While
Men in Black 3 will definitely take the #1 spot from
Marvel's The Avengers this weekend,
Deadline now reports that the threequel opened with $18 million yesterday and is expected to take only $75 million in total for the four day holiday weekend. Analysts had previously predicted a final weekend domestic gross of $85 million - $100 million, but it is currently tracking lower than box office flops
John Carter and
Battleship in some international territories (according to rival studios that is). With a budget of between $230 million - $300 million, the pressure is on
Men in Black 3 to perform well this weekend, especially with
Snow White and the Huntsman and
Prometheus on the way. It's expected that the positive word of mouth surrounding the film will be a big help (be sure to check out my 4* review of
Men in Black 3 by clicking
HERE).
However, it's worth noting that this isn't the first time analysts have underestimated the performance of a film at the box office (
The Avengers wasn't expected to open anywhere near as well as it eventually did either). The studio also claim some very strong openings overseas, with a $3.5 million first day in Russia - that's bigger than the Marvel Studios superhero ensemble. A Sony exec tells the site,
"All around the world, the feeling is there is a big family audience which will be coming out over the weekend. While Western Europe continues to work to overcome some beautiful weather, we have the benefit of a holiday on Monday in various markets which should help boost our Sunday results there. Give us sometime to breathe here and wait for the kids to come out. Today will be good but Sat-Sun-Mon great."
STARRING:
Will Smith as Agent J
Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K
Josh Brolin as Young Agent K
Rip Torn as Chief Zed
Emma Thompson as Agent O
Alice Eve as Young Agent O
Nicole Scherzinger as Lilly
Bill Hader as Andy Warhol
RELEASE DATE: May 25th, 2012.