Battleship Chokes During Opening Weekend As ‘The Avengers’ Continues Strong


Here’s a horrible idea, take a Hasbro Entertainment game and have Universal Studios produce a film about that board game while keeping the name “Battleship” even though the movie really has nothing to do with the original battleship strategy premise. Movie fans agreed that the premise for the movie Battleship was a horrible idea this weekend when the $209 million film managed to rake in just $25.3 million.

Directed by Peter Berg the movie has managed to fare better in international markets for a total gross of $226.8 million, a number that places the movie still firmly in the red after a massive international ad spend.

Even with a cast of well known names that includes Taylor Kitsch, Rihanna, Brooklyn Decker and Liam Neeson movie and music fans turned the movie into the second John Carter of 2012. Carter also starred Taylor Kitsch and earned just $71.8 million with a production budget of $200.6 million.

Speaking of Battleship’s opening weekend Universal president of domestic distribution Nikki Rocco said:

“It is obviously a disappointment, but we will move on. And we have Memorial Day coming up. The studio has a picture that already has a quarter of a billion dollars in the bank, and it won’t die at $25.3 million domestically. We all know that.”

In the meantime Disney and Marvel Studios’ are having a heyday with The Avengers which plowed through the competition for another No. 1 weekend with an additional $55.1 million for a domestic take of $457.1 million and a total haul of $1.18 billion. The Avengers is now the fourth highest grossing movie of all time.

Coming in behind The Avengers and Battleship was Dictator which closed with a five day take of $24.5 million and a three-day box office total of $17.4 million. Dictator cost $65 million to produce. The movie was ultimately hurt in red states where conservatives avoided the flick. The Sacha Baron Cohen flick however earned $30.3 million internationally and will likely turn a profit in the coming weeks.

In fourth place was the Johnny Depp/Tim Burton flick Dark Shadows which brought in $12.8 million for a total of $50.9 million to date.

Rounding out the top 5 was What to Expect When You’re Expecting which grossed $10.5 million on its opening weekend.

Here is a list of the Top 10 movies from this weekend:


1. The Avengers – $55.1 million

2. Battleship- $25.3 million.

3. The Dictator – $17.4 million

4. Dark Shadows – $12.8 million

5. What to Expect When You’re Expecting – $10.5 million.

6. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – $3.3 million

7. The Hunger Games – $3 million

8. Think Like a Man – $2.7 million

9. The Lucky One – $1.8 million

10. The Pirates! Band of Misfits – $1.5 million

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