It looks like all three of the movies opening wide this weekend will wind up with disappointing showings according to Friday estimates posted at ShowBIZ Data. Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Thirteen, the fourth threequel of the summer, made an estimated $12.4 million on Friday, $2 million less than the previous sequel Ocean's Twelve made its opening day. It will likely wind up with an opening weekend somewhere between $33 and 36 million, less than both previous movies. Considering the much higher early projections for the weekend (including the Weekend Warrior's own), that's a rather disappointing showing for a movie that received many favorable and gushing reviews despite the unpopularity of the previous installment.
Sony's animated comedy Surf's Up took in an estimated $5.8 million, which could point to a weekend around $20 million but still lower than Sony's last two 3D animated movies Monster House and Open Season.
The biggest disappointment was seeing Eli Roth's Hostel: Part II way undeliver with an opening day of $3.4 million, which could be accredited to the general malais towards sequel and horror movies, but probably has more to do with the quality bootleg leaked to the internet earlier this week, meaning that most of the diehard fans didn't need to pay to see it in theatres. The gory sequel will be lucky if it makes $9 million over the weekend, $10 million less than the original movie opened with in January 2006.
Meanwhile, Judd Apatow's Knocked Up grossed $6.2 million in its second Friday, a respectable drop of 37% from its opening day, pointing to a strong second weekend of between $20 and 21 million putting it into a tight race for second place with Surf's Up and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
