a few
predicted Museum to come in first, and with numbers like this it is
hard to think a dark brooding sci-fi will beat a family comedy over the
rest of this holiday weekend.
The first Night at the Museum opened with only $30 million and that
was before going on to earn over $574 million worldwide so there is no
telling how high Battle of the Smithsonian will go with a three-day
weekend that is likely to hit around $60+ million.
As for Terminator Salvation, it now sits at an estimated $28
million, including Thursday, will also hit in the $60 million range for
the three-day making for a very tight race, but it may not live up to
Warner Bros. studio expectations.
However, Warner Bros. can be happy it will certainly take home more
than the $44 million opening weekend of Terminator 3: Rise of the
Machines. I would expect the final four-day (five-day for Terminator)
grosses to end in the $70 millions for both films, lower end, if not
high $60s for Terminator, and mid-$70s for Museum.
Between the two films Terminator has a better per-theater average as
it was released in 3,530 theaters giving it a $4,205 per theater
average while Museum opened in 4,096 theaters to the tune of $3,735 per
theater.
Terminator Salvation has got 34% and Museum 43% at rottentomatoes.com.
1. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - $15.3 million
2. Terminator Salvation - $14.9 million
3. Angels & Demons - $6.0 million
4. Star Trek - $5.7 million
5. Dance Flick - $3.9 million
6. X-Men Origins: Wolverine - $2.1 million
7. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past - $1.1 million
8. Obsessed - $575,000
9. Monsters vs. Aliens - $280,000
10. 17 Again - $270,000