Box Office Update 4/13-4/15: Disturbia Settles at the Top

The teen-ified version of the Hitchcock classic Rear Window completely dominated at the box office this weekend. Disturbia easily took the top spot over this weeks field. Six new movies entered the wide release fray with only half that number making any sort of impact. It was like the attack of the mediocre movie at the cineplex. Everywhere you turn you are confronted by choices, and none of them were terribly appealing. Still, despite the overwhelming mediocrity the public spoke, and fortunately chose the best of the lot. I am not saying its great, but it was actually an entertaining film pieced together from that which has come before.

While Disturbia was reeling in the audience looking for some teen-themed thrills, two other new releases were busy trying to make a mark of their own, just not quite as big. The Halle Berry/Bruce Willis thriller fumbled the ball before making it across line of scrimmage, finishing shy of Disney's Meet the Robinsons in 4th place. I guess it doesn't help that it was a rather pitiful excuse for a movie. The only other new film to crack the top ten was Pathfinder, which failed to find its way to the ticket booth, finishing in 6th place with just over $5 million. It is a stylish actioner that forgot its story somewhere along the way to the screen.

On a happier note, 300 continues to impress. This weekend pushed the Spartan battle movie past the coveted $200 million mark. It is now in elite company as one of 8 R rated films to cross that mark. It will probably push past T2 for number 7, and even has a shot at the number 6 movie, Wedding Crashers. It is a great success story for an over the top action film that is more style than substance and ha obviously struck a chord that no one was expecting. Also continuing to impress, Wild Hogs is still bringing in the crowds, it retained its number 7 placing, with a gross that has pushed past the $150 million mark.

Down at the bottom of the list is Grindhouse, hanging on for dear life. It was a great experience and a fascinaing concept, albeit one that failed to find an audience. As much as I don't want to, I find it to be completely understandable. It has a runtime north of three hours, opened on Easter weekend, is toplined by cultish directors, and is based on a concept that much of the target audience is probably not familiar with (that includes me, having missed the grindhouse era). There has been talk of splitting it into its component films, and restoring the missing reels. I have even heard of some theaters going ahead and making the split already, without the missing footage. Still, I loved it, and look forward to whatever form the DVD release brings.

From a numbers perspective, there was a big battle in this week's top ten. The bottom five films were separated by less than $700,000, and the bottom four separated by just $300,000. It would not have taken much to have seen these films in a vastly different order.

There were three other films released in relatively wide release that failed to make a mark. First off is Redline, a movie that looks like a wannabe Fast and the Furious, it finished 11th. A little further down, at 14, is Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. It may not have cracked the top ten, but it also opened on far fewer theaters and has a per theater average that is good enough to play with the big boys. Lastly there is Slow Burn, a racially and sexually charged thriller which sat on a shelf for four years. There's a reason why, it is not very good at all, and its gross is indicative of that fact.

Three films dropped from the list this week: Shooter (12), Firehouse Dog (13), and TMNT (15).

This Week	Last Week	Title	Wknd Gross	Overall	Week in release
1	N	Disturbia	$22,224,982	$22,224,982	1
2	1	Blades of Glory	$13,826,386	$89,956,404	3
3	2	Meet the Robinsons	$12,467,155	$72,367,907	3
4	N	Perfect Stranger	$11,206,163	$11,206,163	1
5	3	Are We Done Yet?	$8,952,686	$32,756,340	2
6	N	Pathfinder	$5,001,214	$5,001,214	1
7	7	Wild Hogs	$4,676,734	$152,280,821	7
8	5	The Reaping	$4,567,478	$19,765,297	2
9	6	300	$4,454,355	$200,965,135	6
10	4	Grindhouse	$4,331,372	$19,792,200	2

Box Office Predictions Recap
What can I say? I tanked this week, from my wild overestimations of the gross to my all over the map placements. I have no excuse for my guesstimate of Slow Burn. I should have known Disturbia would do well. What can I say? I was off, way off. My one bright point being The Reaping, which I was dead on. Well, there's always next week.
Anyway, here is how I picked the field:

Actual	Prediction	Title	Wknd Gross	Prediction
2	1	Blades of Glory	$13,826,386	$18 million
4	2	Perfect Stranger	$11,206,163	$15 million
1	3	Disturbia	$22,224,982	$14 million
3	4	Meet the Robinsons	$12,467,155	$11 million
6	5	Pathfinder	$5,001,214	$9 million
5	6	Are We Done Yet?	$8,952,686	$8 million
11	7	Redline	$3,962,385	$6 million
8	8	The Reaping	$4,567,478	$4.5 million
20	9	Slow Burn	$778,123	$3 million
7	10	Wild Hogs	$4,676,734	$3 million