Box Office: GREEN LANTERN Number 1 With $52.6 Million

As predicted Warner Brother’s Green Lantern topped the weekend box office with a less than impressive $52.6 million. Now you are probably asking yourself how that much money for an opening weekend is not considered impressive. However, Green Lantern is a $200 million film that is going to be hard pressed to make those dollars back. Compared to other films which have opened this summer, Green Lantern should have opened much higher. Unlike Thor and X-Men: First Class, GL has a well known star with Ryan Reynolds, who may not be a box office champion, but the name recognition is definitely there.

As we reported yesterday Green Lantern had a Friday opening of $21.6 million. In comparison Marvel’s Thor opened with $66 million back in May and X-Men: First Class had a $55 million opening earlier this month. X-Men: First Class did not bring in the kind of box office numbers the previous X-Men films have achieved, but First Class was well reviewed. You can’t have it all can you? Green Lantern is certified rotten according to Rotten Tomatoes where the film is tracking at 25%.

So what does this mean for the future of Green Lantern? I would expect a significant decline in next weekends box office numbers as word of mouth will spread that this film is a dud. How did the rest of the weekend box office end up?

Last weekends number one film Super 8 held on strong with $21.2 million in weekend number two. That brings J.J Abrams’ latest film to a total of $72.7 million. For a film with a budget of only $50 million, those are good numbers.

The other new wide release this weekend belonged to Jim Carrey’s new children’s movie Mr. Popper’s Penguins which debuted at $18.2 million. This is a low opening for Carrey who’s film is even based on a popular children’s book.

Rounding out the top five were X-Men: First Class (#4) which added another $11.5 million to its box office run. That gives the Marvel mutants a total of $119.9 million and counting. The Hangover Part II took the fifth spot with $9.6 million. After 4 weeks in release The Wolfpack have grossed $232 million which stands as the summers top movie so far.

1. Green Lantern – $52.68m
2. Super 8 – $21.25m – $72.78m
3. Mr. Popper’s Penguins - $18.2m
4. X-Men: First Class – $11.5m – $119.92m
5. The Hangover Part II - $9.63m – $232.67m
6. Kung Fu Panda 2 – $8.7m – $143.34m
7. Bridesmaids - $7.48m – $136.84m
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – $6.2m – $220.3m
9. Midnight in Paris – $5.23m – $21.79m
10. Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer – $2.24m – $11.16m

Box Office reports via Box Office Mojo