Speed Racer Did Even WORSE Than Warner Bros. Claimed! Speed Racer Actually Opened In Third Place!

They lied! All over the movie news yesterday was the reporting that Speed Racer came in a distant second to Iron Man. Well, Speed Racer did even worse than Warner Bros. wanted to admit to. The movie actually opened in the third place slot, coming in behind What Happened in Vegas, starring Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz.

Speed Racer’s wreck at the box office was worse than expected. When all the tickets were finally counted today, the Wachowski brothers’ homage to the 1960’s cartoon did $18.7 million, not the $20.2 million Warner Bros. claimed on Sunday. That put the debut in third place, behind the low-budget comedy What Happens in Vegas – a major blow to the egos of studio executives and the reclusive creators of the Matrix trilogy.

Studios are known to occasionally inflate their numbers slightly on the weekend to appease bosses and stars; last weekend, Paramount Pictures claimed that Iron Man did $100 million in its opening weekend when it actually made $98.6 million. It’s small potatoes, but in Hollywood, bragging rights mean everything in the box office derby.

Not good!