Daily Box Office Analysis for August 29, 2007
By David Mumpower
August 30, 2007
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Sorry, we can't afford any of your salaries after all.
Today's column was intended to focus upon the scintillating debut of Balls of Fury. After all, it has been heavily marketed for months and has a couple of truly hilarious moments in the trailer. Apparently, I am in the minority with this opinion, however, as North America's response to the debut of Balls of Fury was a resounding shrug.

Recovering members of The State, Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, caught lightning in a bottle with their 2006 release, Night at the Museum. The Ben Stiller comedy earned $250.9 million, making it the second most successful title of the year after Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. They even followed this up with Reno 911! Miami, a movie that opened to $10.3 million before vanishing out of theaters with only $20.3 million. So, there was cause for optimism about the opening five days of Balls of Fury...right up until theater reports trickled in yesterday. At this point, everyone realized that it was a dud, at least on Wednesday.

Balls of Fury earned an estimated $1.7 million yesterday from 2,810 venues, giving it a per-location average of $605. Keep in mind that if you want to compare this to the weekend venue averages we discuss in the Weekend Wrap-Up each Sunday, you have to triple the number. So, this would be on a par of an $1,815 per-location weekend average. Stating the obvious, that's dreadful. Balls of Fury should have about $2.7 million heading into the weekend, give or take a couple hundred thousand. Its presence in the marketplace appears...unwelcome.