The DUP : March 8, 2009

Crikey! It’s already March? What happened? Daylight Savings, that’s what happened. Now I love having the eveningtimes lit by sunlight just as much as the next guy but damn, its still winter! Now we’re just going to use more heat in the AM until the seasons catch up with us. Thank you, 109th Congress, your stupidity is the gift that keeps on giving.

Without further ado, here’s this weekend’s box office estimates:

5. Paul Blart: Mall Cop : $4.2 mil. This movie is still bringing people into the theaters! And with a budget of $26 mil, its $133 mil cumulative gross is fantastic. This kind of money means there will definitely be a sequel.

4. Slumdog Millionaire : $6.9 mil. I wonder how far this movie is going to go while still in theaters. It’s been doing steady business since it opened back in the fall. And with a $125 mil total gross so far – it shows no sign of stopping. Next weekend will be the big test for this picture, seeing that it lost about 42% of last week’s total. With a $15 budget, it’s gotten it’s money back many times over. Though as I said last week, where did they spend $15 million dollars? It’s like when the Blair Witch Project came out and they told the world that they only made that movie for $50,000 and we were all wondering what the hell they spend fifty grand on?

3. Taken : $7.5 mil. This movie is a hit! It has a total gross of $118 million that makes me wonder what other movie has Liam Neeson been in that would come near making this much money? Wait - he was in Batman Begins. And Love Actually. And Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. And Schlindler’s List. Hmmm… When you read that list you wonder if Neeson feels like Taken should have earned more money by now.

2. Madea Goes to Jail : $8.8 mil. Oddly, this week’s gross for Madea is a sign that it’s beginning to slow down. Yes, it’s version of slowing down is landing at number two. With a total gross of $76 million, I’m sure no one over at Tyler Perry Studios is complaining.

1. Watchmen : $55.6 mil. As expected, Watchmen took first place. After the numbers started coming in for Friday night, many people were expecting this movie to do about $75 mil, but movies like this are interesting. It’s audience is similar to the audience for tween movies in that here is the largest amount of interest on opening day. All of the Comic-Con peeps could not wait until Saturday to go, so this movie’s biggest night would be Friday. It may seem like I’m splitting hairs, but let me assure you, that with a $20 million difference, the studio is doing the exact same thing. Another obstacle this picture had to overcome was its running time. At 2:40 before trailers, theatres simply can’t have as many showings as they could if it were only two hours. Now, the remedy would normally be to put more prints on more screens, but at 3600 screens they already have. I definitely have to congratulate Warner’s for leaving no stone unturned. Way to go!

And that’s the weekend!

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