Not much to add with actual theatre counts being reported, though I'm still feeling good that Judd Apatow's Knocked Up will be the big story this weekend and will end up doing far better than most expect. It's not quite getting the 2,900 theatres we expected though, so it will likely come in just under $27 million with a nice Friday and Saturday night and good word-of-mouth to carry it over the next few weeks.
Mr. Brooks and Gracie are both getting more theatres than earlier estimated, although they're likely to play a back seat to Knocked Up and only Costner's star power will be enough to get Mr. Brooks over the $10 million mark. (As we saw with Sandra Bullock in Murder by Numbers, fans of a star don't always necessarily want to see them do something different.) Reviews for both of them are mixed at best and unfortunately, all of this weekend's movies will be relying on reviews to get people interested since they don't have the built-in audiences or sequel factor.
1. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Disney) - $50.5 million -56%
2. Shrek the Third (DreamWorks) - $32.2 million -39%
3. Knocked Up (Universal) - $26.8 million N/A
4. Mr. Brooks (MGM) - $10.8 million N/A
5. Spider-Man 3 (Sony) - $7.6 million -47%
6. Gracie (Picturehouse) - $2.8million N/A
7. Waitress (Fox Searchlight) - $2.2 million -29%
8. Bug (Lionsgate) - $1.7 million -47%
9. 28 Weeks Later (Fox Atomic) - $1.3 million -51%
10. Disturbia (DreamWorks) - $1.0 million -45%
There isn't too much to say about next week just yet either, though it's obvious that Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Thirteen will come out on top, delivering a solid opening possibly in the $40 million due to the combined star power of his cast basically doing what they do best. (Opening in over 3,400 theatres won't hurt much either.) Sony's animated comedy Surf's Up and Eli Roth's Hostel: Part II will be vying for second and third place against the third weekend of Pirates the Caribbean, though there's a chance that both will end up right behind. Either way, expect all three of the new movies to open over $20 million next weekend with a slight advantage to Surf's Up over the horror sequel since it will open in far more theatres.
