According to the previously mentioned website, Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily, the Saturday box office numbers for G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA came in at $18 million. I’m not sure if a Friday-Saturday drop is normal, but that puts the two-day total at $40.5 million. It seems somewhat doubtful that a Sunday showing would earn another $20 million, so I’d say a $60 million opening weekend is pretty much impossible. Looks like we may be headed more in the $50 million dollar range, depending on how strong Sundays usually are. I suspect I might even be giving Sunday sales even too much credit.
There are still no numbers internationally, so we’ll see how things look going forward. In my mind, this is disappointing news, but we’ll see where it goes.
Ms. Finke does add a bit of disappointing insight, with this quote as well:
“But I don’t see how G.I. Joe can get to Paramount’s predicted $300M worldwide. Especially when, next weekend, G.I. Joe will get swamped by Peter Jackson’s highly praised sci-fi blockbuster District 9.”
Considering Di Bonaventura has been on record saying they need at least $350 million before considering a sequel, this could be a punch in the gut. Still plenty of time to go, though. Again, check out the entire article here.