Box Office Report: Money Down The Drain

Dude here again. I bring to you numbers. Large numbers. Numbers that make people happy. Very happy. Unless you're one of the people who was disappointed in what you spent your money on. I know I was. And that makes this large number a little disturbing to report.

This weekend, Spielberg proves that he can just throw anything at all together and make a boat load of money at the same time. And when I say anything, I refer to Shia LeBouf summoning his monkey friends to help defeat communism. 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. PLUS, there will be large numbers for tomorrow being the holiday weekend. but I'm too lazy to write 2 articles. And the word for 2).

1. Indiana Jones... (Par) - $101.0, 4260 screens, week 1, $126.0 total

2. Prince Caspian (BV) - $23.0, 3929 screens, week 2, $91.0 total

3. Iron Man (Par) - $20.1, 3915 screens, week 4, $252.3 total

4. What Happens In Vegas (Fox)- $9.0, 3188 screens, week 3, $54.2 total

5. Speed Racer (WB) - $4.0, 3112 screens, week 3, $36.2 total

6. Made of Honor (Sony) - $3.4, 2393 screens, week 4, $39.0 total

7. Baby Mama (Uni) - $3.3, 2158 screens, week 5, $52.1 total

8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Uni) - $1.6, 1078 screens, week 6, $58.1 total

9. Harold and Kumar... (NL)- $0.91, 750 screens, week 5, $35.9 total

10. The Visitor (Over) - $0.78, 270 screens, week 7, $4.4 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? Well, I think I said it before, mentioning how Indiana Jones, not the greatest of Mummy rip-offs out there, made an insane amount of money over four days. With tomorrow being the holiday, I have a feeling a record of some sort will be declared. "Greatest Five Day Opening By Spielberg", or "Just a shade under the Pirates, but really they ripped us off first". Studios love to declare things like that.

However, the other movies this week didn't seem to fare so well. Narnia had a steep, almost 60% decline from last week's take, and although it could be considered a hit in most languages, it's an underperforming hit. Iron Man, however, continues to clean up, making another $20 million, in 4 weeks of release. and yet, the Speed Racer seems like it will struggle to break $50 million. What happened to the blockbusters?

War, Inc. is the latest film from John Cusack, and it opened on 2 screens taking in $36,500 total. Not very impressive, although the movie is scheduled for a DVD release in a few weeks. (It doesn't help that it's receiving horrible reviews). Speaking of horrible reviews, the latest magnum opus from everyone's favorite punching bag Uwe Boll, Postal opened up on 17 screens. However, nobody reported any numbers which leads me to believe nobody at all is seeing the film. Which is a shame, because it's not THAT bad. (But it's still pretty bad).

And in the "Because It's There" series: 10,000 B.C. took in $104,000 on 187 screens, bringing its grand total to $94,520,000 in 12 weeks.

There you have my break down. Next week, the onslaught of underperformance continues with the highly anticipated release of a movie based on an HBO show about hookers. At least that's what I think HBO runs, right? It's not TV, it's HBO.

Until next weekend....