Box Office Update 3/16-3/18: 300 Holds off a Horde of Puppets

Last weekend saw the first entry in the 2007 century club, this week saw two more cross that marker. The first is the Spartan epic 300, of coursem it is not a terribly realistic film, nor is it factual, but what it is is a pulse pounding, visionary film about Spartan propaganda. It is the best time I have had at the movies this year. Hot on the heels of that is the broad comedy Wild Hogs, a movie that has proven to be surprisingly durable. Altogether, it was a pretty good week at the theaters, just take into account the big snowstorm in the Northeast, which certainly put a damper on movie going.

Last week's top two films continued to exert their dominance, successfully fending off the challenges of three new films entering the fray. Of course, the new films did not put up all that much of a fight. It would have taken all three combined to top 300.

The top new release is the Sandra Bullock thriller Premoniton. It came in third place with just over $17 million. It was not nearly as good as I had hoped it would be, and I liked it more than most, I suspect that it will fade away rather quickly before finding a steady life on the rental market in a few months. It is followed, none too closely, by the the killer puppet film Dead Silence. I suspect that its $7 million opening will be deemed a disappointment, proving that the creators of Saw aren't big enough to open a movie. That's a shame, as the film is seriously creepy, despite some weak acting, it is filled with atmosphere and shows another side to director James Wan. A little further down in fifth place is the Chris Rock comedy, I Think I Love My Wife. It has been rather savaged by critics, and will probably not last long, I cannot say personally, as I have not yet seen it.

Most of the returning films did rather well this weekend. In particular, Bridge to Terabithia slipped a mere 23%, and that puts a big smile on my face. First rate family films are hard to come by, this one is a definite winner, and I am happy that it is finding an audience. Ghost Rider and Norbit also did decent audience retention, proving that it is not always quality that puts people in the seats.

It will be interesting to see what happens next week as the cineplex will be flooded with no fewer than six new films. Seems awfully crowded to me.

Three films dropped from the list this week: The Number 23 (11), Amazing Grace (12), and Breach (13).

This Week	Last Week	Title	Wknd Gross	Overall	Week in release
1	1	300	$32,877,328	$129,165,656	2
2	2	Wild Hogs	$19,058,871	$104,226,868	3
3	N	Premonition	$17,558,689	$17,558,689	1
4	N	Dead Silence	$7,842,725	$7,842,725	1
5	N	I Think I Love My Wife	$5,674,802	$5,674,802	1
6	3	Bridge to Terabithia	$5,192,153	$74,967,513	5
7	4	Ghost Rider	$4,176,658	$110,378,574	5
8	5	Zodiac	$3,287,560	$29,137,557	3
9	6	Norbit	$2,766,593	$92,438,806	6
10	8	Music and Lyrics	$2,272,317	$47,448,875	5

Box Office Predictions Recap
300 may have dropped more than 50% this weekend, but I still correctly had it leading the field. Although, I think the numbers would have been more in my favor had the snow not fell so furiously in the Northeast. Still, I was able to pick half the field correctly, although I would have thought that Premonition would have started a bit stronger. It is also nice to see Bridge to Terabithia continuing its track. In the end it was an on week for me, next week will surely be back to the bad guess show!
Anyway, here is how I picked the field:

Actual	Prediction	Title	Wknd Gross	Prediction
1	1	300	$32,877,328	$39 million
3	2	Premonition	$17,558,689	$24 million
2	3	Wild Hogs	$19,058,871	$17 million
4	4	Dead Silence	$7,842,725	$13 million
5	5	I Think I Love My Wife	$5,674,802	$12 million
6	6	Bridge to Terabithia	$5,192,153	$5 million
7	7	Ghost Rider	$4,176,658	$4.5 million
9	8	Norbit	$2,766,593	$3 million
8	9	Zodiac	$3,287,560	$2.5 million
11	10	The Number 23	$2,149,452	$2 million