Weekend Forecast for April 5-7, 2007
By Reagen Sulewski
April 5, 2007
Ice Cube's latest attempt to throw all his credibility down the toilet is next, with Are We Done Yet? The former gangsta rapper follows up his family roadtrip comedy Are We There Yet? with this film, an indirect remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Moving out to the suburbs, Ice Cube and his family decide to renovate their suburban castle more to their liking. Many pratfalls and much hilarity hopefully ensue.
Are We There Yet? opened to a surprising $18.5 million two years ago and earned over $80 million total, which was the reason that this sequel was greenlit despite horrid reviews. It has already opened on Wednesday, so we have some partial results, and they seem to say that it was a bit of a mistake. Its first day total was $2 million, a mediocre number, and only third on the day. As a family film, that number should improve on the weekend, but it's already fighting from a hole. Its weekend total should be in the area of $12 million.
Finally, we have another family film that opened on Wednesday, Firehouse Dog. This feels like a bit of a joke or a prank, but sadly it's real. It centers around a dog named Rexxx (an... unfortunate spelling) who is Hollywood's top extreme animal star. After he gets lost, he's adopted into a rundown firehouse. Before you can say "let's put on a show!", he's helping the firehouse to get back on its feet. Of course, Hollywood is calling and wants its star back (the same thing happened to Cary Grant after a bender back in the day), leading to the inevitable conflict between those two natural enemies – fireman versus studio executives.
This film is strictly for the PG set, and maybe not even them, as reviews have been pretty execrable. Its opening Wednesday was a meager $600,000, eighth on the day. It looks headed for a total of about $5 million on the weekend, and that might even been optimistic.
Blades of Glory was last week's winner, earning $33 million. This represented a bit of a step down for Will Ferrell, and a step up for Jon Heder, his co-star. Both are kind of off-putting to a lot of film fans, and sticking them both in the same film probably depressed Ferrell's audience. The figure skating setting was also a pretty big contrast to the NASCAR setting of Talladega Nights. Still, $33 million is nothing to sniff at, and it could approach the $100 million mark eventually. For this weekend, it should bring in around $18 million.
Meet the Robinsons made a serious challenge for top spot, earning $25 million. The sci-fi family film came from Disney's non-Pixar animation studio but was produced by John Lasseter, which gave it a pretty good pedigree. A lot of this business seems to be based on one joke from the trailer involving a T-Rex and a tight space. Family films tend to hand on pretty well, but this seems pretty plain overall. Look for about $14 million this weekend.
300 continues its march towards $200 million, ending last weekend just $20 million short. It faces a pretty direct competitor for the violence-seeking demo in Grindhouse, which might knock it down a bit, but its die is basically cast. Add another $6 million to its total this weekend.
One notable limited release this weekend is The Hoax, starring Richard Gere. Based on the story of a man who claimed to have the memoirs of Howard Hughes, it's a broadly comic film about the power of a scam, about how a big lie can more easily be believed than a small one. Opening in 235 venues, it could see about $1 million of business this weekend.
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Forecast: Weekend of April 5-7, 2007
|
Rank |
Film |
Number of
Sites |
Changes in Sites
from Last |
Estimated
Gross ($) |
|
1
|
Grindhouse
|
2,624
|
New
|
24.3
|
|
2
|
Blades of Glory
|
3,410
|
+38
|
18.2
|
|
3
|
Meet the Robinsons
|
3,435
|
+22
|
14.0
|
|
4
|
The Reaping
|
2,603
|
New
|
13.2
|
|
5
|
Are We Done Yet?
|
2,877
|
New
|
12.3
|
|
6
|
300
|
2,674
|
-300
|
6.4
|
|
7
|
TMNT
|
2,811
|
-309
|
4.9
|
|
8
|
Firehouse Dog
|
2,860
|
New
|
4.6
|
|
9
|
Wild Hogs
|
2,825
|
-375
|
4.4
|
|
10
|
Shooter
|
2,353
|
-453
|
3.8
|
Continued:
1
2
|
|
|
|
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