Once again, Thor thundered mightily at the box office, bellowing to a $34.5 million weekend to take the title. But Bridesmaids, a gross-out R-rated comedy by and for women, won a nice consolation prize. But not the crown for Miss Congeniality, mind you.
Bridesmaids earned $24.4 million this weekend, sidling into second place. That’s about $10 million less than Thor raked in, but about $10 million more than some had expected this Kristen Wiig project to make. Of course, part of that might’ve been because Bridesmaids became something of a feminist rallying cry. Some women, fed up with the woeful lack of intelligent female characters in movies these days, saw Bridesmaids as a breath of estrogen-laden air. And they started e-mailing friends and associates, asking them to see the film opening weekend and show Hollywood what’s what. As salon.com’s Rebecca Traister wrote, “for a certain set, seeing Bridesmaids this weekend—and encouraging others to do the same—is more than a trip to the theater; it’s a social responsibility.”
Of course, all this enthusiasm for a raunchy, throwaway comedy had other women scratching their heads. Bridesmaids’ success may have put Nikki Finke, who runs the Deadline Hollywood website, out of a job:
I was so convinced that this rare R-rated event comedy featuring women burping and farting for our female amusement wouldn’t make over $13M, even $15M tops, that I promised Universal Pictures chairman Adam Fogelson that I would leave Hollywood reporting forever if Bridesmaids did the $20+ million he thought it would. Well, I’ve called the moving vans because I clearly have no idea what works at the domestic box office anymore — I couldn’t believe that this is why generations of women fought the feminist revolution: to ensure we had the same opportunities to watch our sex make the same raunchy movie stuff as men.
Elsewhere, Fast Five gripped the road for another $19.5 million and third place, while newcomer Priest earned just $14.5 million for fourth.
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