So! Just how bad are things for Brüno, anyway, whose weekend grosses plunged nearly 73 percent from its opening frame barely a week ago? Pretty bad, actually, when you look at the history it made at the box office -- and the history it might be about to make in the courtroom.
First things first: Remember Richelle Olson, the Palmdale, Calif., woman who sued star Sacha Baron Cohen and distributor Universal, claiming a charity-bingo melee during the film shoot left her brain-damaged? Uni refuted her suit as baseless, and after reviewing the footage (which -- SPOILER ALERT -- didn't make the film's final cut), Olson's lawyer recently dropped their original assault and battery claim from the complaint. But they're holding fast to the charges of emotional distress that they say caused her to fall and hit her head minutes later, causing a pair of "brain bleeds."
The ball's in Uni's court, but it has an even more urgent Brüno-related hemorrhage to address in the immediate term. A fun ride through the numbers, if you please:
· Brüno's $8.374 million week-two take represented a 72.7 percent drop from its $30.6 million opening. That ties it with Doom -- another Universal stinker -- for the third-worst plunge of any film released on more than 2,500 screens. Ever.
· That also ties it with Doom for the fitfh-worst tally for any film on 2,000+ screens.
· Among history's first-place weekend finishers, only one film -- this year's Friday the 13th -- had a bigger week-two drop (80.4 percent) than Brüno and Doom.
Other analysts around the Web have their own ways of looking at it, acknowledging the Brüno crisis while pointing to the profitable film in the wreckage. I guess that's fair, if beside the point: For the first time in a decade, Baron Cohen is an irrelevant comic. Attribute it to Harry Potter or Irish curmudgeons or whatever, but when he follows a global phenomenon with a historic flop, and the biggest thing he has forthcoming is a legal defense, that seems problematic. He made $15 million for this film! Shouldn't Hollywood be more concerned today?
· 'Bruno' victim's lawyer lashes back at Universal [THR Esq]
· Biggest Second-Weekend Drops [Box Office Mojo]