
Bruno hit the box office in dominant fashion, taking in $30.4 million dollars over the weekend, about $4 million more than Sacha Baron Cohen’s last film, Borat. However, the two films are trending very differently. Bruno opened with a strong Friday showing of $14 million (which includes the midnight shows on Thursday), but slid to $8.8 million Saturday, then again to $7.2 million on Sunday. Usually Saturday numbers top Friday’s. It opened in 2,656 theaters across the country.
Borat, which also opened on a Friday (11/3/2006) made less, $26.4 million, in its first weekend, but built momentum through the weekend. It grossed $9.2 million Friday, $10.1 million Saturday, and $7 million Sunday. By the way, it grossed this in only 837 theaters—1,819 less than Bruno.
Borat jumped to 2,566 theaters in its second weekend and made $28.2 million. Few movies manage to grow their box office over the second weekend. Usually a film will lose 25-60% of its first weekend numbers during week two.
Bruno, having already opened in $2,556 theaters, has nowhere to trend but down. I can’t see this film topping Borat’s $128.5 million domestic box office total. It may not even crack $100 million.
My review of Bruno can be found here.
For those who hate paragraphs, here are the two films in list form.
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