‘Swing Vote’ Misfires, ‘Mamma Mia!’ Holds Well Again

<< ‘The Dark Knight’ Fends off ‘The Mummy 3′

Swing Vote was a miss with a weak $6.3 million opening, good enough for only sixth place. The Kevin Costner led comedy ultimately couldn’t overcame a weak marketing campaign and mediocre reviews. It’s been reported that Costner put up some $20 million of his own cash to help finance the film. Swing Vote will likely make its home market debut in late October just in time to coincide with the early November Presidential election.

The Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly comedy Step Brothers posted a decent second weekend hold with a 47% drop to $16.3 million. Total stands at $63 million. $100 million is a good possibility, but direct competition is looming over the next two weeks.

Mamma Mia! had a strong third frame with $13.1 million representing an amazing 26% drop from last week. It’s total of $88 million is ahead of Hairspray’s $78.9 million total through the same point. A total north of $130 million could result.

The arrival of another Brendan Fraser action-adventure film didn’t put much of a dent in Journey to the Center of the Earth. In fifth place, Journey slid just 29% for a $6.9 million weekend. After four weeks, the 3D feature has carved out $73.1 million with a $100 million final total still very much alive.

In seventh place, Hancock added $5.2 million falling 37%. The Will Smith starring film has grossed an excellent $216 million. Wall-E took its smallest drop to date with just a 26% slide. Its $4.7 million tally from its sixth frame ups the cume to $204.2 million, and the film will pass up Ratatouille by the end of the week.

Falling from fourth to ninth, The X-Files: I Want to Believe lost 66% of its audience with a just a $3.4 million sophomore frame. X-Files has made only $17.1 million, and will finish out below $25 million. At least the budget was relatively low so the film could show a small profit eventually. Much to the dismay of Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Space Chimps was able to stay in the top ten for one more week. It dropped 37% to $2.8 million and has now eked out $22.1 million and could finish close to $30 million.

Speaking of Hellboy II, the film fell to eleventh place with $2.5 million in its fourth weekend. Total stands at $71.3 million with a $75 million final target.

Next week, the stoner action comedy Pineapple Express and the female led The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 get a jump start on the weekend opening on Wednesday.

Now that The Mummy 3 failed to knock off The Dark Knight, which film do you think will finally unseat Batman? (Vote in the comments section.)

• Pineapple Express
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
• Tropic Thunder (opens Wed, Aug 13)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars (opens Fri, Aug 15)
• Death Race (opens Fri, Aug 22)
• None of these

Related articles:

• ‘The Mummy 3′ $15M Friday, ‘Dark Knight’ close behind
• ‘The Mummy’ Targets ‘Dark Knight’
• ‘Dark Knight’ Crowned Again, ‘Brothers’ Step Over ‘X-Files’
• ‘The Dark Knight’ Crusades into Record Books

Box Office Data Source: The Numbers