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 normally slow first month of the year once again became the perfect time to open a low-key horror movie and bring in some business, as previously seen with Universal's White Noise and Eli Roth's Hostel. This time, it was the remake of J-horror movie One Missed Call that saw an opportunity and grabbed it with an estimated opening weekend of $13.5 million in 2,240 theaters--an average of over $6k per theaters--surpassing early expectations and studio tracking after an opening day of over $5 million.
Even so, it would have to settle for fifth place for the weekend behind a number of stronger returning movies including Jerry Bruckheimer's National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Disney) starring Nicolas Cage, which remained on top for a third weekend in a row with $20.2 million, down 43% from last week. So far, it has grossed $171 million and it's just a few million short of matching the total gross of the original National Treasure.
Second place was a tight race between three holiday favorites with just $300 thousand separating them according to estimates. At this point, Will Smith's sci-fi thriller I Am Legend (Warner Bros.) is in the lead with roughly $16.3 million, followed by the indie comedy Juno (Fox Searchlight) starring Oscar hopeful Ellen Page, and the family hit Alvin and the Chipmunks (Fox). Still playing in over 3,500 theaters, Smith's blockbuster hit has grossed $228 million after four weeks, while Alvin has grossed an astounding $177 million in the same time period. The sleeper hit Juno from first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody has grossed $52 million despite being in wide release for less than two weeks, and it scored the second-highest per-theatre average in the Top 10 behind Atonement (Focus Features), which opened in the same early December weekend.
Dropping to sixth place, the Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts political comedy href="http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=16912">Charlie Wilson's War (Universal) lost just 32% of its business taking in $8.2 million for a total of $52.6 million, followed closely by Hilary Swank's romantic comedy P. S. I Love You (Warner Bros.) with $8 million and $39.4 million total as it remained in seventh place.
Eighth and ninth place were also the same as last week with The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (Sony) and Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (DreamWorks) each dropping less than 35% from the holiday weekend. The family film added $6.3 million to bring its total to $30.9 million, while the Stephen Sondheim musical adaptation starring Johnny Depp made $5.4 million, bringing its own total to $38.5 million.
Atonement (Focus Features) starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley rounded out the Top 10 with $5.1 million as it expanded into 583 theaters, bringing its total to $19.2 million.
Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem (20th Century Fox) dropped right out of the top 10, losing 58% of its opening weekend business, to end up with $4.25 million, putting it just $5,000 ahead of Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters (Weinstein Co.) in its own second weekend. In less than two weeks, the two movies have grossed $36.8 and $22 million, respectively.
After opening with the highest per-theater averages of 2007, P.T. Anderson's fifth feature There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage) added 49 more theaters in select cities to bring in $1.3 million over the first weekend of 2008.
Still in just 16 theaters, Rob Reiner's The Bucket List (Warner Bros.) starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, added another $315 thousand in the weekend before its nationwide expansion into 2,700 theaters this coming Friday.
The Top 10 grossed an estimated $115 million this past weekend, which is up over 20% from the same weekend last year.
Comments (3)
It's nice to see JUNO post these numbers. Having seen and loved the film, I think it deserves terrific box office especially for this time of year.
Posted by Trekscribbler![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.comingsoon.net/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 7, 2008 6:22 AM
I liked the movie a lot but I never in a million years saw it doing this kind of money, not this past weekend, not in total. It's obvious that there's some serious word-of-mouth going on (which I've heard about firsthand) and everyone I know seems to either like or love this movie.
Posted by EDouglas![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.comingsoon.net/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 8, 2008 4:47 AM
I'd say it's a tie between Sweeney Todd and Juno which is busier at my home theater. I'm Canadian, so maybe that makes a difference. I am Legend hasn't been drawing that big numbers for us anymore. I try to pump up Juno to anyone that is waffling on what movie they're going to see when they show up at the theater.
Posted by BenWert![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.comingsoon.net/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 8, 2008 12:47 PM