Shia LaBeouf is turning into a bonafide film star as his first major toplining role in Disturbia was a stand-out hit making over $80 million on a $20 million budget. He followed that up with Transformers and $319+ million, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with $316+ million and Eagle Eye looks to be off to a fast start with an estimated $10.5 million on Friday and an expected $28.35 million for the weekend besting second place Nights in Rodanthe by more than double. Rodanthe earned $4.7 million on Friday night and is expected to continue the trend to a $14 million opening weekend for the Nicolas Sparks adaptation.
Kirk Cameron’s independent firefighter flick Fireproof proved the Christian themed films still carry major weight at the box-office as the film opened to $1.9 million on Friday and an expected $4.94 million for the weekend. Not a lot of money you say? Well, considering it is showing on only 839 screens it’s not too shabby and looks to take the fifth spot at this weekend’s box-office and $5,888 per theater average. It won’t hit the $6.8 million our Oracle predicted, but he did get the placement right. One gold star for that!
However, one film that performed extremely poorly is Spike Lee’s World War II drama Miracle at St. Anna. After receiving a 27% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a D+ rating from yours truly the film has opened to only $1 million on Friday and is expected to earn a measly $3.2 million this weekend and an estimated #10 spot falling below the animated feature Igor, The Family that Preys and even Dane Cook’s My Best Friend’s Girl! Now that is a slap in the face! Box Office Mojo lists the film as having a $45 million production budget, but with an opening weekend like this I don’t expect it to ever come close to that number. Of course, it is only showing in 1,185 theaters but that is still 300 more than Fireproof, a film certainly not carrying the name talent when compared to Miracle. Unfortunate to say the least.
There’s no word on the performance of smaller releases such as Fox Searchlight’s Choke (435 theaters) or Lionsgate’s The Lucky Ones (425 theaters).
The complete list of early Friday estimates is listed below courtesy of Fantasy Moguls. Laremy will be here Sunday with a complete wrap-up of the weekend.
- Eagle Eye (Dreamworks/Paramount) – $10.5 million
- Nights in Rodanthe (Warner Bros) – $4.7 million
- Lakeview Terrace (Sony) – $2.2 million
- Fireproof (IDP Films/Samuel Goldwyn) – $1.9 million
- Burn After Reading (Focus) – $1.81 million
- My Best Friend’s Girl (Lionsgate) – $1.31 million
- Righteous Kill (Overture) – $1.21 million
- The Family That Preys (Lionsgate) – $1.05 million
- Miracle at St. Anna (Disney) – $1 million
- Igor (MGM) – $985,000
