It News: 'Bourne' Dethrones Batman As #1 Movie At Box Office

August 13, 2012

'Bourne' Dethrones Batman As #1 Movie At Box Office

Jeremy Renner-led 'Bourne Legacy' ends three-week reign of 'Dark Knight Rises' with a $40.3 million debut.
By Ryan J. Downey
Aug 13 2012
Despite losing series star Matt Damon, the "Bourne" franchise was powerful enough to dethrone three-time champion "The Dark Knight Rises" at the box office. With Jeremy Renner in the lead role, "The Bourne Legacy"took in $40.3 million over the weekend to become the #1 movie in America.

Experts had predicted a win for the fourth entry in Universal's action series, but R-rated comedy "The Campaign" performed slightly better than expected. The political satire pairing Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis debuted at #2 with $27.4 million, pushing "The Dark Knight Rises" a bit further down the box office scorecard than expected. Christopher Nolan's final entry in his Batman trilogy has earned $390.2 million domestically since its release.

The opening weekend for "The Bourne Legacy" was considerably less than the franchise's last entry, "The Bourne Ultimatum," which opened to $69.2 million in 2007. It wasn't as strong as "The Bourne Supremacy" ($52.5 million in 2004), either. But it's worth noting that the series drop-off wasn't too different than that of "Casino Royale," "X-Men: First Class" or this summer's "The Amazing Spider-Man," all of which were considered successful by their respective studios.

The $27.4 million debut of "The Campaign" was only slightly lower than Ferrell's "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" ($28.4 million), and Galifianakis' pairing with Robert Downey, Jr. in "The Hangover" director Todd Phillips' "Due Date" ($32.6 million).

A much different style of comedy, "Hope Springs," took the #4 spot with its $20.1 million debut. The movie stars Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as a troubled couple seeking help from therapist Steve Carell. On the indie front, Spike Lee's "Red Hook Summer" collected $42,100 in four New York City theaters.

This weekend, "The Bourne Legacy" will have to compete for the action audience with the likes of "The Expendables 2," which reunites the who's-who of '80s action movie (writer Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, et al) with some new faces (Liam Hemsworth) and sees beefier roles for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis to face a new villain played by Jean-Claude Van Damme.