North American box office: ‘Angels & Demons’ and ‘Star Trek’ almost neck-and-neck

My supposition last Friday that Star Trek might beat Angels & Demons did not come to pass, it seems, but the two films did finish up pretty darn close. Trek’s drop of 43 percent was worse than I anticipated, but is still very good, and an excellent indication that the film will have legs over the early summer. (I don’t think Terminator Salvation will present as much of a threat to Trek as it might have if it had been, you know, good.)

Overall business was up only four percent over the same weekend last year -- the way the box office has been going gangbusters this year, that’s practically a reversal. It’ll be interesting to see if that flattening remains the case over the summer -- maybe summer has always been as busy as it can be, and only the winter and early spring had room for growth.

Wolverine passed $150 million in North America this weekend -- and thus earning back its announced production costs -- so execs somewhere are breathing a sigh of relief. Other milestones this past weekend: Hannah Montana: The Movie passed $75 million (there’ll be no stopping her now). And The Soloist passed $25 million.

A couple of high-profile limited releases split audiences’ attention, to the detriment of one. Management, the Jennifer Aniston-Steven Zahn stalking romantic dramedy, took in only $375,916 on 212 screens, a per-screen average of a relatively poor $1,773. But the eagerly anticipated The Brothers Bloom, the release of which was delayed multiple times, took in a much more impressive $90,400 on only four screens, for a per-screen of $22,600, the second best of the weekend. (The French film Summer Hours was first -- $24,742 on each of 2 screens -- with Angels & Demons a distant third, with $13,100 at each of 3,527 venues.)

[numbers via Box Office Mojo]