Deadline Hollywood Daily‘s Nikki Finke ran a boxoffice update yesterday that said Bruno, which enjoyed a strong $14.2 million Friday kickoff, experienced a devastating 37% Friday-to-Saturday dropoff, resulting in a dispiriting $9 million Saturday haul.
So instead of Bruno earning a potential $40 million or so (which would be indicated by Friday’s earnings, no?) the comedy will finish this evening with about $30 million (a per-screen average of $10,881 in 2,757 situations). That’s okay from a certain perspective but throw in Bruno‘s reported “C” rating from CinemaScore and you have two clear indications that Bruno has no future– that it’s all downhill from here on.
Why the 37% dropoff and “C” score? The Borat retread factor (i.e., been-there, done-that). The brusque and somewhat misanthropic tone (particularly in the Ron Paul sequence). The lack of genuinely hilarious moments. What has everyone heard, felt, detected, observed? A journalist friend told me this morning about reports of walkouts — has anyone witnessed any?