It seems the Judd Apatow enduced comedy train is coming to a hault as dick jokes and the promise of raunchy humor is proving to wear thin. Forgetting Sarah Marshall gets a slight smack across the mouth from the lesser kid’s flick The Forbidden Kingdom as Jet Li and Jackie Chan team-up for the first time to take out the comedic giant.
Friday’s box shows an estimated $6.7 million for Kingdom while the Apatow produced Sarah Marshall managed $6.1 million.
The lead is expected to hold and maybe grow by a half-million or so giving Forbidden Kingdom the weekend win.
The Al Pacino starrer/shitfest that was/is 88 Minutes scored $2.4 million on Friday disappointing $2.4 million worth of audience members. The film came in fourth behind last week’s shitfest Prom Night and is expected to stay there for the duration.
The
biggest shocker turns out to be a film I never heard of until just now, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a documentary featuring Ben Stein “as he seeks to determine whether religious based Intelligent Design / Creationism is a pseudo-science trying to undermine evolutionary biology or whether it is legitimate science being suppressed by a scientific establishment that is hostile to any deviation from the status quo.” Yeah, that’s the plot and apparently faith-based organizations are all over it to the tune of $1.12 million on Friday earning it the eighth slot and is expected to finish the weekend in ninth with an estimated $3.1 million.
Finally we have Morgan Spurlock’s Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden coming in with a wretched $363 per theater average after showing in 102 theaters. It’s not too surprising since the majority of the reviews (including mine) look at it as “way too flip and dumbed-down“. Basically, it’s aimed at the people that aren’t going to see it anyway and those that probably need to see it won’t respect it enough based on its tone.
Overall, another crappy weekend as we head towards the good stuff. Stay in there, May 2 is just around the corner.
Here’s the complete weekend estimate, tomorrow Laremy will have the complete recap along with his third week in a row of missing the #1 film. Sigh…
- The Forbidden Kingdom (Lionsgate) – $19.15 million
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Universal) – $18.1 million
- Prom Night (Sony) – $10.05 million
- 88 Minutes (Sony) – $7.12 million
- 21 (Sony) – $5.95 million
- Nim’s Island (Fox) – $5.31 million
- Street Kings (Fox) – $3.54 million
- Horton Hears a Who (Fox) – $3.46 million
- Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (Rocky Mountain Pictures) – $3.1 million
- Leatherheads (Universal) – $2.93 million
