GI Joe Box Office Wins First Half of Weekend Battle

GI Joe box office was expected to be strong, as the GI Joe box office was not going to be stopped by Cobra, or negative reviews. On Friday, GI Joe box office blasted through the competition without a sweat, and should do so the rest of the weekend. The GI Joe box office totals may be the last major box office opening weekend of the summer, with few blockbusters left this season. In any case, the GI Joe box office had the real American heroes embraced by America, at least those that spent a combined $22 million to see the Joes on Friday.

Early GI Joe box office estimates gave the film $22 million on opening day, easily good enough for number one, according to MTV. The GI Joe opening weekend box office should top $50 million, at least, though it is nowhere near the totals of Hasbro toy rival Transformers.

Nevertheless, GI Joe box office is the final verdict that overshadows lousy critical reviews - at least by major critics. An embargo on reviews from major critics until today has paid off in the short term, though those reviews are savage, as expected. Regular fanboys and websites were more forgiving towards GI Joe, and will help get them their big opening box office.

For this weekend, GI Joe box office will be big, but its staying power is questionable. The big question next week is how well the heavily hyped, much smaller sci-fi movie District 9 will open, and whether it can overtake GI Joe at the box office.

Although GI Joe rules the box office for now this week, it is not the only big opener this weekend. Julie and Julia had a more modest $7.5 million estimate for opening day, but that should still be good enough for a $20+ million, second place opening weekend.

Once again, Meryl Streep is a summer sensation, as she pushed Julie and Julia to getting recommended by critics, and now she will push the movie towards a nice profit.

Previous box office champions like G-Force, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Funny People dropped off to under $3 million each for Friday. Funny People, as expected, took a big dropoff after winning last week's box office with a low $23 million.

The GI Joe box office may or may not have a similar dropoff in future weeks, depending on whether the bad word-of-mouth by critics or the fair word-of-mouth from fanboys is strongest. But it doesn't matter this week for the Joes.

Sources

MTV.com- "G.I. Joe Is Certainly There In the Saturday Box Office Report" moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/08/08/gi-joe-is-certainly-there-in-the-saturday-box-office-report/