Sunday, March 25, 2007

Box Office Report: 3-25-07

Dude here again, with another astonishing report from the front lines of Hollywood. I'm in the thick of it, but somehow, somewhere, I find the strength making me capable enough to report these numbers to you.

This weekend, we have six new releases trying to knock 300 from the top spot. Did any of them actually succeed? Well, if you skip these opening paragraphs I spend hours writing ahead of time, and look down at the chart, you'll see for yourself. But still, 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. TMNT (WB) - $25.45, 3110 screens, week 1, $25.45 total

2. 300 (WB) - $20.5, 3280 screens, week 2, $162.35 total

3. Shooter (Par) - $14.5, 2806 screens, week 1, $14.5 total

4. Wild Hogs (BV)- $14.36, 3401 screens, week 4, $123.8 total

5. The Last Mimzy (NL) - $10.2, 3017 screens, week 1, $10.2 total

6. Premonition (Sony) - $10.1, 2831 screens, week 2, $32.19 total

7. The Hills Have Eyes 2 (Fox Atomic) - $10.0, 2447 screens, week 1, $10.0 total

8. Reign Over Me (Sony)- $8.0, 1671 screens, week 1, $8.0 total

9. Pride (LGF) - $4.0, 1518 screens, week 1, $4.0 total

10. Dead Silence (Uni) - $3.468, 1806 screens, week 2, $13.2 total

Ok, those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, it means that I have a hell of a lot more work to do today than normally. You see, I write from a template (you might have noticed) that I just mix and match numbers and titles. It's fairly straightforward, and it saves me about a half hour of work. But since we have 6 new releases, I may as well have just started from scratch. Stupid Hollywood, always ruining my templates. The thing is, with those three flicks all hovering around the $10 million mark ( Mimzy, Premonition, and Hills), and two (Shooter and Hogs) hovering around the $14.5 mark, I'm sure one studio (my money is going with Disney) will discover that they made more than the others, which means I have to do some MORE switching up of the template. Hollywood, man. Full of jerks that don't think about any templates but their own.

So, it's a little humiliating, but now Spartans were defeated by the Persian empire AND four teenaged mutant ninja turtles. In a comparatively weak opening, TMNT (I'll give them credit for the abbreviation, as it shortens the space, thus not creating too much chaos to aforementioned template) managed to knock off 300. This bodes well for... well, I'm not really sure. Hopefully they'll make a second one, and this time include Shredder. (I'm going off what I heard, I haven't seen it yet).

What else? I already mentioned the Shooter-Hogs situation. (I'm serious. Someone will claim more money on that when the actuals are released) Kudos to New Line on the Mimzy opening, though, as I had a feeling most people dismissed the movie from the pretty terrible title. I could mention the low performance for Hills Have Eyes 2, but that would just be kind of mean. I heard the film was atrocious, so if it can make $10 million based on the first one alone... well, I never had all that much faith to begin with. Reign Over Me and Pride didn't fare so well, despite being generally the best reviewed flicks. Funny how it works like that, huh? Kinda makes you think.

And in the "Because It's There" series: Dreamgirls took in $60,000 on 103 screens, bringing it's grand total to $103,010,000 in 15 weeks.

There you have my break down. Next week, a few less films attempt to mess with my template. I can't even tell you what they are right now. Will they succeed? Only time will tell.

Until next weekend....

No comments: