Box Office: Bourne Beats Batman
(Photo: Universal Pictures)
Batman finally takes a bow. The Dark Knight Rises relinquished the top spot at the box office after three straight weeks in first place to The Bourne Legacy.
Tony Gilroy's reboot of the Bourne franchise, which sees Matt Damon passing the torch to Jeremy Renner for the title role, proved to be a good gamble, bringing in $40.3 million in a weekend when many moviegoers opted to stay home and watch the Olympics.
Coming up in second place was farcical comedy The Campaign, starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as rival presidential candidates in a fictitious race for the White House. The film earned a healthy $27.4 million in ticket sales on a weekend that saw the real-life presidential race heat up with the announcement of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's VP pick.
The Dark Knight Rises rounded out the top three with just over $19 million, bringing its domestic total to $390 million. The final film of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy still remained on top of the overseas box office.
On the indie screen, Spike Lee's Red Hook Summer dipped its toe in the water with a soft open in four New York-area theaters, where it performed reasonably well. The film will expand to Los Angeles next week and, if it proves successful on the left coast, ripple out from there across the country.
Next week, the marquis will get crowded with the opening of The Expendables 2 and the long-awaited Sparkle, starring Jordin Sparks, Derek Luke and the late Whitney Houston.
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