The last of the big three thirds for the month of May has arrived, and while it may have opened with the lowest box office total, it was the most satisfying of the lot. It opened to the tune of $115 million dollars making it the fourth biggest opening ever. That is nothing to sneeze at, no matter how much the studios want you to believe that it is a disappointment. It could be the one to show the strongest staying power over the other two, due to it drawing pretty strongly across all demographics. Still, it wil be interesting to see how well it does through the week, and with nothing that I would call strong competition coming next weekend.Coming in at second place was Shrek the Third which took an estimated 56% from last week, bringing in another $53 million, making it the third film to cross the $200 million barrier, joining 300 and Spider-Man 3. It also became the fastest animated film to reace that $200 million mark, besting Shrek 2. The movie definitely has its funny moments, but it isn't the crowd pleaser for which I had hoped.
Spider-Man 3 finished third with another 50% drop, it also became the first film to cross the the $300 million mark and looks to be headed for a final tally somewhere in the vicinity of $340 million. A definite success anyway you cut, and when you factor in the worldwide gross, this will be the biggest moneymaker thus far for the franchise.
Only one other new release cracked the top ten this week. William Friedkin's delayed Bug finally made its debut, only to get caught in the wake of a killer pirate ship. It is a paranoid thriller of the first caliber. One of the creepiest films of recent memory.
On another note, two other films reached the top ten that were not new releases, one has been making a steady climb, the other making a surprising return. First is the delightful Keri Russell starring Waitress. The movie is wonderful and deserves as much attention as it can get. Then there is Wild Hogs, a movie I thought had seen the its last taste of top ten glory weeks ago. Even while dropping screens, its revenue went up over 150%. I guess the sold out signs on the Pirates film translated into Hogs getting a lot of spillover.
Next week sees the release of a pair of films that could get good receptions, and are likely to overtake at least Spider-Man 3, but do not have the pressure of being the proposed biggest movie of the summer in Knocked Up and Mr. Brooks.
All figures and positions are based off of the three day weekend estimates. Final figures are delayed due to the holiday.
Four films dropped from the list this week: The Invisible (12), Blades of Glory (13), Delta Farce (14), and Hot Fuzz (14).
| This Week | Last Week | Title | Wknd Gross | Overall | Week in release |
| 1 | N | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | $115,057,000 | $129,057,000 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | Shrek the Third | $53,011,000 | $203,349,000 | 2 |
| 3 | 2 | Spider-Man 3 | $14,200,000 | $303,842,000 | 4 |
| 4 | N | Bug | $3,310,000 | $3,310,000 | 1 |
| 5 | 12 | Waitress | $3,075,000 | $5,592,000 | 4 |
| 6 | 3 | 28 Weeks Later | $2,585,000 | $23,706,000 | 3 |
| 7 | 5 | Disturbia | $1,921,000 | $74,431,000 | 7 |
| 8 | 4 | Georgia Rule | $1,856,000 | $16,281,000 | 3 |
| 9 | 6 | Fracture | $1,200,000 | $36,724,000 | 6 |
| 10 | 17 | Wild Hogs | $1,092,000 | $162,919,000 | 13 |
Box Office Predictions Recap
Not too bad on the guessing front this week, mainly on the positioning side of the game where I was able to get 7 slots placed correctly. I had some slight overestimation of Duisturbia and the opposite for Waitress (which I am glad to see getting some notice). Finally, who could have guessed that bottom spot? Honestly, Wild Hogs came out of nowhere to make a return trip to the top ten. As for the money side of the game, I was just a bit off on my estimation, it would have been closer if they made all those Thursday evening viewers go on Friday, I also think the potentially excessive running time may have had an affect on the bottomline. Whatever way you slice it, it was a big weekend for all involved.
Anyway, here is how I picked the field:
| Actual | Prediction | Title | Wknd Gross | Prediction |
| 1 | 1 | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | $115,057,000 | $140 million |
| 2 | 2 | Shrek the Third | $53,011,000 | $55 million |
| 3 | 3 | Spider-Man 3 | $14,200,000 | $16 million |
| 4 | 4 | Bug | $3,310,000 | $5 million |
| 7 | 5 | Disturbia | $1,921,000 | $2.5 million |
| 6 | 6 | 28 Weeks Later | $2,585,000 | $2.5 million |
| 5 | 7 | Waitress | $3,075,000 | $2 million |
| 8 | 8 | Georgia Rule | $1,856,000 | $2 million |
| 9 | 9 | Fracture | $1,200,000 | $1.5 million |
| 12 | 10 | The Invisible | $603,000 | $1 million |
0 comments:
Post a Comment