FRIDAY 10 PM,  2ND UPDATE: All day I hadn’t heard Hollywood this encouraged about the domestic box office since The Avengers opened.

Let’s face it: every studio this summer is making the vast majority of their money off the international grosses.

So to have North America back in business was helping mop up mogul flopsweat.

But strong matinees and early evening shows gave way tonight to emptier late shows, unfortunately.

“Daytime business was fabulous.

But everything after 10 PM wasn’t,” a studio exec tells me.

“Even exhibition is saying that fewer people are going to late night shows.” Theories abound, like the Olympics still siphoning off moviegoers. Some of today’s earlier revved-up forecasts are slowing.

Yet this may still end up a rare ‘up’ weekend.1.

Universal’s gamble is paying off - not just launching The Bourne Legacy (3,745 theaters) without Matt Damon or the title character, but also delaying a week to avoid a head-to-head battle with Sony Pictures’ Total Recall. This latest high-octaine Bourne actioner – written and directed by Tony Gilroy and starring Jeremy Renner – looks to open better than the studio expected with $15M today and $45M for  the weekend.

Sure that’s less than the franchise’s second and third installments The Bourne Supremacy ($52.5M in 2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum ($69.3M in 2007).

And even The Bourne Legacy‘s $542K from midnight showings was less than half of The Bourne Ultimatum‘s $797K midnights.

But this is one of those rare series that earned more with each outing after 2002′s The ...... See Complete Article @ Deadline Hollywood