Box Office Update 4/25-4/27: Baby Mama Nursed to Victory

As expected, Baby Mama took the top spot this week. It was not a strong victory, but it led a weekend that was a definite step up from the equivalent weekend last year (when Disturbia three-peated with a tally of just over $9 million). Now, unfortunately Baby Mama was not quite the comedic gem that everyone surely had hoped for, but I still found it to be a fun flick. What the movie needed was another re-write or two to inject a little more heart and insight into the proceedings. Still, I do not feel bad for seeing it, it had a few fun moments and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler had excellent chemistry.

Hot on the heels of Baby Mama is the stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the comedy with the topical title. I say that because the whole escape is a very small part of the film, yet using it makes it seem more poignant. There is nothing quite like injecting politics into a pot filled flick. As it happens, this turned out to be the best wide release of the weekend. You are welcome to disagree, but I found it to be quite funny. It certainly was stupid, but it offered plenty of laughs.

The one other new film in wide release is the lackluster erotic thriller Deception. It barely scratched out a tenth place finish and will surely fade away in short order. It is a film that sadly had half of an interesting premise and blew it all with a secondary plot that took over in the second half.

As for the returning films, the box office was rather flat, with none suffering any extraordinary drops. Nim's Island had the strongest hold, only dropping 20% from last week. The one that makes me happy is Forgetting Sarah Marshall, dropping just 37% and putting up a strong fight for third place.

Next week will see the arrival of Iron Man, and with it the start of the summer movie season. This one is sure to be a monster hit, it is so sure, in fact, that the studio is already prepping a sequel. Joining it, for a bit of counter-programming, is Made of Honor, the Patrick Dempsey/Michelle Monaghan romantic comedy.

Three movies dropped off the top ten this week: Street Kings (11), Leatherheads (12), and Expelled: No Intelligence Required (13).

This Week	Last Week	Title	Wknd Gross	Overall	Week in release
1	N	Baby Mama	$17,407,110	$17,407,110	1
2	N	Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay	$14,908,404	$14,908,404	1
3	1	The Forbidden Kingdom	$11,212,364	$38,237,498	2
4	2	Forgetting Sarah Marshall	$11,028,060	$35,090,955	2
5	5	Nim's Island	$4,548,792	$38,977,518	4
6	3	Prom Night	$4,508,122	$38,222,732	3
7	6	21	$4,018,064	$75,792,625	5
8	4	88 Minutes	$3,593,890	$12,625,951	2
9	8	Horton Hears a Who!	$2,486,903	$147,959,806	7
10	N	Deception	$2,312,146	$2,312,146	1

Box Office Predictions Recap
Baby Mama at number one, Harold & Kumar take second, Kingdom slipping to third, Sarah batting cleanup. Check, check, check, and check. Started off so well, then everything fell apart as the lackluster Deception arrived DOA and barely scratched out a tenth place finish. However, while the placings fell apart after the top four, I still did decent with the gross predictions, save for Deception, of course. Next week will see Iron Man arrive, guaranteed to take the top spot rather handily.

Here is how the field matched up:

Actual	Prediction	Title	Wknd Gross	Prediction
1	1	Baby Mama	$17,407,110	$17 million
2	2	Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay	$14,908,404	$15.5 million
3	3	The Forbidden Kingdom	$11,212,364	$11 million
4	4	Forgetting Sarah Marshall	$11,028,060	$10 million
10	5	Deception	$2,312,146	$6.5 million
6	6	Prom Night	$4,508,122	$4.5 million
5	7	Nim's Island	$4,548,792	$3.5 million
8	8	88 Minutes	$3,593,890	$3 million
7	9	21	$4,018,064	$3 million
9	10	Horton Hears a Who!	$2,486,903	$2.5 million