"Bourne" slays Homer in biggest August film opening

According to an article on August film openings, the amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne is back, and this time he clobbered Homer Simpson on his way to scoring the biggest film opening ever for the month of August.

"The Bourne Ultimatum," the third movie in the espionage action series starring Matt Damon as a one-time CIA hit man searching for his past, grossed $70.2 million its first weekend to rank as North America's top film at the box office, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

That tally, fueling an unusual late-summer rally at the multiplex, far exceeded the debut ticket sales generated by the first two films in the Universal Pictures franchise.

By comparison, "The Bourne Identity" opened at No. 2 with $27.1 million in June 2002, and the "The Bourne Supremacy" landed at No. 1 in July 2004 with $52.5 million. Those two films went on to gross nearly $485 million worldwide combined.

The latest "Bourne" total marks the biggest first weekend ever for a movie in August, surpassing the $67.4 million opening posted by "Rush Hour 2" the same weekend in 2001.

Exit polls showed the movie played to a slightly older crowd than much of the summer's high-profile popcorn fare, with 57 percent of its audience over the age of 30.

"Bourne's" robust debut continued what has been a very healthy summer for Hollywood, with domestic box office receipts since May 1 up nearly 6 percent compared with the same period last year. This weekend's cumulative gross for all films is up about 25 percent year on year.

"It's a very crowded and unusually competitive August marketplace," said Paul Dergarabedian, head of box office tracking service Media By Numbers. "August has traditionally been a cool-off month for summer. ... What's unusual this summer is that studios have put some of their biggest films at the end of July and early August."

Last week's domestic box office champion, "The Simpsons Movie," a feature-length version of the long-running TV cartoon, slipped to second place in its second weekend with $25.6 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales.

Despite its 65 percent drop-off from week to week, "The Simpsons," from News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox, has now racked up about $128.6 million domestically and $315.5 million worldwide.

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Kowabunga Box Office, Dude!

The Simpsons Movie really cleaned up at the box office this weekend. Not only was it the #1 movie, it exceeded - almost doubled expectations by raking in $71.9 million. This is an estimated total reported by http://www.boxofficemojo.com/. In an article penned by Brandon Gray, the website reports The Simpsons Movie snared the biggest debut ever for a television adaptation, eclipsing Mission: Impossible II, and it more than doubled the previous top opening for a television cartoon adaptation, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, and will soon surpass The Rugrats Movie as that category's highest grosser. The Simpsons's start also ranks third among animation overall and fifth for the month of July.

With all the media hype surrounding this movie release, I am surprised that the producers are surprised with this total! With everything from viral media (http://www.simpsonizeme.com/) to real life Quickie Marts to even a Simpson's cake challenge on the Food Network, they really covered all bases of media. If you did not see some form of Simpsons advertisement, you had to have had your head in the sand last week! The advertisements really covered the globe, much like the Simpson Family's trip from Springfield to Hollywood.

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