“Dark Knight Rises” handily outpaced “Total Recall” with a $36.4 million three-day total and for the third consecutive weekend dominated the domestic box office.
The final entry in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy has now grossed $354.6 million in North America for Warner Bros. since its release on July 20. The weekend's grosses were swelled by $5.7 million from 132 Imax screens; it remains in 4,242 theaters overall.
With another $67 million coming in from the overseas box office this weekend, the worldwide overall gross for "Dark Knight Rises" is $733 million.
Also read: 'Dark Knight Rises,' 'Ted' Make Waves at Overseas Box Office
“We’re settling in,” Warner Bros. executive vice-president for distribution Jeff Goldstein told TheWrap Sunday, in reference to the impact of the Colorado shootings. “There’s no question that the everybody is still feeling the devastation from those events, and that includes the box office."
He was positive about the fact that “Dark Knight Rises” dropped just 41 percent in its third week compared with its second, a smaller decline than 43 percent that “Dark Knight” fell in its third week. The 2008 film had grossed $393 million after 17 days, roughly 10 percent better than “Dark Knight Rises” at the same point.
Goldstein remained confident that “Dark Knight Rises” will hit the billion-dollar mark worldwide. “We’re going to exceed it,” he said.
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Sony’s “Total Recall,” a remake of the 1990 sci-fi classic with Colin Farrell in the role made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger, will take in $26 million, in line with expectations for the thriller.
The audience for “Total Recall” was 58 percent male and 53 percent was over 30 years of age, and gave the film a “C+” CinemaScore.
Sony played the movie, produced by Toby Jaffe and Neil Moritz and directed by Len Wiseman (“Underworld”), in 3,601 locations. The action-heavy PG-13 film — the original was rated R — cost around $125 million to make and is the first of two big bets the studio is making on remakes of sci-fi classics. They’re rolling out a redo of “Robocop,” the 1987 hit starring Peter Weller, in August of next year.
No. 3 was the weekend's other wide-opener, Fox's PG-rated “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days." The third film in the franchise based on the Jeff Kinney books, took in $14.7 million from roughly 3,100 screens. Zachary Gordon and Steve Zahn returned to star in this film, which cost around $22 million to produce.
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The audience. which broke down 62 percent under 25 years of age and 58 percent female, gave the film an "A-" CinemaScore. That bodes well for it playing through the rest of the summer and matching the overall grosses of the first two films.
The original “Diary of Wimpy Kid” opened to $22 million and went on to make $64 million in 2010. Last year, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules” made $57 million after bowing to $23 million.
Fox had the fourth- and fifth-place finishers, too. "Ice Age: Continental Drift" upped its overall domestic gross to $131.8 million with an $8.4 million fourth week. The comedy "The Watch" made $6.3 million in its second week.
Universal’s “Ted” celebrated its sixth week in release by crossing the $200 million mark. Its $5.5 million weekend haul raised its overall domestic gross to $203.4 million.
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The great ratings NBC is getting on the Olympics, along with possible fallout from the Colorado shootings, appears to be taking a toll on the overall box office. If the estimates hold, the weekend will wind up about 25 percent down from the same time frame last year, when “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” drove the weekend with a $54 million opening.