SUNDAY AM, 7TH UPDATE: These official Friday, Saturday, and weekend numbers for North America are way worse than anyone expected. Every flick tanked except Marvel’s The Avengers which keeps sucking all the air out of the box office for the 3rd straight weekend.

Demonstrating just how disastrous the new movies opened, audiences gave Universal’s Battleship only a ‘B’ CinemaScore, Lionsgate’s What To Expect When You’re Expecting a ‘B-’, and Paramount’s The Dictator a ‘C’. And yet none of the affected studio moguls expect to lose their jobs.

At Universal, Peter Berg’s military vs aliens actioner did only John Carter-low grosses for high cost (which is why the star of both pics, Taylor Kitsch, will be asking “You want fries with that?” very shortly).

But Battleship already made $230M internationally, thus mitigating its $209+ budget and advance bad buzz in North America.

At Paramount, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Middle East spoof also is showing modest strength overseas to mitigate its much smaller $65M-$70M cost.

And at Lionsgate, a financial partner put its production exposure under $30M which was cut almost in half by international presales for the high-profile cast including J-Lo and Cameron Diaz. ”Our risk on the flick is therefore very low,” the studio boasted to me. Which just goes to show that creating ...... See Complete Article @ Deadline Hollywood