Friday the 13th Produces some Scary Box Office Numbers
April 16, 2007
The weekend box office numbers were mixed. On the one hand, there was a small drop in the overall box office numbers with the total ticket sales coming in at $119 million, which was 4% lower than last weekend and 1% lower than the same weekend last year. However, while that's hardly a reason to worry, there were six wide releases meaning the merely average box office numbers had to divided up amongst a crowded field and that really hurt a lot of the new releases. In fact, only one of the six had any real reason to celebrate.
That one film was Disturbia, which not only top the charts, it beat almost all expectations with $22.2 million in just under 3000 theaters for a per theater average of $7,598. That's enough to get a few theater owners thinking about adding the film this Friday. Add in the best reviews of any wide release of the week and this film could earn better legs than most. This is a good news for a film that by some reports cost less than $30 million to make and it could reach profitability before it reaches the home market.
It was a predictable result for Blades of Glory, which as expected took second place with $13.8 million. By this time next week the film will have become the fifth Will Ferrell film to reach $100 million and the first of Jon Heder film to do so. This will also be enough to pay for the film's production budget while it will likely have to wait till the home market to cover all costs.
The weekend haul of Meet the Robinsons was just a little larger than predicted, but at $12.5 million it was within expectations. Also, its $72.4 million does make reaching $100 million possible, especially with the lack of family films from here to Shrek the Third. However, Disney might need to give it a little boost to get it over the top.
Perfect Strangers was far from perfect as it could manage no better than fourth place with $11.2 million. This was within the range given in Thursday, but disappointing nonetheless. As for the film's long term chances, the middling per theater average, the terrible reviews, and the audience aggravating twist suggest a quick exit from theaters.
There were no surprises this weekend for Are We Done Yet? as it finished fifth with $9.0 million, exactly as expected.
The rest of the predictions all proved optimistic.
Pathfinder came the closest to matching Thursday's forecast earning sixth place with $5.0 million, within a rounding error of expectations. But there was more bad news, the film's reviews continued to sink ending the weekend at a mere 13% positive and that suggests bad legs and a quick exit from theaters.
Next up was Redline, which missed the top ten with just $4.0 million. While the box office was lower than expected, its real weakness came with the critics who has so far given the film zero positive reviews. Granted, there are only 13 reviews at the moment, but things are unlikely to improve enough to make a difference.
Next up is Aqua Teen Hunger Force COLON Movie Film for Theaters. The film actually started the weekend in ninth place with an estimated $1.4 million, but by the end of the weekend it had slipped to just 14th place with $3.0 million. That gives the film an internal multiplier of just 2.10 and it is unlikely that the film's multiplier will be that much greater. This is less a product of bad word-of-mouth, after all, it ended the weekend with nearly 50% positive reviews, but a bad case of the Fanboy Effect. On the other hand, the DVD sales should be huge and the film cost just $750,000 to make so it is well on its way to profitability. Perhaps this means more Adult Swim movies. Like maybe Harvey Birdman. There's already a trailer.
The final new wide release of the week was Slow Burn, which barely made it in the top 20 with $778,000 in 1,163 theaters. The $669 per theater average and the unacceptable reviews suggest this movie will be out of theaters as soon as the theater owners are contractually allowed to dump it.
It would be nice to report that the sophomore class was able to pick up the slack of the new releases, but that was not the case. The Reaping was the best of the bunch in terms of raw dollars adding $4.6 million to its total of $19.8 million, however, that was down 54% for its opening. Grindhouse was hit by the Fanboy Effect just as bad as everyone expected down 63% to $4.3 million while it has also brought in $19.8 million. The only sophomore film to not take a dive was Firehouse Dog which was down just over 20%, but with just $3.1 million over the weekend and $10.2 million in total it was far too little far too late.
One last note, 300 has become the first film of 2007 to reach the $200 million mark, but it won't be the last. In fact, we could have a record breaking number of films to reach that milestone.
Filed under: Blades of Glory, Meet the Robinsons, Disturbia, The Reaping, Grindhouse, Perfect Stranger, Firehouse Dog, Pathfinder, Redline, Slow Burn, 300, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters