1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua $17.5 million
2. Quarantine $14.2 million
3. Body of Lies $13.1 million
4. Eagle Eye $11 million
5. Nick and Nora $6.5 million
Beverly Hills Chihuahua wins the weekend again! After Friday night’s grosses, Quarantine was on top and everyone but me thought it would stay that way. There’s a secret to horror flicks that a few of us know. Over a weekend for most movies, Saturday night will be their highest grossing night, with Friday night next. But most horror movies’ highest grossing night is Friday. I guess people who go see those genre pics are ready to go on the first night of the weekend? When you combine that with the secret I told you about kids movies last weekend, you get this week’s result. I guess the real lesson is to never underestimate the Saturday power of a kid’s movie.
Body of Lies opens about seven million dollars less than expected, which would not have been a bad thing if it had a gross of $42 million dollars. When that $7 mil is more than half of your total gross, you’ve got problems. Even the teaming of Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe couldn't get people in, which is very telling. Russell Crowe even gained fifty pounds “for the role” to “prove how committed he was to his character.” [I guess his old habit of going on the watermelon diet before for the last three weeks before he starts shooting anything are far from over!] Either way, people just didn’t care. The first time I saw the trailer I had no desire to go see it. Then I forgot about it and saw it at the gym on mute while I was jamming to Daft Punk on the treadmill. Surprisingly, it looked awesome and I was excited to see it! I went home and watched it online where I could hear it properly and it looked awful, even worse than before. Why is that? It was based on a bestselling book and got these two huge stars attached to do it. I guess everyone can be wrong once in a while, even Leonardo DiCaprio. Anyone remember the movie of The Beach? Nuff Said.
Eagle Eye is still holding its own and has a total gross of about $52 million so far. Way to go! DreamWorks is very happy with this sort of good press as they strike out on their own. Again.
Unfortunately, City of Ember did not fare well at all. I’m wondering how many people have even heard of this movie. It’s based on a successful children’s book and is of course produced by Walden Media. [Do they do anything else? But seriously, do they...?] It stars Bill Murray of all people, and every person involved was hoping this could become a family film franchise. Oh well, better luck next time.
All in all, this weekend is up just over ten percent from the same weekend last year, even with the current economic state. Is the box-office recession proof? Only time will tell.
And that’s the weekend!
© 2008 MD TOTAL all rights reserved.
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