Box Office Report: 12-31-06

Dude here again, with the last box office weekend of the year. Indeed, it has been a crazy year. A year that saw Big Momma top the charts, and Snakes on Planes, and Pirates breaking every conceivable record possible, and lots of big openings and steep drop offs. And I reported on most of these. (There was a long stretch when I wasn't). But what's important to know is that while there were a lot of numbers, there was also a lot of love.

This weekend audiences stuck with the same releases. A few newcomers thrown into the mix, but overall kind of like a rehash. This is just for the Friday through Sunday weekend, not for the four day holiday weekend. In order to report that, I would have to recover mighty quick from my New Year's hangover, and I'm not gonna lie to you, that ain't happenin'. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates, the actuals will be available sometime later this week).

1. Night At The Museum (Fox) - $37.8, 3768 screens, week 2, $116.855 total

2. The Pursuit of Happyness (Sony) - $19.3, 2870 screens, week 3, $98.3 total

3. Dreamgirls (Par/DW)- $15.5, 852 screens, week 4, $38.46 total

4. Charlotte's Web (Par) - $12.0, 3745 screens, week 3, $52.858 total

5. Rocky Balboa (MGM)- $11.35, 3019 screens, week 2, $48.82 total

6. The Good Shepherd (Uni) - $11.245, 2218 screens, week 2, $35.3 total

7. Eragon (Fox) - $8.475, 2985 screens, week 3, $56.689 total

8. We Are Marshall (WB) - $8.0, 2606 screens, week 2, $25.06 total

9. Happy Feet (WB) - $7.8, 2565 screens, week 7, $176.15 total

10. The Holiday (Sony) - $6.78, 2698 screens, week 4, $50.0 total

Ok, those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, it means that last week I was right when I said that everything would have a nice holiday boost. Everything is making a large amount of money, which is nice. Good for Dreamgirls for making number 3 there. There's nothing to really analyze about it. People had free time and went to the movies. The choice is clear.

Below the radar, two of my favorite/best of the year flicks opened up. Children of Men opened on 16 screens, to the tune of $532,000, bringing it's grand total since Monday to $1,114,000. And Pan's Labyrinth opened on 17 screens and pulled in $595,000. It had the highest per screen average of the weekend, pulling in $35,000. And have I mentioned that both movies are utterly fantastic?

And in the "just because it's there and because I can" series: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan took in $900,000 on 399 screens, bringing it's grand total to $125,931,000 in 9 weeks

There you have my break down. Next week looks to bring around more of the same numbers and top movies, along with the additional releases of crappy movies, and the expansion of "awards season" movies. Man, I love this business.

Until next weekend.... Happy New Year everybody! Don't get too wasted, and remember there's no shame in taking a cab.