"What goes up must come down" seems to be the motto this weekend. After a record-setting weekend with Sony's Spider-Man 3 riding high, having grossed $151 million in a single three-day weekend, it divebombed in its second weekend after gradually dropping from day-to-day over the past week. Still, it remained well above the rest of the pack as four new movies opened with very little fanfare and even two movies that should have been sure things failed to meet expectations.
Spider-Man 3's drop from its $59 million opening day to $17 million this past Friday was pretty shocking, but it made up the difference over the weekend, grossing $60 million to bring its total to $242 million. On Saturday, it crossed the $200 million mark, passing Warner Bros' 300 as the highest grossing movie of the year after just nine days in theatres. Even though Spidey beat Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest's opening weekend record by an 11% margin, Spider-Man 3's inability to hold up its business in the past week has allowed Dead Man's Chest to retain its opening week record and Shrek 2 to keep hold of its second weekend record. With two major blockbusters on the way in the coming weeks, it's going to be hard for the Sam Raimi threequel to gross more than its predecessor, and right now, it looks like it might have a ceiling of $350 million. Spider-Man 3 also earned an additional $85.5 million internationally this weekend for a total of $622.1 million already.
Despite the success of Danny Boyle's chaotic thriller four years ago, Fox Atomic's sequel 28 Weeks Later failed to bring in audiences, possibly due to the sequel not having the original movie's director or star. Even with a strong marketing campaign, it only grossed an estimated $10 million over the weekend, around the same amount the original movie made its opening weekend in a thousand fewer theatres. This is the second horror sequel released by Fox Atomic that failed to match the success of the original movie released by Fox Searchlight, as 28 Weeks Later is likely to wind up with roughly $30 million compared to the $45 million made domestically by the first movie.
Teaming Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman and Jane Fonda wasn't enough to convince women to venture into theatres for Universal's R-rated drama Georgia Rule, as it opened in a weak third place with an estimated $5.9 million, just slightly above the amount made by Ms. Lohan's Just My Luck when it opened in the same weekend last year.
This wasn't a good weekend for the two new comedies either: With an opening weekend of $3.5 million in 1,931 theatres, Lionsgate's Delta Farce, Larry the Cable Guy's second feature film (in which he wasn't voicing a tow truck), failed to duplicate the success of its predecessor, Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector, which made twice that amount its opening weekend last year. Even with such a small opening, Larry's new comedy was able to make it into the Top 5.
The Weinstein Company comedy The Ex, starring Zach Braff and Jason Bateman, didn't even manage to get into the Top 10 with its opening weekend take of $1.3 million in 1,009 theatres, an average of $1,288 per theatre, and it may struggle to make $3 million before leaving theatres.
Of the other returning movies, DreamWorks' Disturbia continues to do well, dropping a mere 18% in its fifth weekend to make $4.8 million in fourth place, bringing its total to $66 million compared to a production budget of $20 million.
The only other returning movies to make more than $2 million were New Line's Fracture in 6th place with $2.9 million and David Goyer's thriller The Invisible in 7th. The Rogue Pictures' comedy Hot Fuzz continues to do well, moving up a spot in the Top 10 as it nears $19 million.
Despite the drastic drop in the box office from last week, the Top 10 grossed 16% more than the same weekend last year, in large parts due to the $60 million made by Spider-Man 3.
You can see box office estimates for the top 12 films here.
