The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.
The box office continues to remain healthy as two star-packed movies vied for the top spot with over $19 million each, but after playing in 16 theaters for two weeks, Rob Reiner's The Bucket List (Warner Bros.), starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, exploded into over 2,900 theaters nationwide where it amassed an estimated $19.5 million for the weekend. Ice Cube's latest comedy First Sunday (Sony/Screen Gems) opened in 700 fewer theaters but averaged over $8,500 to come in a close second with an estimated $19 million.
Although the indie comedy Juno (Fox Searchlight) had been #1 at the box office for most of the past week, it had to settle for third place with the entry of two new comedies opening in most regions. Still, it dropped only 12% from last weekend to make another $14 million over the weekend, and with $71.2 million in box office receipts, Juno is only a day or two away from becoming Fox Searchlight's highest grossing movie to date, guaranteed to surpass the $71.5 million made by the 2005 Oscar-nominee Sideways.
After three weeks at #1, Jerry Bruckheimer's National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Disney) dropped to fourth place with $11.5 million and a total gross of $187.3 million, putting it in line to catch up to the family blockbuster Alvin and the Chipmunks (Fox), which grossed $9.1 million in its fifth weekend while dropping just one notch to fifth place. Alvin pulled ahead of his long-time rival Will Smith and his sci-fi thriller I Am Legend (Warner Bros.), which made $8.1 million in sixth place, bringing its own box office total to $240 million. As of now, Legend is the sixth-highest grossing movie of 2007 and the third-highest grossing movie of Smith's career.
The J-horror remake One Missed Call (Warner Bros.) lost 51% of its business in its second weekend, with its $6.1 million weekend gross bringing its total to $20.6 million.
Of the other movies opening in the weekend before Christmas, the only other one doing significantly well on a week-per-week basis is Hilary Swank's romantic comedy P. S. I Love You (Warner Bros.) which added another $5 million to its total take of $47 million putting it ahead of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts' Charlie Wilson's War (Universal) and Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd, both of which opened higher than the romantic comedy when they opened four weeks ago.
Over five years since their previous feature film, the VeggieTales returned for The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (Universal), but despite both of the other family movies having been in theaters for weeks, it only grossed $4.4 million in 1,337 theaters, which is a weaker opening than the original movie.
Adding more than 300 theaters, the British war drama Atonement (Focus Features) starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy remained in tenth place with $4.3 million, having grossed $25.2 million so far. The political dramedy href="http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=16912">Charlie Wilson's War (Universal) dropped the most places of any of the holiday offerings to end up at #11 right behind Atonement with $4.2 million. The irony is that both movies are vying for Golden Globes tonight without the support of the industry guilds that strengthen their Oscar hopes.
Uwe Boll's fantasy epic In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (Freestyle), starring Jason Statham, opened outside the Top 12 with $3.3 million in 1,631 theaters, a pitiful average of $2,000 per theater, an amount that will probably be lower when actuals are reported. It's doubtful this movie will remain in theaters very long with so many stronger movies opening next week as well as various awards-based expansions.
P.T. Anderson's fifth feature There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage), starring Golden Globe favorite Daniel Day-Lewis, added 78 more theaters and $1.9 million more to its gross of $4.3 million, and next weekend, it should make its move into the Top 10 with further expansion. This weekend, it made just slightly less than the Spanish horror movie The Orphanage, which grossed $2 million after expanding nationwide into 707 theaters, and both movies grossed more than The Kite Runner which also expanded nationwide this past weekend.
The Top 10 grossed approximately $101 million, an impressive increase of 12% over the same weekend last year, despite that weekend having the advantages of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday being celebrated on Monday.
Comments (1)
I Am Legend is the third highest grossing film of Will Smith's career and its already made that much? Goodness sake, the appeal of Big Willie is incredible.
I was reading an article on MSNBC a couple of weeks ago about how most actors in 2007 were a liability to the studios because a lot of their movies bombed or didn't do as well as they hoped (am lost for examples now but I think Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were mentioned for their respective movies as well Jamie Foxx and others) and basically, it seems that the way things are at the box office, if you're not a big summer blockbuster or sequel or both (think the threequel madness in May, Transformers etc) or if your name is not Will Smith, the movie probably won't do as well as predicted.
I know I'm rambling, but I just thought it was interesting to point out.:)
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January 13, 2008 10:42 PM