Friday Box Office Analysis
Fantastic Four Times Five
By Tim Briody
July 9, 2005
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Here's looking at you, kid.
Well, that's a way to try and break the nearly five-month-old box office slump.

Fantastic Four

The latest comic adaptation earned $20.8 million Friday, a, well, fantastic start. What kind of multiplier is in store for the critcally slaughtered popcorn movie? More than likely a mediocre-to-bad one, so we'll go with a 2.6, which places Fantastic Four at a still-decent $54.1 million.

Dark Water

The American remake of a successful Japanese horror film does not quite follow in the footsteps of The Ring Two ($14.8 million opening day) and The Grudge ($15.2 million) with only a $4 million Friday, showing that perhaps the J-horror trend died as quickly as the first Ring film started it. The Jennifer Connelly film should manage a 2.7 multiplier, giving Dark Water $10.8 million for the weekend

Notable Holdovers

War of the Worlds falls a fairly predictable 56.1% from last Friday, as the post-holiday blues strike again. Hurting its weekend decline the most will be the somewhat inflated Sunday figure from last week due to the holiday. Expect a decline still above 50% for the weekend, with a box office total of around $31 million.