The interesting news this Monday isn't that "WALL-E" kicked metallic butt at the box-office -- $62.5 million at just under 4,000 theaters -- but that the R-rated "Wanted" (above) kept pace. The Angelina Jolie action orgasm made $51 million at 3,175 theaters, which means its per-theater-average ($16,100) was actually higher than the Pixar movie's ($15,656). Give the people what they want, and they'll turn up, especially the women; surprisingly, 52% of the audience for "Wanted" was female. And 22% of the audience for "WALL-E" were adults without children, so forget the cliches about Pixar attracting only family audiences.
It'll be interesting to see how these two fare in the coming weeks: "WALL-E" is getting a rapturous response from most moviegoers but I'm expecting a right-wing backlash against its eco-friendly message to kick in any day. Oh, wait, it already has.
The rest of the chart is the same old same old: "Kung Fu Panda" holding steady in its fourth week and closing in on $200 million total gross, "Get Smart" also hanging in there in its second week, "The Happening" and "The Love Guru" tailing off fast with 60-plus percent drops from the week before. So far the big dog of the summer isn't "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" ($299 million total) but "Iron Man" ($309 million). It'll be interesting to see what "The Dark Knight" does to the playing field when it arrives in a few weeks.
Here's the full chart, courtesy of Box Office Mojo, along with Leonard Klady at Movie City News.
