Bruno Struggles, But Wins the Weekend

Published by Jeff Leins on July 13, 2009

Sacha Baron Cohen’s new mockumentary Brüno struggled at the box office over the weekend, but still managed to earn $30.4 million and first place.

The R-rated comedy started strong on Friday, pulling $1.6 million from midnight shows and $14.4 million from the day’s returns, but started falling immediately the next day. Brüno slipped 39% on Saturday, the eighth largest drop for an opening title.  On Sunday, it took another 18% hit and placed third in the daily estimates. Despite the sharp decline, the movie held on to the top spot for the weekend. (Overseas it performed better than expected with $25M.)

Cohen’s other comedy, Borat, opened in a third (837) of Bruno’s locations (2,756) to $26.5 million in 2006.  The gay fashionista will need to have fabulous legs to match Borat’s $128.5 million ($261.6M worldwide).

Experts attribute the slide to poor word-of-mouth.  The critical consensus was favorable (69% on RottenTomatoes), but the community scored it lower (60%) and its CinemaScore was a disappointing “C.”  56% of audiences getting eyefuls of male genitalia were men.

In close second was last weekend’s big opener Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, scoring another $28.5 million in its second Friday-Sunday.  It crossed the $100 million mark to $120M domestically ($327.1M worldwide).

Fox may have a hit with the 3-D animated cartoon, but its new teen comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper was a failure at $5 million.  Chris Columbus may have directed two Harry Potters, but he didn’t fare so well with “Heroes” star Hayden Panettiere.  Looks like she won’t be headlining any more movies anytime soon.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was in third with another $24.2 million.  The sequel from Michael Bay has a domestic total of $339 million and worldwide cumulative of $703.7 million.

3-Day weekend estimates:
1. Brüno $30.4 million
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs $28.5 million
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen $24.2 million
4. Public Enemies $14.1 million
5. The Proposal $10.5 million
6. The Hangover $9.9 million
7. I Love You, Beth Cooper $5 million
8. Up $4.7 million
9. My Sister’s Keeper $4.2 million
10. >The Taking of Pelham 123 $1.6 million