http://www.blogcdn.com/www.cinematical.com/media/2009/08/snakeeyes.jpg
“Decent,” at least, is the watchword for G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra](http://www.cinematical.com/2009/08/08/review-g-i-joe-the-rise-of-cobra/), whose $56 million opening is roughly half of Transformers 2](http://www.cinematical.com/2009/06/22/review-transformers-revenge-of-the-fallen/)'s first weekend gross. I fear that the movie may follow in the footsteps of Watchmen](http://www.moviefone.com/movie/watchmen/26998/main), which opened to $55 million and ended up with not even twice that much when it left domestic theaters. I do think Paramount deserves credit for actually opening a film that the media, for somewhat mysterious reasons, did its best to bury with manufactured bad buzz. It’s really not a bad number, and foreign box office should be strong with this one. A year ago I would have expected G.I. Joe to be more of a summer standout.
The $20 million on *Julie & Julia *seems a little low to me. I expected at least Devil Wears Prada](The Devil Wears Prada (2006) - Movie | Moviefone) numbers, but I guess this one skewed a little older. Hopefully that will also translate to legs for the well-reviewed film, though *Mamma Mia!-*style longevity seems unlikely. The clever A Perfect Getaway](http://www.cinematical.com/2009/08/07/review-a-perfect-getaway/) did mediocre business, as expected, grossing just under $6 million with no real marketing hook. I’ll pick this one as my obligatory plug of the week: fans of thoughtful, off-kilter genre films should give it a shot.
Continue reading Weekend Box Office: ‘G.I. Joe’, ‘Julia’ Put Up Decent Numbers