Weekend Box Office Update

It wasn't much of a surprise that Men in Black 3 took the top spot away from The Avengers this week. However, its opening weekend wasn't a runaway success. Expected to open in the $80 million dollar range, Men in Black 3 only earned $55 million.

It was good enough to earn first place, but surprisingly low for the holiday weekend. Is The Avengers stealing ticket sales or was there not enough interest in a third Men in Black film? It probably was a little of both. Don't forget that both films will add a decent amount to their total gross on Monday, due to everyone being off work for the holiday.

The Avengers took second place and have brought its domestic total to $513 million. In terms of where it stands on the unadjusted domestic record, The Avengers is set to pass The Dark Knight this coming week, but is still behind Titanic and Avatar. It's likely that there's is too much competition in the coming weeks for The Avengers to take the top spot, but we'll see how long Disney decides to keep it in theaters.

Chernobyl Diaries took the sixth spot with a weekend gross of $8 million. This isn't terrible given the fact that it was a completely original low-budget film with no major actors and low theater count. However, we doubt word of mouth is going to help this film in the following weeks and Warner Bros. will likely be disappointed in the final numbers.

Next week's big opening is Snow White and the Huntsman. Here are the top 10 box office results for this weekend:

1. Men in Black 3 - $55,000,000
2. The Avengers - $36,987,000
3. Battleship - $10,800,000
4. The Dictator - $9,600,000
5. Dark Shadows - $8,000,000
6. Chernobyl Diaries - $7,515,000
7. What to Expect When You’re Expecting - $7,150,000
8. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - $6,350,000
9. The Hunger Games - $2,750,000
10. Think Like A Man - $1,400,000