BoxOfficeMojo has posted the numbers for Friday’s films and it looks like Super 8 is leading with an estimated $12.2 million. The numbers aren’t considered too bad, but they aren’t as high as the previous Abrams produced film Cloverfield, which had a Friday opening of $17.2. Super 8 can be compared to the more recent alien war film, Battle: Los Angeles, which had a Friday opening of $13.4 million back in March.
Super 8 spent most of its marketing trying to keep the film a secret. It relied so much on keeping the exact story a mystery that most people ended up quite disappointed with the outcome. I personally thought that it felt way too much like a Steven Spielberg film without any originality. Sure, Spielberg did produce the film, but it seemed like director J.J. Abrams was crossing that homage line and straight up copying Spielberg scene for scene without bring any of his own talents to the film, minus the annoying and unneeded lens flares.
Regardless of what I thought of Super 8 it’s going to open with respectable numbers. The budget is rumored to be $50 million and I think that is easily reachable in a few weeks. The main question is how it will hold, with films like The Green Lantern and Transformers: Dark of the Moon just around the corner. Will Super 8 be able to hang in the top five for a month? I don’t think it will!
What do you think?