"Superbad" surpasses forecast

22/08/2007 01:28

By Gregg Kilday

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Superbad" is more of a box office superhero than originally thought. The raunchy comedy about a couple of horny teens earned $33.05 million (16.68 million pounds) during its first weekend in theatres, according to final data issued Monday -- almost $2 million higher than the estimated tally published the day before.

Ticket sales for the Sony Pictures release slipped just 2% from Saturday to Sunday; the usual drop is 20% or more. The studio cited the Sunday performance as a testament to "fantastic word-of-mouth."

Starring relative unknowns Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, "Superbad" pulled in an A-minus rating from the youthful audience surveyed by tracking firm CinemaScore.

By contrast, the star power of Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig could do little to save the sci-fi thriller "The Invasion," which debuted at No. 5 with just $5.95 million. The Warner Bros. release had to settle for a C grade.

At least it did better than "The Last Legion," the weekend’s other new wide arrival. The Weinstein Co.’s twilight-of-the-Roman Empire auctioneer bowed at No. 12 with $2.75 million.

Still, the box office for the weekend remained buoyant. Incumbent champ "Rush Hour 3" fell a hefty 57% in its second round, grossing $21.35 million to .....continued below

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raise its 10-day domestic gross to $87.68 million -- still far off the totals of 1998’s "Rush Hour" ($141 million) and 2001’s "Rush Hour 2" ($226 million).

In its third weekend, "The Bourne Ultimatum" took in $19.87 million, finishing in third place and raising its domestic total to $164.69 million. It is just $11.4 million shy of the $176.1 million total for 2004’s "The Bourne Supremacy." ("The Bourne Identity" finished with $121.7 million in 2002.)

And in its fifth weekend, seventh-ranked "Hairspray" squeaked past the century mark as a three-day haul of $4.50 million took its total to $100.81 million.

As a result, the industry saw its sixth consecutive "up" weekend compared with the year-ago period. The 111 films tracked by The Hollywood Reporter grossed $130 million, up more than 17% over the $110.7 collected during the comparable weekend last year.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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