At 7:20 a.m. CT on Saturday, Russell Crowe posted the following via Twitter: “Robin Hood number 1 in every European territory and in Australia, Korea etc Probably USA only place it won't be. Iron Man 2 900 more screens” Four hours later, he followed up with this: “Just had it confirmed. Robin Hood dominate's [sic] the globe, will be world's number 1 movie this week. Around $112m for the weekend. Thankyou.” The spin is obvious: Do not let the stench of domestic box-office failure fool you. Movies are a global concern, and Robin Hood getting creamed on opening weekend by Iron Man 2 in its second week isn’t the disaster you think it is.
There’s merit to Crowe’s (and the studio’s) glass-half-full assessment—and if we denied that merit, he’d probably throw a phone at us—but after reports of Robin Hood’s $237 million budget leaked to the Internet last week, a mixed result isn’t popping any corks. Despite dropping nearly 60% from its opening frame, Iron Man 2 easily outpaced Robin Hood for box-office supremacy last weekend, adding $53 million to a gross now in excess of $212 million. (It also earned about $1500 more per screen than Robin Hood, which throws Crowe’s math into question.) For its part, Robin Hood thieved $37 million from the moviegoing public, perhaps hobbled by middling reviews and a general lack of enthusiasm. Meanwhile, a pair of romantic comedies offered themselves up as counterprogramming and fared quite well in relation to budget: The Amanda Seyfried vehicle Letters To Juliet rode her doe-eyed charms to $13.8 million and third place while the mild Queen Latifah-Common basketball romance Just Wright took $8.5 million for fourth. The Seyfried film opened in more theaters; both had virtually identical per screen averages.
Not much action at the arthouse, at least among the films whose numbers have been released. The Hawaiian history lesson Princess Kaiulani opened to a reasonably good $5600 per screen average on 33 screens while the Jesse Eisenberg starrer The Living Wake took just $4800 on one.
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.