Ouch. Compass won the weekend but I’m not sure how you spin this as anything but a loss. It was clearly supposed to make more than a lousy $26m on its opening weekend against no competition. Still, watch the headlines on Monday morning. At least one of them will say “Golden Compass Dominates the Weekend” or something equally as lazy.
#1 movie predicted correctly: 4 Week In A Row
I think they got in trouble by watering it down. They’d already pissed the crazy religious folk off by even making it – but then they probably hurt the rep with the real fans when all the “Don’t worry Christians!” articles started coming out. Typical studio nonsense.
Result: 26.1 million (My rank: #1, $18.1m off)
2. Enchanted
This must have scooped up some of the boycott dollars. Nothing to dislike here, sugary sweet Enchanted gets extra credit. It cracked the $100m mark this weekend so come Monday the “how can we make more money on this franchise” meetings start.
Result: 10.7 million (My rank: #2, $2.7m off)
Fricking Beowulf continues to screw me. But I guess grudging respect should go to This Christmas which has survived far longer than anyone could have projected.
Result: 5.0 million (My rank: #4, $1.3m off)
4. Fred Claus
What the hell? Have people finally caught the Christmas spirit around here? People, this movie isn’t any good, you can’t just go off and support films because they have Christmas-like names. Sheesh.
Result: 4.7 million (My rank: #6, $2.0m off)
5. Beowulf
The key thing to note here is that this weekend made no money. I can quibble about where films ranked, or whether I was too far off, but really the story here is that America basically said “Egh, no thanks.”
Result: 4.4 million (My rank: #3, $.6m off)
The beat goes on. Golden Compass was murdered, all the other films gained from the bloodletting. No Country for Old Men is a great example of why I enjoy my job. It gives me the chance to tell people to see a movie they otherwise might not have bothered with.
Result: 4.2 million (My rank: #9, $1.7m off)
7. August Rush
Nailed it! Ha, no, only kidding, just wanted to take credit for something that was clearly blind luck. That’s sort of my specialty actually.
Result: 3.5 million (My rank: #7, $0.8m off)
8. Awake
Huh. I didn’t even know this film was still out in theaters. Thankfully my spreadsheets did.
Result: 3.3 million (My rank: #5, $.8m off)
9. Bee Movie
Let me just say this; when the final rankings are released on Monday this won’t be in the top ten. I believe, in my heart, that they have overinflated this one every single weekend. Bet on it.
Result: 2.6 million (My rank: Not Ranked)
One more time, for all the fans out there, NAILED IT! It looks like Hitman was the other film that was destroyed this week, although you won’t read about that anywhere else because Hitman was forgotten by the general public around two weeks ago.
Result: 2.6 million (My rank: #10, $1.1m off)
