Box Office

CHICAGO – “The Bourne Legacy” may have under-performed a bit but the Jeremy Renner “side-quel” to the Matt Damon series brought in enough cash to push “The Dark Knight Rises” from the top spot at the box office while Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis had a strong debut with the political comedy “The Campaign.” Finally, “Hope Springs” had a reasonable opening although the story here is more likely to be in the coming weeks as films with older-skewing audiences usually hang around the top ten much longer.

CHICAGO – “The Dark Knight Rises” held the top spot at the domestic box office for the third straight week, fending off newcomers “Total Recall” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days” with relative ease. Neither newcomer made much of a dent at all but “TDKR” should fall next week to “The Bourne Legacy.”

CHICAGO – Critically reviled “The Watch” with Ben Stiller & Vince Vaughn opened with downright depressing numbers, good enough for only third place. Meanwhile, “Step Up: Revolution” claimed fourth while “The Dark Knight Rises” tumbled over 60% in its second frame.

CHICAGO – “The Dark Knight Rises,” the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy with Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Leviitt, opened with a stunning $160.9 million. While the opening was huge, it seems clear that the horrific shooting in Colorado last week did keep some viewers away as most journalists were predicting an opening closer to $200 million.

CHICAGO – Fox’s “Ice Age: Continental Drift” under-performed domestically but still opened strongly enough to take first place at the box office and is riding a huge wave of box office overseas. Meanwhile, “The Amazing Spider-man” fell a reasonable percentage and held on to 2nd place, just ahead of juggernaut “Ted.”

CHICAGO – Whether or not it’s a hit depends on who you ask but Sony’s “The Amazing Spider-man” easily dominated the box office with $65 million over the three-day weekend and $140 million since it opened on July 3, 2012. Big numbers for sure but “Transformers” made $155.4 million in 2007 dollars over its first six days at the same time of year. They’d never admit it, but Sony is probably disappointed that they couldn’t crack $175 million.

CHICAGO – Two R-rated offerings shattered expectations at the box office this weekend as “Ted” and “Magic Mike” not only proved that adults still go see movies in the Summer season but that original concepts can make for massive hits. While rehashed fare like “Rock of Ages,” “Battleship,” and “Dark Shadows” have all stumbled, “Ted” and “Magic Mike” will out-gross all three.

CHICAGO – Disney/Pixar topped the box office again with their 13th-straight first place debut for the adventure film “Brave” while “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” couldn’t find the public vein and had to settle for a disappointing 3rd place. With “Madagascar 3” dropping slowly to second place, kids movies dominated the box office. Meanwhile, no ONE wanted to find Steve Carell’s latest dramedy as its tenth place opening landed with a thud (and a remarkably low per-screen average).

CHICAGO – Tom Cruise and Adam Sandler proved to be fallible this weekend as their latest offerings — “Rock of Ages” and “That’s My Boy,” respectively — delivered far below even their meager expectactions, finishing third and fifth for the frame and failing to crack $16 million for three days. The top two — “Madagascar 3” and “Prometheus” — remained unchanged although Ridley Scott’s controversial film took a notable plummet of over 60%.

CHICAGO – Though the box office race initially appeared to be neck-and-neck, the final tally was no contest. “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” won the weekend with a grand haul of $60.4 million, beating its less family-friendly competitor, the sci-fi thriller, “Prometheus,” which still managed to garner one of the best second place debuts in history.