The Bourne Legacy earns $40.3 million

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The Bourne Legacy earns $40.3 million

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The Dark Knight Rises has finally fallen out of first-place at the weekend box office.

13 August,2012 10:48 am

Jeremy Renners action tale The Bourne Legacy took over as the No. 1 movie with a $40.3 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis political comedy The Campaign opened at No. 2 with $27.4 million. The new movies pushed The Dark Knight Rises down to third-place with $19.5 million, raising the superhero blockbusters three-week domestic total to $390.1 million.The weekends other new wide release, Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones marital comic drama Hope Springs, opened at No. 4 with $15.6 million. The Dark Knight Rises had been the No. 1 movie for three-straight weekends since debuting amid tragedy as a gunman killed 12 people and wounded 58 at a midnight screening of the film on opening day in Colorado.The violence seems to have had little effect on the runaway success of the Batman finale. The opening weekend in our business is very important, and this incident took place before the picture officially opened. It took place at a midnight screening. I cant give you an actual number, but Im sure we were affected on that opening, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released The Dark Knight Rises.Universals The Bourne Legacy casts Renner and Rachel Weisz in an offshoot of the three hits that starred Matt Damon as unstoppable operative Jason Bourne. Renner plays an agent pursued by Bournes old spy masters after they try to snuff out the espionage program in a cover-up conspiracy.The Bourne Legacy came in well behind the $69.3 million debut of Damons last entry in the series, 2007s The Bourne Ultimatum. But the new film had a strong start and establishes Renner as a sturdy frontman to keep the franchise running.I love the fact that we were able to reboot this and do as well as we were able to. It leaves it open for us to think about it going forward, said Nikki Rocco, Universals head of distribution. We are very much into what its going to look like the next time.While Damon was absent, his presence is felt throughout The Bourne Legacy, with characters commenting on Jason Bourne sightings and his former handlers jittery over the fact that the rogue agent is still out there.Renner is a bankable star to carry on solo, but Universal might really cash in if the studio managed to lure Damon back.