Box Office Report: May 18th 2008 Edition!

Dude here again. My mother was more than pleased to do last week's box office report. I think she did a good job with it. But I missed doing it, so I fired her and took back control. (She still does the laundry, though).

This weekend, the Iron Man is knocked down a peg by the Prince Caspian fellow. And Speed Racer continues to sputter over any sort of finish line. 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 this column wrong).

1. Prince Caspian (BV) - $56.5, 3929 screens, week 1, $56.5 total

2. Iron Man (Par) - $31.2, 4154 screens, week 3, $222.4 total

3. What Happens In Vegas (Fox)- $13.8, 3255 screens, week 2, $40.3 total

4. Speed Racer (WB) - $7.6, 3606 screens, week 2, $29.3 total

5. Baby Mama (Uni) - $4.59, 2503 screens, week 4, $47.2 total

6. Made of Honor (Sony) - $4.50, 2816 screens, week 3, $33.7 total

7. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Uni) - $2.5, 1601 screens, week 5, $55.0 total

8. Harold and Kumar... (NL)- $1.8, 1403 screens, week 4, $33.9 total

9. The Forbidden Kingdom (LGF) - $1.0, 997 screens, week 5, $50.2 total

10. The Visitor (Over) - $0.68, 224 screens, week 6, $3.4 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, the Chronic(What?)cles of Narnia opened up to some decent numbers. Fewer than the previous film in the series, but that didn't have to go up against Iron Man. Or face Indiana Jones next week. Still, an impressive haul, one I'm sure will be declared as the "Highest Grossing Sequel to Open on May 16th, 2008".

It's looking like Narnia was the only movie that really opened up this week. Although joining the top ten this week is The Visitor, the second film from Thomas McCarthy, who directed the wonderful film The Station Agent. It's getting rave reviews and looks to be an indie sleeper worth checking out.

What Happens In Vegas continues to hold strong and attract audiences in the mood for laughs and inevitable romance between two obnoxious people. And the audiences are choosing this one over the Made of Honor one. I can't decide whether to be happy or sad about this.

Let me tell you something about Speed Racer, it seems nobody is seeing, nor even cares about this movie. A 60% drop for the movie I best heard described as "Stabbed in the eye with a rainbow", Speed Racer is almost ready to be declared a natural disaster, This saddens me, but it gives me hope that the IMAX screenings will be less crowded for it now!

And in the "Because It's There" series: Son Of Rambow took in $223,000 on 91 screens, bringing its grand total to $509,000 in 3 weeks.

There you have my break down. Next week, the two-fisted punch in the junk of awesomeness that is Indiana Jones and Postal!

Until next weekend....