I have got to say, the top five movies at the box-office after Friday night are a scary sight as they pretty much paint the perfect picture of where American audiences currently stand on the movies they want to see. However, isn’t it a bit odd that a story about the Middle East (i.e. The Kingdom or Rendition) can perform so poorly, yet a movie about mass murder by vampires can do so well? Am I the only one that sees the irony in that? Actually, is it irony or “box-office hypocrisy”? I am not sure, but it is weird.
Our top five after Friday contains only one serious, adult drama with Michael Clayton pulling in $2.2 million, topped by the impressive vampire thriller 30 Days of Night
with $6.2, Tyler Perry’s continuing box-office dominance with Why Did I Get Married? at $3.3 million, the unfathomable success of The Rock’s Game Plan at $2.4 million and finally the one film Clayton could beat, The Comebacks at $2.1 million. Honestly, how can any of you spend money on a film like The Comebacks? The car slipping on a banana peel gag was done a long time ago in Billy Madison and if that is what they have to use in the trailer to sell their movie I can only assume it gets worse from there.
Unfortunately it is hard to really tell just how well the fantastic thriller from Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone, would have done had it been released in more theaters, but the $1.9 million it pulled down opening day isn’t too bad considering it’s only in 1,713 theaters and then there is the terrorist torture flick (you knew people weren’t going to see this) Rendition, which I haven’t even bothered reviewing yet, as it pulled down a mere $1.4 million despite being in 2,250 theaters.
The one film I really hope America catches on to is Things We Lost in the Fire, which opened in a miniscule 1,142 theaters and pulled in $505,000. Sadly it looks like Paramount is going to be more focused on getting this film an Oscar than actually making sure people see it as they sent out about 6,000+ screeners already the same day the film hit the cineplex.
Stay tuned as Laremy will have the full weekend breakdown for you on Sunday.
