Weekend Box Office Suffers from Aurora Hangover and Olympics Opening Ceremony

Friday night’s box office numbers were terrible. “The Dark Knight Rises,” predicted to do $19 million, only brought in $18 million. And “The Watch,” with Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn, did an atrocious $4.5 million. Audiences stayed out of theaters most likely to watch the Olympics opening ceremony. But there was also a warning from theater owners that 2o to 25 percent of people polled are still nervous because of the Aurora massacre. “Dark Knight Rises” is still making money hand over fist, and exceeding its predecessor, but it’s going more slowly than Warner Bros. ever would have anticipated. “The Watch” is also hampered by gettinfg dreadful reviews, and by its completely out of left field association to the Trayvon Martin shooting. “The Watch” is done, pretty much. The two films that have done nicely are “Ted,” which Ron Meyer and co. made into a Universal blockbuster, and “The Intouchables,” a solid foreign film hit for The Weinstein Company. Everyone loves “The Intouchables.” More later…