The return of the Box Office report: 8-21-06

So, I received an email from the good folks at Moviesonline.ca today, asking me to once again take care of the box office report. (I had done it from last August until March or April this year, I slacked off because I had a girlfriend and I chose sleeping in with her over waking up early and writing about the weekend box office, I was replaced, but then they asked me again).

Anyway, the long winded point is that Rico had mentioned how much he enjoyed the old reports, especially when movies I liked failed to perform while crap would reign supreme. And being that he is one of maybe 8 people who now read this (A hearty hello to our Canadian screenwriting Star Wars fanatic friend, who's linked over at the side), I figured I'd put them up here for your reading enjoyment as well. So here you go:

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Dude here again. Been a long time since the rock and roll, I understand. Rest assured, I have returned to do what I do best: Tell you about how much money other people are making off of us, the unsuspecting public. And do it in a fashion I hope all you appreciate.

This week, there's a small controversy-a-brewin'. Snakes on a Plane took in far less money than expected, but with it's gross from special preview shows late Thursday night (for all us hard core fans that had to be there at the very beginning, like I did) it winds up taking in more money than the number one movie of two weeks Talladega Nights. So, going from my sources, I am going to state, against my will, that Snakes on a Plane is NOT the #1 movie in America this weekend. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates. Numbers might change slightly with actuals)

1. Talladega Nights (Sony)- $14.1, 3741 screens, week 3, $114.686 total

2. Snakes On A Plane (NL)- $13.85, 3555 screens, week 1, $15.25 total

3. World Trade Center (Par) - $10.8, 2998 screens, week 2, $45.0 total

4. Accepted (Uni) - $10.1, 2914 screens, week 1, $10.1 total

5. Step Up (BV) - $9.867, 2639 screens, week 2, $39.45 total

6. Barnyard (Par) - $7.489, 3227 screens, week 3, $45.995 total

7. Little Miss Sunshine (FoxSrc) - $5.675, 691 screens, week 4, $12.756 total

8. Pirates Of The Caribbean (BV) - $5.0, 2277 screens, week 7, $401.1 total

9. Material Girls (MGM) - $4.6, 1509 screens, week 1, $4.6 total

10. Pulse (Dim) - $3.5, 2323 screens, week 2, $14.7 total


Ok, those are the numbers, so what does this all mean? Well, if you're Will Ferrell, you're pretty happy that your film managed to compete with Pirates of the Caribbean, and be the only other film this year to stay at the top of the box office for three weeks in a row. And if you're Samuel L. Jackson, you want to get that... you know what? I'm tired of jokes about getting snakes off the motherflippin plane. Snakes on a Plane proved and disproved a lot of things this weekend. It proves that you can have all the hype in the world, but it still means nothing if you don't strike while the iron's hot. Had SoaP come out in June, it would have cleaned up. People wanted to see that flick. But by holding strong until August, I feel a lot of the hype surrounding the "must see" worthiness of this one died heavily. In a way, it's good that it didn't make that much money. It kind of makes the film that much cooler. Like, it flirted with mainstream acceptance, but at the end of the day the movie is about a bunch of snakes on a plane. DVD should provide a happy future for the film, as this one is a movie to watch with large groups of friends, with alcohol very close by.

If you're Accepted, you would expect to find a pun about overachieving. However, I'm lazy and knocking this out at work, so make up your own. the Justin Long college comedy seemed to attract a fair amount of perspectives this weekend, and given it's low budget, this film will make some cash at the end of the day. However, it faces a challenge with next week's Beerfest. Given Accepted's PG-13 rating over Fest's R, it might be a tough call. (Or people sneaking into R rated movies next week may give Accepted a smaller boost).

If you're Material Girls, all I gotta say is where the hell did you come from? I know nothing about this movie. Looking it up, I se it contains not one, but TWO Duffs. Anyway, this flick tanked, as it should. Really, is there that big of a glut since Lohan went all "serious" on us that we need to sit through this crap? This film angers me. Moving on.

The holdovers from previous weeks are doing just that. World Trade Center, in it's second weekend, managed to hold on strong, which is natural given that it has no other direct competition in the playing field. Seriously, the Material Girls crowd isn't exactly aching to get into WTC afterwards and make it a double feature. Anyway, it's doing well, much better than expected, and it will most likely continue along this path, what with the nifty MySpace page the film has, dawg. Step Up, another movie I have no idea of that has it's official webpage as it's myspace site (I hate you Tom and MySpace), continues to dupe teen girl squads into spending their hard earned cash in a quest to find their generation's Dirty Dancing. Barnyard continues doing just alright, along with almost every other CG animated flick this summer. Pirates opened it's own bank and has just been printing it's own money for three weeks now. Pulse is history. And Little Miss Sunshine climbs up the ranks and makes the top ten this week. Best film on this top ten, it should be noted. COntinued good word of mouth will have this film playing well into the fall.

Below the radar, the magic themed period romance The Illusionist opened on 51 screens accumulating a grand total of $925,000, with a per screen average of $18,137, the highest of any film this weekend. Look for it to possibly open wider soon. The Fox Searchlight comedy Trust The Man opened on 38 screens to take in $176,000. And Factotum opened on 6 screens for a grand total of $60,800. Good word of mouth will see if these continue to perform well.

And in the "just because it's there and because I can" series: An Inconvenient Truth took in $246,000 on 221 screens, bringing it's tally to $23,800,000 in 13 weeks.

(Again let me state that An Inconvenient Truth is a film you should have already seen, but if not, you should go after you finish reading this)

There you have my wonderful break down. Next week, we have a Marky Mark football movie from the studio that made Remember the Titans, we have the Broken Lizard guys returning to hopefully make me wet myself with laughter, and there's probably a kids movie, or something even dumber coming out. Strangely, I don't think there's a horror flick coming out, making it the only weekend this year that wouldn't.

Until next weekend....

ADDENDUM: The final numbers were posted about an hour after I submitted the story in for publication, and the final tally is this:

1. Snakes on a Plane - $13.806
2. Talladega Nights - $13.755
3. World Trade Center - $10.9
4. Step Up - $10.157
5. Accepted - $10.023

Sorry for the confusion. Snakes is indeed, the champion.