Weekend Wrap-Up

No Brain, No Problem at the Box Office

John Hamann

April 13, 2008

He's totally just about to look down her dress

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It must be April. Exactly one year ago, the box office was faced with a weekend where there was no strong opener - the best hope the weekend had was a PG-13 thriller starring no one but Shia LaBeouf. That movie was Disturbia, and it opened to $22 million, surprising everyone. This weekend we have a similar crop of openers over a similar April weekend, but again, one is going to break out. Opening this weekend is Street Kings with Keanu Reeves; Smart People, with Juno ingénue Ellen Page; and the ridiculous looking PG-13 pseudo-horror-slash-teen-thriller Prom Night. It was certainly a ‘check your brain at the door' kind of weekend, and let's just say I won't be rooting through the lost and found at my local Cineplex, in case one of the Prom Night patrons left theirs behind.

Probably scarier than the actual movie this weekend is the fact that the remake of Prom Night is our number one film of the weekend. Not only is it our number one flick, Prom Night broke out, grossing $22.7 million over its debut frame, from a relatively tiny venue count of 2,700. This dog had a venue average of $8,407, and is by far the biggest thriller/horror open of they year (unless you count that Miley Cyrus concert movie). There is no reason for Prom Night to perform like this, except for sheer boredom from teenagers. In reality, this is a scary looking flick that looks like horror (but isn't), and it carries the PG-13 rating that exhibitors love - our favorite mall patrons can get in without having to show the McLovin I.D. Many of this weekend's patrons were in diapers when Mom and Dad saw the original Prom night in 1980, which oddly enough was also a big hit for its time. The original starred Jamie Lee Curtis, who, at the time, was coming off Halloween, The Fog, and episodes of The Love Boat and Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century. But I digress. According to IMDB, the original cost $1.6 million in Canadian funds to make, and earned $15 million US, all in 1980's dollars of course (which is about $6 trillion today). The original went on to have a plethora of sequels, none of which came close to being as popular as the first film in the series.



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The 2008 version of Prom Night stars Brittany Snow and Scott Porter, two names I'm not overly familiar with, though I'll probably know them soon enough. Snow was in last year's popular Hairspray with Ravolta and Michelle Pfeiffer; Porter is in the upcoming Speed Racer - the $100 million summer blockbuster from the killers of the Matrix franchise (you're damn right I'm still bitter). The Scott Porter situation is similar to that of Shia LaBeouf, as after 2007's Disturbia, Shia was heading straight towards last summer's $300 million winner, Transformers. The biggest difference between Disturbia and Prom Night are those stubborn reviews - Prom Night is all of 14% fresh at RottenTomatoes, where Disturbia actually finished fresh at 68%. Unless something extremely strange happens, expect Prom Night to be flushed in about 3 weekends (but I think I said the same thing about Disturbia).

Fox Searchlight's Street Kings manages to finish second this weekend, but really, in mid-April, so that's not saying much. Street Kings finished the weekend with a so-so gross of $12 million, earning that amount from a slim screen count of 2,467. Street Kings had a venue average of $4,864. For Keanu Reeves, this is his first trip back to the big screen since the summer of 2006, when he appeared in A Scanner Darkly and The Lake House with Sandra Bullock. Street Kings was directed by David Ayers, whose biggest claim to fame might be writing Denzel's performance in Training Day, or directing Christian Bale in Harsh Times. Street Kings also stars Hugh Laurie, from TV's House, this time playing against type as a Police Captain. The violent drama did not review well at 32% fresh, and I'm thinking this will stay in the collective memory as much as Dark Blue with Kurt Russell did.


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