Friday Box Office: ‘Rango’ Opens Soft, Damon’s ‘Bureau’ Works It

UPDATED: Paramount’s big-budget animated feature is pacing to miss tracking by about $20M this weekend, but Uni’s “Adjustment Bureau” starts stronger than expected and should do over $20M

Updated Saturday, 8:40 a.m.:
 
Saturday-morning numbers for Paramount's "Rango" were softer than even Friday's disappointing preliminary estimates.
 
According to one rival studio, Paramount's first CG-animated family film grossed just $9.5 million Friday and is on pace for a weekend gross of about $33 million.
 
Overall, Depp couldn't match, well, Depp, with the domestic market down about 38 percent from the same weekend last year — a frame that was led by the the $116 million opening of "Alice in Wonderland."
 
Here's how the top 10 shaped up Friday. TheWrap's Friday-night report continues below chart:
 
"Rango" ($9.5m)
"Adjustment Bureau" ($6.7m)
"Beastly" ($3.5m)
"Hall Pass" ($2.7m)
"Just Go With It" ($1.9m)
"Unknown" ($1.7m)
"I Am Number Four" ($1.6m)
"The King's Speech" ($1.6m)
"Gnomeo & Juliet" ($1.6m)
"Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" ($1.2m)
 
Friday Box Office:
 
WaxWord is hearing that Paramount's animated extravaganza with Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski had a $10 million Friday, with projections so far that the movie will take in between $37 to $41 million for the weekend, according to studio sources.
 
That is not what the studio had hoped for with a $150 million movie opening in a market with very few options for families. Tracking had the movie raking in upwards of $50 million.
 
Heading into the weekend, studio experts had told TheWrap that the PG-rated "Rango," opening in 3,917 theaters, was  to be the first film this year to open to over $50 million, exploiting a wide-open chasm in the market for family films.
 
Meanwhile Universal's "Adjustment Bureau" – whose expectations the studio was careful to adjust downward – performed stronger than expected in early showings, taking in about $7 million on Friday. That could lead to as much as a $20 million weekend.
 
Relativity's "Take Me Home Tonight," starring Topher Grace, looks to be something like a disaster, taking in just $1 million on Friday, with projections at slightly over $3 million for the weekend.
 
And CBS Films' "Beastly" did slightly better, with a $3 million Friday extrapolating at the moment to up to $8 million for the weekend.
 
So far it doesn't look like the box office is going to perk up from its dismal 30% dip, year over year.
 

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