Box Office Report: Cloverfield Strikes! Star Wars... weeps

Dude here again. What I'm about to report takes a strong constitution. It's not something that I take lightly, as this is indeed a sad day about the state of modern cinema. With that in mind, I present to you this week's box office report. Well, the weekend, not the 3-day holiday tally. Because even though I have the day off, I don't want to do this thing twice. (It's a miracle it even gets done the first time).

This weekend, the result of a six month viral marketing campaign pays off to big numbers. How big? 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. Cloverfield (Par) - $41.0, 3411 screens, week 1, $41.0 total

2. 27 Dresses (Fox) - $22.4, 3057 screens, week 1, $22.4 total

3. The Bucket List (WB) - $15.1, 2915 screens, week 4, $42.7 total

4. Juno (FoxS) - $10.2, 2534 screens, week 7, $85.3 total

5. National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (BV)- $8.1, 2963 screens, week 5, $198.0 total

6. First Sunday (ScrGms) - $7.8, 2213 screens, week 2, $28.4 total

7. Mad Money (Over)- $7.7, 2470 screens, week 1, $7.7 total

8. Alvin and the Chipmunks (Fox) - $7.0, 2962 screens, week 6, $196.3 total

9. I Am Legend (WB) - $5.1, 2525 screens, week 6, $247.6 total

10. Atonement (Focus) - $4.7, 1291 screens, week 7, $31.8 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, it means that Cloverfield took in a great amount of money. (Curiously, though, not as much as Alvin and the Chipmunks in their opening weekend). What does a movie that makes $41 million in January do? It overtakes the top spot on highest January opening of all time. And what was the previous title holder for that distinction? Star Wars. (Granted, the Special Edition, but still). So while people are happy that the movie did so well (those able to watch the film without motion sickness), as a lifelong Star Wars dork, this news is terribly upsetting. Sigh.

Speaking of terribly upsetting, 27 Dresses took in $22 million, which is almost a million dollars a dress. And Mad Money tried to open, but that just wasn't in the cards. This was a weekend about giant monsters attacking.

Below the radar, Cassandra's Dream, the latest film from Woody Allen opened up on around a hundred screens and took in just over half a million dollars. ($501,000, to be precise). Not bad, but not very good either. Then again, Woody Allen isn't always about bringing in the Cloverfield numbers. Not this time anyway. And some movie called Blonde and Blonder opened up on 14 screens, and took in $26,500 total. Do with that what you will.

And in the "Because It's There" series: No Country For Old Men took in took in $1,351,000 on 818 screens, bringing it's grand total to $48,730,000 in 11 weeks.

There you have my break down. Next week brings Rambo. Thank goodness for that.

Until next weekend....