Sunday, March 11, 2007

Box Office Report 3-11-07: Balance and Peace. (And Violence)

Dude here again, and finally I am happy. Why am I happy? Because for all my whining and about a lack of balance in the world, especially with regard to the weekend box office numbers, it came back three-fold. Finally, a movie deserving of the obscene amounts of money it makes.

This weekend, we had one movie in wide release. Why only one? Because the others were afraid. And they have every right to be. For this weekend, we dine in hell! Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates, the actuals will be available on Monday. Just to prove me wrong).

1. 300 (WB) - $70.0, 3103 screens, week 1, $70.0 total

2. Wild Hogs (BV)- $28.0, 3296 screens, week 2, $77.4 total

3. Bridge to Terabithia (BV) - $6.865, 3210 screens, week 4, $67.0 total

4. Ghost Rider (Sony) - $6.8, 3347 screens, week 4, $104.1 total

5. Zodiac (Par)- $6.77, 2379 screens, week 2, $23.7 total

6. The Number 23 (NL) - $4.33, 2489 screens, week 3, $30.48 total

7. Norbit (DW) - $4.3, 2505 screens, week 5, $88.3 total

8. Music and Lyrics (WB) - $3.8, 2280 screens, week 4, $43.8 total

9. Breach (Uni) - $2.6, 1505 screens, week 4, $29.1 total

10. Amazing Grace (IDP) - $2.5, 1000 screens, week 3, $11.4 total

Ok, those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, it means 300 kicked even more arse than I had previously imagined. TO be perfectly honest, I think the numbers blew everyone's mind. At least those involved with the production. Most predictions were being kind when they initially estimated this, putting it in the high 20s, maybe even mid 30s. It should be noted that on it's first day of release, 300 took in nearly $28 million. Not bad. With no competition, this movie destroyed. It also now claims the biggest March opening of all time, squeaking by last year's Ice Age 2. (However, if the estimate is higher, and the cume is less than the Ice Age 2 opening weekend, I'm sure man will claim it as the biggest non sequel March opening of all time. People like their titles and records).

The success of 300 has led me to believe a couple of things. Firstly, I believe that every movie theater should be required to have a screen that solely plays Zach Snyder movies. This way, a theater can never say "We're not showing anything good." Because they will always have a good movie playing. The second repercussion should be that we're forced to speak like Gerard Butler's character at work. All week. At least, that's what I'm gonna do. Because I'm awesome like that.

Wild Hogs continued with a strong second week, dropping only 29% from last week. This one should be around for awhile making money behind our backs without even realizing it, until one day when you're in line for Spider-man 3 and you look at the box office marquee and realize, "Wow, Wild Hogs is STILL playing? People must like John Travolta in leather."

In other news, Ghost Rider officially became the first 2007 release to break $100 million dollars. Yay!

And in the "Because It's There" series: The Korean monster movie/domestic drama The Host took in $320,000 on 71 screens, bringing it's grand total to $320,000 in 1 week.

There you have my break down. Next week, we see if 300 can continue it's momentum, which it rightly should. But we have a bunch of new movies trying to unseat the mighty Spartan warriors. I smell blood.

Until next weekend....

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