Weekend Box-Office: August 3-5, 2012

And still The Dark Knight Rises!

Batman is triumphant at the box office for his third straight weekend as THE DARK KNIGHT RISES again takes the #1 spot with another $36.4 million.

The Olympics still seem to be biting into attention that might otherwise be spent in theaters, and while RISES ultimately may not quite reach the heights of THE DARK KNIGHT’s $533M domestic total, it collected more than enough to keep director Len Wiseman’s slick remake of TOTAL RECALL away from the top.

Colin Farrell’s PG-13 sci-fi mindjob only managed a $26 million debut (and some apathetic critical and audience response). The Arnie-free version of the Philip K. Dick story will have to make some hefty bank internationally to get near its official $125M budget (unofficially reported as high as $200M).

The weekend’s other new release, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS, came in third with $14.7 million. The third movie in the series adapted from the popular books made a fair bit less than the openings of the original DIARY OF A WIMPY KID and its sequel, which started with $22.1M and $23.7M respectively. Both of those movies did have the benefit of opening in March, away from big blockbuster material (although the second movie opened against SUCKER PUNCH and still won the weekend).

After the top 3, things drop to the single millions as ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT again comes in ahead of last week’s new but ill-fated Ben Stiller/Vince Vaughn reunion THE WATCH.

But one of the summer’s surprise champions is a cuddly bear with a foul mouth, Seth MacFarlane’s TED.

The R-rated comedy crossed the $200 million mark this weekend, making it star Mark Wahlberg’s biggest movie. And it’s holding place on the chart better than some movies that opened after it, including THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, STEP UP REVOLUTION and SAVAGES. And as it opens internationally, TED is even beating THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in some locations and has pulled in another $77M from overseas audiences — and it hasn’t even opened in all major territories yet. (Between TED and my drastic overestimation of ROCK OF AGES’ performance, my chances in the JoBlo.com staff summer box office prediction contest are pretty much killed…)

Wes Anderson’s MOONRISE KINGDOM makes a rare non-showing this week, but the movie has made over $40M in its nearly three months of release. The indie darling BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD is slowly expanding, but Matthew McConaughey’s KILLER JOE and the Andy Samberg/Rashida Jones romcom CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER had the weekend’s strongest per-screen averages in their limited releases.

Next weekend brings in Jeremy Renner as the latest rogue agent in THE BOURNE LEGACY, Will Ferrell and Zack Galifianakis compete for office in the comedy THE CAMPAIGN, Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep spice up their romance in HOPE SPRINGS, and random stunts are attempted in NITRO CIRCUS: THE MOVIE 3D. What did you think about the new TOTAL RECALL? VOTE HERE!