Weekend Estimates: Down to Earth
December 14, 2008
The Day the Earth Stood Still topped the weekend chart with $31 million, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
That's a strong start, helped in particular by $3.8 million on 123 IMAX screens, and gives Fox a nice lead-in to the holidays, with no competitive film coming out until Christmas Day.
However, weak reviews and tepid word of mouth will not help it, and a $100 million run is far from assured at this stage.
Four Christmases had an impressive week-to-week drop of just 20% to earn an estimated $13 million and finish second.
Its success probably dampened the opening weekend for Nothing Like the Holidays, which pulled in $3.5 million from 1,671 theaters.
Freestyle had a second consecutive disappointing weekend as Delgo managed only $916,000 in 2,160 theaters.
The animated movie did some business at matinees, but failed to draw in much of an audience beyond that.
As expected, some Oscar hopefuls made strong debuts.
Gran Torino averaged over $47,000 per theater opening in 6 locations and Doubt made an average around $35,000 in 15 theaters.
Che made an impressive $30,000 average in two theaters in its Oscar-qualifying run, and new indie distributor Oscilloscope Pictures had their best opening so far with Wendy and Lucy topping $20,000 in two theaters.
Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Gran Torino, Four Christmases, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Doubt, Nothing Like the Holidays, Delgo, Wendy and Lucy, Che, Part 1: The Argentine