Friday Box Office: “The Watch” and “Step Up: Revolutions” among summer’s biggest bombs

Despite the general feeling among prognosticators that “The Dark Knight Rises” could suffer a less-than-standard second-weekend drop due to the fearful, Aurora-related feelings that plagued the multiplex during its first weekend, the Batman finale ended up falling even more than the genre norm. At this point, it’s safe to say that there is no way it will match the box office of its direct predecessor, which drew an enormous $533m. But with $243m already in the domestic till, “The Dark Knight Rises” will turn out just fine for Warner Bros.

The same cannot be said for “The Watch” and “Step Up Revolution,” the new openers this weekend. The former’s performance (a paltry $4.5m on Friday) was particularly pathetic, given its $68m dollar budget, cast of three big names in comedy (Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Jonah Hill), and massive marketing campaign. This will go down right alongside Adam Sandler’s “That’s My Boy” as one of the worst failures in the genre this year. The outlook for “Step Up Revolution” is not nearly as gloomy because it only cost $33m, but a first day of $4.9m is not a good sign for profit potential. That said, this franchise does perform well overseas, so there is still potentially a light at the end of the tunnel for Summit/Lionsgate.

Here is the full top 10 chart…

Source: Box Office Mojo