Men in Black 3 raked in $55 million over the three-day weekend with a $70 million four-day total, falling short of Sony’s hopes for a $75 million to $80 million four-day box office. While US grosses fell short of expectations the movie was fueled by strong outings in Russia and Asia. MIB3 ended with a $132 million take in 106 markets, reaching No. 1 in 104 of those markets.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that the Memorial Day box office is down 32 percent from the same period in 2011 when The Hangover II and Kung Fu Panda 2 both debuted.
The soft opening for MIB III comes after action star Will Smith took a four year hiatus from the big screen, the action flick features Will Smith, Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones while MIB veteran Barry Sonnenfeld returned to direct.
While numbers were soft for the franchise Sony was quick to point out that Men in Black grossed $84.1 million over six-days in July 1997 while Men in Black II took in $87.2 million in July 2002 after five-days, numbers that should be passed or tied by MIB III over the next several days.
In the meantime Disney and Marvel Studios’ The Avengers managed to gross an estimated $37 million over the three-day weekend and $47.1 million over the four-day period. The Avengers is now on course to sell $1.3 billion in tickets.
Finishing in fifth place was the Chernobyl Diaries a horror flick that drew criticism from the families of chernobyl victims, the movie earned just $8 million over its three day opening and $9.4 million over the four-day period after receiving a rather pathetic D+ CinemaScore.
