Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
April 29, 2006
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Jeff Bridges finds himself in a Busby Berkeley joint.

That sound is the eerie silence before Mission: Impossible III opens next week.

RV

The Robin Williams comedy is the best of the new films, topping Friday's box office with $4.7 million. The rather unfunny-looking family film should perform pretty well over the remainder of the weekend, solidifying itself at the top spot with a multiplier in the realm of 3.0, good for a $14.1 million weekend.

Stick It

The solidly marketed gymnastics movie stuck the landing with $4 million Friday. The best comparison is obviously Bring It On, which opened with $6.3 million on its way to a $17.3 million way back in August of 2000. That's a 2.75 multiplier and that works very well for Stick It, which will be stuck with a very solid $11 million weekend.

United 93

Perhaps a little too controversial even as we approach the fifth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, United 93 earned $3.7 million Friday, eking out the top ten's per screen average title by a few bucks over Stick It. Normally I would figure an above average internal multiplier due to being targeted at adults, there was likely a curiosity factor at work that potentially inflated Friday night's take. I'll give it a 2.8 weekend multiplier, giving United 93 a weekend of $10.3 million.

Akeelah and the Bee

The spelling bee movie from Lions Gate could only muster $1.7 million, pretty much in line with expectations. It should have a pretty decent weekend multiplier, though, which spells out a weekend finish of $5.3 million.

Notable Holdovers

Silent Hill tumbles like a good little horror movie, falling a savage 65% from last Friday to $2.9 million. Look for a weekend total of around $8 million.

The Sentinel drops 53% from last Friday, and there's not much more to be said other than it should earn about $7.8 million in weekend number two.