Weekend Wrap-Up
Perfect Storm Catapults Box Office
By John Hamann
February 15, 2009
Seventh goes to the last of our openers, The International. The Clive Owen thriller opens lower as it has no connection to Valentine's Day or Friday the 13th, and has to scoop up sloppy seconds to survive. The International brought in $10 million from 2,364 venues. It had an average of $4,230. Even as the best reviewed picture of the weekend (51% fresh), this one had little chance, but really, what is so different here than Taken? If Clive had taken revenge on Bernie Madoff, it might have opened to $20 million plus. Expect this one to disappear in a few weekends.
Eighth goes to The Pink Panther 2, and we are all happy and excited that it still finished in the lower rungs of the top ten despite the kid-friendly weekend. The Pink Panther 2 earned $9 million and drops 22%. Hopefully, this Steve Martin "effort" goes away quickly after this weekend. It has a current total of $22.3 million. People complain about the success of Paul Blart, but this is much, much worse.
Ninth goes to Slumdog Millionaire, the current Oscar favorite (however, I saw it last weekend, and it's not getting my vote). Slumdog took in another $7.1 million this weekend, and holds exactly steady with its numbers from last weekend%. Its total has now reached $86.5 million, and it should have another couple of strong weekends - before and after the Oscars next Sunday.
Finally in tenth is Push, Summit Entertainment's miss that opened last weekend. Push opened to $10 million last weekend, and sees a drop of 31% to $6.9 million this weekend. Made for $38 million, Push now has a total of $19.3 million.
Overall, things are up, up, up, as they have been for most of 2009 thus far. A year ago, Jumper led the February 15-17 weekend with $27.4 million, which brought the top 12 total up to a respectable $117.7 million. This year trounced that total. This year, we have a record for the biggest President's Day Weekend ever. In fact, the estimated total for all films for the three-day portion of the weekend, $195 million, blows away the previous record holder's four-day total of $187 million., As for the top 12 movies, this year's group brought in a massive $167.8 million, a figure we shouldn't see again until summer, but the way this year is going, we shouldn't rule anything out. Next weekend is Oscar weekend, so expect things to cool off quite a bit. Openers next weekend include Fired Up, a teen sex comedy, and Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail.
| 1 |
Friday the 13th |
New Line Cinema |
$42,245,000 |
$40,570,365 |
New |
$43,585,449 |
| 2 |
He's Just Not That Into You |
New Line Cinema |
$19,610,000 |
$19,518,465 |
- 29.8% |
$57,797,957 |
| 3 |
Taken |
Twentieth Century Fox |
$19,250,000 |
$18,985,260 |
- 7.6% |
$80,496,557 |
| 4 |
Confessions of a Shopaholic |
Touchstone Pictures |
$15,406,000 |
$15,066,360 |
New |
$17,809,053 |
| 5 |
Coraline |
Focus Features |
$15,000,000 |
$14,783,157 |
- 12.3% |
$39,087,556 |
| 6 |
Paul Blart: Mall Cop |
Columbia Pictures (Sony) |
$11,700,000 |
$10,983,319 |
+ 0.9% |
$112,388,524 |
| 7 |
The International |
Sony/Columbia |
$10,000,000 |
$9,331,739 |
New |
$10,702,613 |
| 8 |
The Pink Panther 2 |
Columbia Pictures, MGM |
$9,000,000 |
$8,513,476 |
- 26.5% |
$24,088,718 |
| 9 |
Slumdog Millionaire |
Warner Independent Pictures |
$7,150,000 |
$7,284,808 |
+ 1.5% |
$88,101,863 |
| 10 |
Push |
Summit Entertainment |
$6,931,000 |
$6,863,022 |
- 31.9% |
$20,376,794 |
| 11 |
Gran Torino |
Warner Bros. Pictures |
$6,750,000 |
$6,488,047 |
- 9.3% |
$129,586,801 |
| 12 |
Hotel for Dogs |
DreamWorks |
$4,233,000 |
$4,351,535 |
- 23.8% |
$62,085,972 |
| |
Also Opening/Notables |
| |
Under the Sea 3d (IMAX) |
Warner Bros. |
$650,000 |
$661,012 |
New |
$914,393 |
| |
Two Lovers |
2929 Productions |
$95,000 |
$94,986 |
New |
$117,591 |
| |
Gomorrah |
IFC Films |
N/A |
$77,700 |
New |
$111,840 |
| |
The Uninvited |
DreamWorks Pictures |
$4,762,000 |
$4,347,464 |
- 30.6% |
$24,189,555 |
| |
My Bloody Valentine 3D |
Lionsgate |
$1,860,000 |
$1,553,385 |
- 16.3% |
$50,693,102 |
| |
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button |
Paramount |
$1,604,000 |
$1,611,370 |
- 30.0% |
$122,573,294 |
| |
The Wrestler |
Fox Searchlight |
$1,800,000 |
$1,848,627 |
- 16.3% |
$19,150,945 |
| |
The Reader |
The Weinstein Company |
$2,047,762 |
$2,209,080 |
- 2.9% |
$19,618,951 |
| |
Doubt |
Miramax Films |
$576,000 |
$624,614 |
- 13.6% |
$30,171,728 |
| |
Milk |
Focus Features |
$820,000 |
$878,057 |
- 22.0% |
$26,748,699 |
| |
Frost/Nixon |
Universal |
$472,500 |
$515,780 |
- 33.2% |
$16,561,626 |
|
Click here for all weekend data
|
|
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
|
Continued:
1
2
3
4
|
|
|
|
Print this column
