In its first weekend of wide release “The Great Gatsby” eclipsed $50 million in box office receipts, but still fell well short of the $72.5 million “Iron Man 3” raked in.
The movie website Box Office Mojo reported that the “Iron Man 3” haul of more than $72 million “is the fourth-highest second weekend ever behind ‘The Avengers,’ ‘Avatar’ and ‘The Dark Knight.’ … ‘The Great Gatsby’ $50.1 million debut ranks as the third-highest second-place debut ever behind ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ ($68.7 million, behind ‘Shrek 2’) and ‘Sherlock Holmes’ ($62.3 million, behind ‘Avatar’). It's easily the best start ever in director Baz Luhrmann's career (and) also ranks as the second-highest ever for star Leonardo DiCaprio behind 2010's ‘Inception.’”
The Wall Street Journal’s Ben Fritz wrote, “(‘Gatsby’) proved effective counterprogramming to ‘Iron Man 3’ by drawing an audience that was 59 percent female, according to exit polls. The majority of the superhero movie's audience has been men.”
Jamshid Ghazi Askar is a graduate of BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School and member of the Utah State Bar. Contact him at jaskar@desnews.com or 801-236-6051.