Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
May 14, 2005
Okay, seriously, are all the studios really that afraid of Star Wars or something?
Monster-in-Law
Jane Fonda's return to theaters after a lengthy absense results in giving Jennifer Lopez her biggest hit in a while. Monster-in-Law earned an estimated $8 million Friday, which was good enough for the top spot. The critically savaged comedy is apparently the number one date movie choice for the weekend, which I suppose makes sense. Figure an internal multiplier in the 2.9 range, which gives Monster-in-Law $23.2 million as the 2005 box office year drudges on.
Kicking & Screaming
Will Ferrell's latest comedy took in $6.3 million Friday. That's down a bit from both Elf ($8.9 million) and Anchorman ($11 million), but it's to be expected when Kicking & Screaming looks to be more of a family comedy that doesn't have the holiday tie-in like Elf does. Look for the soccer comedy to score a 3.0 multiplier for the weekend, which translates to an $18.9 million weekend.
Unleashed
Jet Li's latest managed $3.8 million Friday. Li's last effort, Hero, took in $6.8 million on its opening weekend in late August of last year. That film also only managed a 2.66 internal multplier, which is as good as any to give Unleashed. That would give the action flick $10.1 million for the weekend.
Mindhunters
The latest Renny Harlin disaster is finally put out of its misery with a token release where it earned $700,000 Friday. A best case scenario Saturday and Sunday would give it a $2 million weekend and a trip to DVD sometime in June.
Notable Holdovers
Kingdom of Heaven collapses 61.8% from last Friday, killing the few remaining hopes it had of earning back its production budget. It's going to be down around 55% from its opening weekend total.
House of Wax drops 56% from last week, behaving like a good little horror movie. It may be able to reduce the bleeding to under 50% so all is not entirely lost.
Crash holds extremely well from last week, slipping only 28.8% from last Friday. Positive word-of-mouth could potentially reduce its weekend decline to the 20% mark.
|
Projected Estimates for the Top Ten (Three-Day)
|
Projected
Rank |
Film |
Estimated Gross |
|
1
|
Monster-in-Law
|
23.2
|
|
2
|
Kicking & Screaming
|
18.9
|
|
3
|
Unleashed
|
9.8
|
|
4
|
Kingdom of Heaven
|
8.8
|
|
5
|
Crash
|
7.1
|
|
6
|
House of Wax
|
6.0
|
|
7
|
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
|
4.7
|
|
8
|
The Interpreter
|
4.5
|
|
9
|
xXx: State of the Union
|
2.1
|
|
10
|
Mindhunters
|
1.9
|
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