Norbit Slays Hannibal Rising at the Box Office

Weekend Box Office Wrap-Up for February 9-11, 2007

By John Hamann

February 11, 2007

Bridezilla, meet the wedding cake.

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Fourth spot goes to The Messengers, a bad horror flick from Sony and Screen Gems. The good news is that like the usual horror trend, The Messengers is falling off quickly. The small child in peril flick grossed only $7.2 million and was off 51% from the previous frame. The problem is that this one was made for only $15 million and has now grossed $24.7 million, so there are certainly more horror flicks like this one still to come. Look for The Messengers to finish just shy of $40 million.

Proving how slow the box office is, the eight-weekend-old Night at the Museum finishes fifth this weekend. The Fox Christmas flick (my tree has been down for over a month) grossed another $5.7 million this weekend, and was off only 10% from the weekend before. To me, this proves that moviegoers are starving for something decent to see, and are seeing Museum again because everything else (save the Oscar-bait) is just awful. Night has now grossed $232.1 million, and passed The Lost World: Jurassic Park to move into the top 50 biggest movies of all time this weekend.

Sixth spot goes to Epic Movie, another sign of the impending movie apocalypse. Epic Movie and its 2% fresh rating grossed $4.4 million in its third weekend, off a hearty 47% from the previous frame. This one opened to $18.6 million only three weekends ago, which shows its awfulness. So far, Epic Movie has grossed $35.5 million.

Smokin' Aces lands in seventh, as this stylized flick is also fading fast. Aces earned $3.8 million and was off 38% from last weekend. It has now earned $30.9 million against a budget of only $17 million. The Hollywood motto these days is make them fast and cheap, market them at the 17-25 set and make your money on DVD. This is not good news for moviegoers.




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Eighth brings some relief from all the dreck, as Pan's Labyrinth spends its fourth weekend in either seventh or eighth place in the top ten. Pan grossed $3.5 million, off only 4% from the previous frame. This Picturehouse entry cost only $16 million to make and has now grossed $26.6 million.

Eddie Murphy's other film in the top ten, Dreamgirls, manages to hang around for another weekend. Dreamgirls grossed $3.1 million, finishing ninth, and was off 23% from the previous frame. I thought this one would have held much better, but Paramount will have to work with the $97.1 million this one has grossed so far.

Once again, The Queen comes out of nowhere from its Friday performance to finish in the tenth spot. The outstanding movie about the British royal family (and Tony Blair) takes in another $2.5 million, a mere 5% drop from last week. Its domestic total is now $49 million, about $45 million more than anyone would have ever expected back in September when it made its limited theatrical debut.

Overall, things aren't great at the box office for the umpteenth weekend in a row. Last year, when bad films like The Pink Panther were out, the top ten managed to earn just short of $100 million, coming in at $97.7 million. This year, things aren't so rosy. The top ten pulled in only $86.5 million, leaving us to wait another weekend for things to improve. Next weekend brings Music & Lyrics, Ghost Rider and Bridge to Terabithia, so hopefully things will change.


Top Ten for Weekend of February 9-11, 2007
Rank
Film
Number
of Sites
Percentage Drop from Last Week
Estimated
Gross ($)
Cumulative
Gross ($)
1 Norbit 3,136 New 33.7 33.7
2 Hannibal Rising 3,003 New 13.3 13.3
3 Because I Said So 2,529 -31% 9.0 25.6
4 The Messengers 2,529 -51% 7.2 24.7
5 Night at the Museum 2,702 -10% 5.7 232.1
6 Epic Movie 2,806 -47% 4.4 35.5
7 Smokin' Aces 2,195 -38% 3.8 30.9
8 Pan's Labyrinth 1,143 -4% 3.5 26.6
9 Dreamgirls 2,284 -23% 3.1 97.1
10 The Queen 1,564 -5% 2.5 49.0

Continued:       1       2

     


 
 

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