Weekend Box-Office: August 10-12, 2012

Bourne for glory!

This weekend, audiences were eager to find out if Jeremy Renner would be an acceptable successor to Matt Damon (or they just got bamboozled by the film’s title), putting THE BOURNE LEGACY at the top of the box office with $40.2 million.

Renner’s first outing as Aaron Cross, another secret government operative gone rogue, scored some decent reviews but didn’t approach the openings of the last two movies wearing the Bourne alias — THE BOURNE SUPREMACY started out with $52.5M in 2004, and THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM hit $69.3M in 2007 (THE BOURNE IDENTITY opened in 2002 with $27.1M, but went on to collect $121M domestically and was a huge home video hit). However, with a gigantic gang of action stars competing next week in THE EXPENDABLES 2, THE BOURNE LEGACY could have a tough time getting back to its reported $125M budget.

The new political comedy THE CAMPAIGN got voted into second place with $27.4 million. That’s a bit lower than Will Ferrell’s last couple of comedic team-ups (THE OTHER GUYS – $35.5M, STEP BROTHERS – $30.9M). But the R-rated election showdown between Ferrell and Zack Galifianakis was enough to hold back the Batman, as THE DARK KNIGHT RISES slides to third place with $19.5M, ending its #1 box office reign in its fourth weekend.

Still, director Christopher Nolan’s trilogy-ender is all but guaranteed to surpass THE HUNGER GAMES’ $407.2M domestic total to become 2012’s second-biggest movie (behind THE AVENGERS’ whopping $617.2M), and RISES has an impressive $768.5M global total.

Speaking of totals, director Len Wiseman’s update of TOTAL RECALL dropped like Colin Farrell plunging through the middle of the planet (the few of you who’ve seen the movie will get the reference). The new CGI-amped version of Philip K. Dick’s story fell nearly 70% from its opening last weekend, bringing in just $8.1 million (for a $44.1M total). Not only does that put it behind the Tommy Lee Jones/Meryl Streep romantic comedy HOPE SPRINGS (which has made $20M since it opened Wednesday), but also the considerably less FX-filled DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS in its second weekend.

But if you thought overpriced flops like TOTAL RECALL 2012 (rumors have pegged the cost as high as $200M) might make Hollywood reconsider remaking other popular genre material from the 80s and 90s, well… Fear not! The list of remakes still in the works includes ROBOCOP, EVIL DEAD, HIGHLANDER, PET SEMATARY, THE CROW, POINT BREAK, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, STARSHIP TROOPERS, WARGAMES, ROMANCING THE STONE, and so on and so on…

The other movies on the chart are just scraping up a few million, although ICE AGE: CONTIENENTAL DRIFT has collected a nearly DARK KNIGHT RISES-sized worldwide total of $764.5M, while TED is hitting the $300M mark for a global haul. Outside the Top 10, the new stunt-loaded NITRO CIRCUS: THE MOVIE 3D crashed with a lower per-screen average than Pixar’s BRAVE in its eighth week of release.

Next weekend delivers the previously mentioned machismo overdose THE EXPENDABLES 2, plus the animated family monster movie PARANORMAN, the live-action Disney fantasy THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN (on Wednesday), and the late Whitney Houston’s musical drama SPARKLE.

What did you think about THE BOURNE LEGACY? VOTE HERE!