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The Bourne Legacy Lives On at the Box Office

Despite the absence of Jason Bourne himself, Jeremy Renner and the franchise name was enough to attract theater patrons and finally bump The Dark Knight Rises from the top spot after a three-week reign. The Bourne Legacy pulled in an estimated $40.3 million this weekend, which is understandably down from the $52.3 million and $69.3 million starts of The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum respectively, though up from the $27.1 M first weekend of The Bourne Identity. All things considered, this is a great start. “Legacy” was able to pull ahead thanks to the good will built up from the original trilogy as well as the rising star power of Jeremy Renner, whose back-to-back Oscar nods and starring roles in smashes Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and The Avengers has put him well on the A-list. Although Renner is now looking like a hot property, the 41-year-old was untested in anchoring a project by himself before “Legacy.” Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, which hits next January (he plays Hansel), will prove once and for all if people will pay to see him specifically on the big screen. Also starting well in second, election comedy The Campaign starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis grossed $27.4 million, which though down from the debuts of Ferrell’s other recent summer comedies (The Other Guys, Step Brothers) is the best opening ever for both a political satire and a film focused on an election. The Top 10 1. The Bourne Legacy - $40.3M (weekend)…$40.3M (gross) 2. The Campaign - $27.4M…$27.4M 3. The Dark Knight Rises - $19.5M…$390.1M 4. Hope Springs - $15.6M…$20.1M 5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days - $8.2M…$30.6M 6. Total Recall - $8.1M…$44.2M 7. Ice Age: Continental Drift - $6.8M…$144.1M 8. Ted - $3.3M…$209.9M 9. Step Up Revolution - $2.8M…$30.2M 10. The Amazing Spider-Man - $2.2M…$255.5M After three weeks atop the North American box office, The Dark Knight Rises dipped to third with $19.5 million and a total haul of $390.1 million (good enough for number 15 on the all time domestic charts. Worldwide, the behemoth has now amassed a massive $835.5 million with more to come. Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones then followed with the dramedy Hope Springs, which leaped off the starting pad with $15.6 million and $20.1 million since its Wednesday debut. That’s in line with the three-day starts of It’s Complicated ($22.1 M) and Julie & Julia ($21 M) among Streep projects and should see great legs in the coming weeks with older audiences. After missing the number one spot last week, Total Recall spiralled out of control plummeting 68 percent to $8.1 million (down from $25.6 million). Very poor world of mouth coupled with direct competition meant bad things for the blockbuster. Ironically, this is identical to the drop of 2011’s Conan the Barbarian, meaning that if you remake a Schwarzenegger movie, you’re in for some pain. Next weekend, four more movies are added to the marketplace beginning with The Odd Life of Timothy Green, which gets a head start on its competitors with a mid-week launch in 2,500 theaters. Then on Friday action sequel The Expendables 2, stop-motion family film ParaNorman and Motown musical Sparkle all go nationwide. Expect one or two of these newcomers to get lost in the shuffle.  

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