Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
September 3, 2005
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Jason Stathams in mirror may be closer than they appear.

Only two of Labor Day weekend's new releases make the box office top ten for Friday. Anyone surprised by this, raise your hand. I thought so.

The Transporter 2

The Jason Statham sequel took in $5.7 million Friday, a good uptick from the $3 million the first Transporter opened to in October of 2002. That film had an opening weekend of $9.1 million, which was a decent 3.03 multiplier. I don't expect a sequel to duplicate that, so I'll give it a 2.6 for a three-day tally of $14.8 million and a four-day total of around $16.5 million.

The Constant Gardener

In just 1,346 theaters, Oscar bait The Constant Gardener dug up $2.2 million Friday. After earning another $1.7 million since Wednesday, it's gotten off to a good start. The Focus Features film should have a multiplier of 3.1, good for a $6.8 million weekend and over $9 million in six days.

Notable Holdovers

The Brothers Grimm drops a very grim 68.5% from a week ago. It'll take in barely more than $5 million for the weekend.

With Underclassman and A Sound of Thunder DOA, The Cave gets to spend another weekend in the top ten, but it falls hard, down 69.2% from last Friday. Give it a bit under $3 million for the five days.