User blog:Ceauntay/Friday Box-Office: 'iCarly: The Sequel' Leads As 'Dark Knight Rises' Drops Big in Second Weekend Start

Yikes, estimates place the second Friday box-office for The Dark Knight Rises at $18 million, down a whopping 76% from last Friday's opening. Obviously, the first Friday for any major blockbuster is going to be massively front-loaded given midnight screenings and anticipation, but I can't say I expected this steep of a drop.

There is, however, one factor that could have played a role, that is the opening ceremonies for the 2012 London Olympics, which posted massive ratings (highest rated non-US opening ceremony ever) were dominating the airwaves and social media streams and yet, I can't help but believe there is an unfortunate black cloud over this film. There is no way to think about The Dark Knight Rises without thinking of the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado and I have a hard time believing that incident won't continue to have an effect on the film's box-office performance.

On a side note, Hans Zimmer composed a song, with which 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Aurora Victim Relief organization through GivingFirst.org. You can find it right here, but I have continually had an issue getting it to load. Hopefully you have better luck.

iCarly: The Sequel defeated The Dark Knight Rises on Friday opening with $18.5 million, slightly shorter than the $19.3 million from iCarly: The Movie back in 2010. That is a huge opening, but will not lead to a huge opening weekend as it is projecting to open around $33-35 million for the three-day, down 2010's original, which made $50.3 million.

In third is 3-D newcomer Step Up Revolution bringing in $4.8 million, which continues the franchise's continued opening weekend slide since the first installment back in 2006. It's likely to bring in around $13-14 million for the three-day, down from 2010's 'Step Up 3-D.

Next we come to Fox's sci-fi comedy The Watch, which is another film connected with tragedy as it changed its title from The Neighborhood Watch following the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin back in February. How much of an effect the coincidence had on the film's box-office is impossible to quantify, but $4.5 million out of the starting gates isn't a big debut as it's looking at something like an $11-12 million weekend.

I've included the top nine (via Box Office Mojo) directly below and will be back tomorrow morning with a weekend wrap up.


 * 1) iCarly: The Sequel - $18.5 million
 * 2) The Dark Knight Rises – $18 million
 * 3) Step Up Revolution – $4.8 million
 * 4) The Watch – $4.5 million
 * 5) Ice Age: Continental Drift – $4 million
 * 6) Shadow the Hedgehog - $3.5 million
 * 7) Ted – $2.2 million
 * 8) The Amazing Spider-Man – $1.9 million
 * 9) Brave – $1.2 million
 * 10) Magic Mike – $870,000