Sunday, November 04, 2007

Box Office Report: Daylight Savings Edition

Dude here again. Did you all have a fun Halloween? I thought it would be fun this year to pass out floss to the trick or treaters. Actually, just leave it in a basket that reads "Take ONLY One". That way, the kids won't come back next year. (And the kids who DO come back with have healthy teeth and gums!) You can't find fault with my brilliance.

This weekend, we had a clash of titans, as two movies on complete opposite ends of the spectrum opened up huge. How huge? So huge as to necessitate dropping the "h", and redubbing these openings as "uge"! 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. American Gangster (Uni) - $46.3, 3054 screens, week 1, $46.3 total

2. Bee Movie (Par/DW) - $39.1 3928 screens, week 1, $39.1 total

3. Saw IV (LGF) - $11.0, 3183 screens, week 2, $51.0 total

4. Dan in Real Life (BV) - $8.1, 1925 screens, week 2, $22.9 total

5. 30 Days of Night (Sony) - $4.0, 2627 screens, week 3, $34.2 total

6. The Game Plan (BV) - $3.8, 2844 screens, week 6, $81.9 total

7. Martian Child (NL) - $3.6, 2020 screens, week 1, $3.6 total

8. Michael Clayton (WB)- $2.9, 2107 screens, week 5, $33.1 total

9. Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? (LGF) - $2.7, 1403 screens, week 4, $51.1 total

10. Gone Baby Gone (Mira) - $2.4, 1617 screens, week 3, $14.9 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, it means American Gangster is kicking major ass. Opening on almost a thousand screens less than Bee Movie, and running over two and a half hours, American Gangster took in an obscene amount of movie to sell out crowds across the map. It's also receiving fantastic reviews and Oscar buzz. Next week, it will be nominated for a nobel peace prize, and soon, the film will go on to cure cancer and global warming. I hear the movie is terrific, but I'm waiting to see it with my Dad, because he can't stop talking about how excited he is to see this movie. Not since Virtuosity has he been this psyched, and we all know who starred in THAT picture as well.

Bee Movie didn't quite open up to Shrek numbers, despite an onslaught of marketing that was bordering on obnoxious. It got so bad, that this afternoon a bee flew into my car, and my immediate response was that Dreamworks had managed to train bees to tell people to see this movie. Alas, it was just a normal, dazed bee that doesn't realize it's November. Stupid bee. Oh but this movie came out, and people saw it, but not nearly as many as saw American Gangster. The movie will probably have some legs, but it's receiving some pretty bad reviews, which seems to be par for the course with Dreamworks animated movies of late.

John Cusack stars in a new movie called Martian Child, which isn't nearly as terrifying a film as the title would lead you to believe. (Or hope). Alas, it barely opened. I didn't even know it was coming out, to be honest with you, which tells you how good a job that marketing department is doing. Although, I do believe this film has been on a shelf collecting dust for some time now. While not necessarily a sign that a movie is bad, it's never really a good sign. Especially if said martian child does not eat brains and gain knowledge.

Saw IV dropped a lot in it's second week. Surprising. Or maybe it's not. I don't know, I should compare it to the previous films in the Saw cannon. Don't know if I want to, though. That sounds like extra work. And we all know that trying is the first step towards failure. So, there's that. (Fine I looked it up. It is the biggest drop for the series. By a long shot).

Below the radar, I couldn't really find anything of much interest that opened up this weekend. Very strange. Soon we'll get more prestige pictures opening up in limited release. That will be fun, won't it kids? Don't forget to floss now.

And in the "Because It's There" series: The Darjeeling Limited took in $1,300,000 on 615 screens, bringing it's grand total to $8,110,000 in 6 weeks.

There you have my break down. Next week, a fun time Christmas movie that could either be the next Elf or the next Christmas with the Kranks. We also have a badass looking new movie from the Coen brothers that I am literally wetting myself with anticipation for. And Tom Cruise has a new political themed movie that most people will probably ignore.

Until next weekend....

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