Crikey. That didn’t go well. It was the worst weekend of the year, the worst since the first weekend of Dec ’08. Alert commenter JAB was the only one I saw that even had The Final Destination winning. Yikes. Let’s break it down.
#1 movie predicted correctly: 0 Weeks In A Row
The streak comes to an end, even though I overrated this film in its second weekend. It fell nearly 55 percent – clearly the 3-D is another frontloading factor in a sea of frontloading factors. Still, it becomes only the fifth film to repeat in 2009.
Result: 12.4 million (My rank: #2, $2.0m off)
Many folks had Gamer to win, but Gamer got destroyed. Does anyone think this could pull a bigger Sunday than expected and restore my streak? I know, I know, probably not – the word of mouth here is probably brutal.
Result: 11.2 million (My rank: #1, $4.6m off)
A 43.9 percent drop, this is now a mathematical certainty. It gets easier when people definitively love or hate a product.
Result: 10.8 million (My rank: #4, $.1m off)
4. Gamer
No budget is listed, but it has to be more than $30m or so, right? I mean, they had people controlling Gerard Butler’s every move! Technology like that can’t be cheap.
Result: 9.0 million (My rank: #4, $3.5m off)
5. District 9
Hey, where did Extract go? Anyone see that one?
Result: 7.0 million (My rank: #7, $.6m off)
6. Halloween II
I finally nailed a placement. Huzzah. Halloween 2 passed the $25m mark this weekend… but the budget was only $15m. It looks as though the “small achievement” horror releasing cycle will continue.
Result: 5.6 million (My rank: #6, $1.7m off)
I think we can all agree on one thing: this was like predicting a turtle race.
Result: 5.2 million (My rank: #9, $.9m off)
Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen made $400m domestically. This one will cross $150m domestically next weekend. So I’d say, upon final reflection, that audiences felt very different about the films.
Result: 5.1 million (My rank: #8, $0.7m off)
I’ll take some solace in the face my top ten all finished in the top ten. Sheesh, what a nightmare weekend. Next weekend doesn’t look amazing, but it should have some films that can crack $20m.
Result: 4.2 million (My rank: #10, $.1m off)
10. Extract
Wow. A brutal result, probably one that guarantees Mike Judge is going to have a tough time inking movie deals going forward. Not enough theaters, strange marketing, and an overall whupping. I didn’t really like the movie – but I sure wish it had done better than this.
Result: 4.1 million (My rank: #5, $4.1m off)
