Weekend Box Office: Gatsby trumped by other rich guy
If you think about it, Jay Gatsby and Tony "Iron Man" Stark have a lot in common. Both are fabulously wealthy playboys, both made their fortunes through less than honorable means, and both are constantly chasing an impossible dream—Gatsby to win the hand of his estranged beloved, Stark to make goatees cool again. The two characters went head to head this weekend, in an affluent-dude title fight that proved you should never bet against the guy in the aerial combat suit. Yes, Iron Man 3 was the big winner again, pulling in another $72.5 million after last weekend's almost-record-breaking haul. But don't cry too hard for the Jazz Age aristocrat: Despite middling reviews, Baz Luhrmann's flashy The Great Gatsby made a cool $51 million, demonstrating that when chasing green lights (or bills), it helps to have real-life bajillionaire Jay-Z in your corner.
Anyway, Stark shouldn't get too comfortable. His reign atop the box-office will almost surely come to a close next weekend, when another cocky flyboy, James T. Kirk, adds his photon torpedoes to the summer-movie arms race. In a move that's becoming increasingly common, Star Trek Into Darkness invaded several foreign markets ahead of its U.S. release, beaming up $31.7 million. Only the dastardly Kahn—who, we'll remind you, Benedict Cumberbatch is supposedly not playing, wink wink—could stop the film from at least doubling that take when it opens stateside this week.
In other news, fellow filthy-rich guy Tyler Perry suffered a rare flop. Peeples, the Craig Robinson comedy he merely "presented," blundered its way to a paltry $4.85 million. Unless Perry is somehow able to convince distraught fans of The Office—which ends its nine-year run Thursday—that Peeples is actually a big-screen Darryl spinoff, the film will likely end up the low-grosser of the multi-hyphenate's career. Prepare for more Madea—or at least more lectures about how cheaters deserve to contract deadly STDs.
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.