Paramount has been spending all morning revising newcomer The Last Airbender’s grosses upwards because of its better-than-expectedperformances at the domestic box office. M Night Shyamalan’s 3D epic opened to $16M Thursday from 3,169 theaters, including the $3 million from its midnight shows, and now added another $16.7M Friday. Helped by higher 3D ticket prices, the pic based on the Nickelodeon animated TV series should be on its way to $57M for the 4-day holiday and a cume of $74M by end of Monday and definitely 2nd place.
Paramount stated that the $3 million mark from its midnight show is the highest midnight gross this summer for a non-sequel. Unfortunately, the studio is stuck with a high price tag of $145M, including the 3D conversion costs of this actioner and what rival studios are saying is at least a $50+M marketing campaign. But the movie has been tracking pretty well with males of all ages and kids and now looks to break M.Night’s recent drought at the box-office.
