Sunday, May 23, 2010

Box Office Report: Who cares, Lost ends tonight!

Dude here again. Movies are what I talk about here, but with such a lackluster summer of movies that aren't very good, I feel obliged to remind everybody that Lost ends this evening. And I'm sure that many executives would love to consider this as the reason for lowered box office numbers.

And not the fact that they're making really crappy movies.

This weekend, a complete lack of surprise of an animated 3-D movie comes out and disappoints. 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).

1. Shrek Forever After (Par/DW) - $71.2, 4359 screens, week 1, $71.2 total

2. Iron Man 2 (Par) - $26.6, 4177 screens, week 3, $251.2 total

3. Robin Hood (Uni) - $18.7, 3505 screens, week 2, $66.1 total

4. Letters to Juliet (Sum)- $9.1, 2975 screens, week 2, $27.4 total

5. Just Wright (FoxS)- $4.2, 1831 screens, week 2, $14.6 total

6. MacGruber (Uni)- $4.1, 2551 screens, week 1, $4.1 total

7. Date Night (Fox)- $2.8, 1869 screens, week 7, $90.6 total

8. Nightmare on Elm Street (WB) - $2.2, 2125 screens, week 4, $59.9 total

9. How To Train Your Dragon (Par/DW) $1.8, 1751 screens, week 9, $210.9 total

10. Kites (Relbig)- $1.0, 208 screens, week 1, $1.0 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, it means that Shrek has become some sort of cultural obligation. It also means that if you were 5 or so when the original came out, and loved it you are now a teenager, and have no use for such films. Oh, and they raised some 3-D prices for shows of this Shrek, and it still managed to disappoint.

But nothing is as disappointing as the performance of MacGruber. The first SNL based film since The Ladies Man nearly a decade ago, MacGruber truly failed to find any sort of audience. This saddens me, as I was convinced MacGruber would be a huge sleeper hit, and it was the only movie after The Expendables that I wanted to see this summer. Maybe I should name this summer "Summer of Massive Disappointment.

Something called Kites opened in tenth place. Impressive. I believe it's a foreign film of some sort. Indian, maybe? But I'm too lazy to actually bother doing the legwork on this one, so I'll just leave this with a simple Jai Ho!

Everything else is dropping steadily into obscurity. Iron Man 2 will probably surpass the original's take, but not by much. Robin Hood is lucky for foreign grosses. Letters to Juliet and Just Wright, however, seem to be holding steady, which means there is still hope that all movies are not explosions and CGI and just two hour commercials for a movie that's 2 years away.

(That's right, Marvel FIlms, I'm calling you out for making a crappy sequel just to make one big movie. Screw you, I want my money back).

Below the radar, Solitary Man opened on 4 screens, and took in $89,000 for a per screen average higher than Shrek's. Racing Dreams also opened up on 33 screens, and took in $21,500. I have no idea what this movie is about, but it sounds like one of those fake titles for movies that Seinfeld and his gang would see.

So there, you have my amazing break down. Next week, men will be powerless against Sex and the City 2! And Prince of Persia, starring one of the whitest dudes in the world.

Until next weekend....

(All Numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo)

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