The Weekend Report: July 26, 2009

The rodents of G-Force proved to be mighty mites as they usurped King Potter for the box office crown with an estimated $32.2 million. Two other film debuts figured near the top of the charts. The template rom-com The Ugly Truth ranked third with $27.3 million and the generic chiller The Orphan followed in the order with $12.7 million.

The session was also rife with specialty and niche fare that included a raucous bow of $178,000 from eight venues for the black comic In the Loop. The spy spoof sequel OSS 117: Rio ne repond plus generated an okay $102,000 in Quebec and Shrink, another off-kilter comedy, had an encouraging $16,300 bow from two screens. However the latest Bollywood entry Luck rolled snake eyes with $78,200 from 42 exposures.

Overall sales took another dip and no one’s betting the bank that upcoming releases such as Funny People, G.I. Joe or Julie & Julia will effect a reversal of fortune for the current season.

While the 3-D family-oriented G-Force opened near its expected box office potency, pundits expected a less precipitous drop for Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Prince. The sixth chapter of the franchise expects to slow the erosion next week when it goes wide on Imax screens (it’s currently in just four large-format venues) but it’s going to be a hard slog pushing toward a $300 million domestic gross.

Also opening to anticipated strength were The Ugly Truth and The Orphan and the prospects through Labor Day aren’t strong for a surprise or sleeper success among the lineup. Weekend box office should slightly exceed $150 million that translates into a 7% dip from seven days earlier and a 17% erosion from 2008. One year back the second weekend of The Dark Knight led with $75.1 million and the $30.9 million debut of Step Brothers followed.

The session featured a couple of notable platform entries working hard to attain a national presence. The fifth weekend of The Hurt Locker roughly doubled its exposure to 238 locations and maintained a sturdy $5,710 average. Still there’s no evidence that the film is shedding its image as a serious, specialized Iraq War meditation; or that audiences are being drawn to a potential Oscar contender and that could make its glass ceiling in the neighborhood of $10 million.

There’s better crossover potential for the dreamy romance (500) Days of Summer that expanded from 27 to 85 sites and saw its screen average dip about one-third of its opening salvo. Word-of-mouth is strong and the thirst for an upbeat, enjoyable idyll remains commercially unquenchable.

A third platformer -- the satiric In the Loop -- posted strong per screens but bowed simultaneously as a pay-per-view title. To date pictures that have used that strategy have optimized at about a $4 million box office level and regardless of the break-even threshold, it's hard to imagine a movie that can break out of the current mold.

- Leonard Klady