Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno started big on opening day on Friday but had a huge drop the rest of the weekend, with the Universal Pictures mock documentary finishing with US$30.4 ($NZ48.5) million, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
The movie took in nearly half of its weekend total - US$14.4 million - on Friday, then tumbled with just $8.8 million Saturday and an estimated US$7.2 million Sunday.
Revenues for hit movies typically go up on Saturday, so the nosedive for Bruno could be a sign that it lacks the shelf life that made Baron Cohen's Borat a US$100 million smash.
"It is unusual for a film to drop on Saturday. Normally, you expect the film at least to be even on Saturday or above compared to Friday, because Saturday is the biggest movie-going day of the weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.
"It's going to be interesting to see how it does over the long run."
Bruno, which features Baron Cohen as a wannabe going to extremes to achieve celebrity, finished ahead of 20th Century Fox's Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which took second with US$28.5 million. The Ice Age sequel raised its domestic total to US$120.6 million.
Finishing third after two weekends in the No. 1 spot was Paramount's sci-fi blockbuster Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with US$24.2 million, raising its domestic haul to US$339.2 million.
The sequel passed the US$319 million total of 2007's Transformers.
The weekend's other new wide release, 20th Century Fox's romantic comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper opened weakly with US$5 million, finishing at No. 7. The movie centres on a high school valedictorian who uses his graduation speech to declare his love for a bombshell classmate (Hayden Panettiere).
Bruno outpaced the US$26.5 million opening weekend for Baron Cohen's surprise 2006 hit Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Borat started with US$9.2 million on opening day on Friday then climbed to US$10.1 million on Saturday, a sign that fans were talking it up to friends. That good word-of-mouth propelled Borat to a long run at theatres, the movie climbing to a US$128.5 million domestic total.
Borat also scored its big opening weekend in far fewer theatres. Bruno debuted in 2,756 cinemas, more than three times the number for Borat.
Nikki Rocco, head of distribution at Universal, said comedies such as Bruno typically drop off over opening weekend this time of year, while Borat opened in November, when audiences are less fickle than summer crowds. The studio will have to wait until next weekend for a sense of how well Bruno can hold up for the long haul.
"I don't know. That crystal ball just isn't on my desk this morning," said Rocco. "Zany comedies tend to be like that, so I'm hoping that in the scheme of things, it just plays out the way zany comedies will play out."
Reviews on Bruno were not as strong as those for Borat, which critics generally liked. There also had been questions about whether Baron Cohen's flamboyantly gay persona might prove off-putting to audiences.
Bruno did most of its business in cities on the East and West coasts, while revenues were "softer, much softer in middle America," Rocco said.
Even if revenues continue to plunge, Bruno is well on its way to turning a profit for Universal, which paid US$42.5 million for rights to distribute it domestically and in eight other territories.
Bruno took in US$25 million in overseas markets so far, including US$20 million in those Universal acquired, among them Great Britain, Australia and Germany.
Modi Wiczyk - co-chief executive officer of Media Rights Capital, which financed Bruno - said the movie exceeded the company's expectations. Wiczyk said he had anticipated Bruno would finish in the range of US$25 million domestically for the weekend.
"We don't have talking robots or karate in our film," Wiczyk said. "For that increasingly small subset of films that don't have robots, we did terrific."
