MAY 10-12 BOX OFFICE REPORT - GREAT OPENING FOR GREAT GATSBY

Poor reviews be damned, Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby opened to a very impressive $50 million at the domestic weekend box office May 10-12. This terrific performance wasn't enough, though, to topple Iron Man 3 from the top spot, as it held iron-strong with $72.5 million. Both films scored high on certain all-time charts with these grosses: Gatsby's opening is the third-highest second place opening of all time, and Iron Man 3's is the fourth-highest second weekend gross of all time. This, after marking the second-highest opening weekend gross of all time last weekend, and it's clear that Iron Man 3's staying power is not quite on par with The Avengers' last May. In reflection, despite a poor 3D share (just 33%), The Great Gatsby looks to be this weekend's best performer.

The box office was so top-heavy, once again, that the film in third place (Pain and Gain) couldn't even muster up 10% of the gross of the film in second. Declines were surprisingly light across the board, though, with Iron Man 3's 58.4% loss the clear worst among the Top 20 films. 42 dropped only 24.2%, and another expansion saw Mud's grosses grow again. Peeples, produced (and 'presented') by Tyler Perry, was a huge disappointment opening in fourth place, which is far and away the lowest start for any film so closely associated with Perry. Limited openers were, themselves, limited, with badly-reviewed horror films No One Lives (39) and Aftershock (45) doing terribly, and Sightseers (78) not even living up to its modest hype. Sarah Polley's documentary Stories We Tell did manage to make it to 53rd place in only two theatres, and posted the highest per-theatre average of all the new releases in limited.

The Winner / Top Per-Theatre Average: Iron Man 3 ($72,525,615 (fourth highest second weekend in history) / $17,053)

Highest Opener: The Great Gatsby ($50,087,184 (third highest second place debut in history))

Box Office Mojo, as always, has all the info.