Far from a critical darling, Ghost Rider sits at a healthy 24% on Rotten Tomatoes, yet still has found itself an audience. It is proof that some movies are critic proof, if they appear to offer up enough fun, people will go see them. I guess I should come clean and say that I enjoyed the movie and that it was more or less successful. Whatever the reason, it has drawn good numbers and must considered a success for the studio.
Jim Carrey's new film, the thriller The Number 23, was tops among this week's new class of films. it came in second, approximately $5 million behind the leader, which has to be considered a disappointment. I believe this was expected to make a strong run for the leader, and give Carrey another hit. I saw the film, and it had its moments, but was not quite as good as I had been hoping for, and the gross seems to fall in line. It did have a strong Friday, pulling very close to the flaming biker, but tapered off further into the weekend. It should also be noted that it was a very tight race with the number 3 film, the excellent Bridge to Terabithia, a mere half million between them.
Among the other new entries, Reno 911! made its big screen debut with a take large enough to cover production costs. It also stands as the funniest film of this young year. It is ridiculous, sophomoric, and just flat out funny. It was also a part of the second close race, taking fourth by just $200,000 over the Eddie Murphy comedy, Norbit. The top ten is rounded out with another pair of new films, The Astronaut Farmer and Amazing Grace. The former, a disappointment, the latter a success for its smaller scale release.
The returning films all did moderately well. Bridge to Terabithia fared the best, finishing third, and deserving of its audience, it is a wonderful film, hampered by a poor ad campaign. At the other endof the spectrum was Daddy's Little Girls, which is not doing bad, but did lose 57% of its audience this week, the most of all returning films.
One last note, it did not make the top ten, finishing way down in 19th, The Abandoned is a film that anyone who likes creepy movies should see. It is genuinely creepy and quite imaginative. I haven't put together all of the pieces, but it is definitely the best creepy film I have seen in recent memory.
Four films dropped from the list this week: Because I Said So (11), Night at the Museum (12), The Messengers (14), and Hannibal Rising(13).
This Week | Last Week | Title | Wknd Gross | Overall | Week in release |
| 1 | 1 | Ghost Rider | $20,067,443 | $79,027,540 | 2 |
| 2 | N | The Number 23 | $14,602,867 | $14,602,867 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 | Bridge to Terabithia | $14,157,645 | $46,805,679 | 2 |
| 4 | N | Reno 911!: Miami | $10,273,477 | $10,273,477 | 1 |
| 5 | 3 | Norbit | $9,825,021 | $74,763,394 | 3 |
| 6 | 4 | Music and Lyrics | $7,652,433 | $31,715,552 | 2 |
| 7 | 6 | Breach | $5,994,950 | $20,304,675 | 2 |
| 8 | 5 | Daddy's Little Girls | $4,815,337 | $25,132,757 | 2 |
| 9 | N | The Astronaut Farmer | $4,454,319 | $4,454,319 | 1 |
| 10 | N | Amazing Grace | $4,054,542 | $4,054,542 | 1 |
Box Office Predictions Recap
Well, I started off strong, but that did not last long as I fell off after the top four. The Astronaut Farmer turned out to be something of a disappointment, finishing in 9th place, barely ahead of Amazing Grace, which I did not think would even crack the top ten.
Anyway, here is how I picked the field:
Actual | Prediction | Title | Wknd Gross | Prediction |
| 1 | 1 | Ghost Rider | $20,067,443 | $26 million |
| 2 | 2 | The Number 23 | $14,602,867 | $21 million |
| 3 | 3 | Bridge to Terabithia | $14,157,645 | $15 million |
| 4 | 4 | Reno 911!: Miami | $10,273,477 | $14 million |
| 9 | 5 | The Astronaut Farmer | $4,454,319 | $13 million |
| 5 | 6 | Norbit | $9,825,021 | $8 million |
| 6 | 7 | Music and Lyrics | $7,652,433 | $7 million |
| 8 | 8 | Daddy's Little Girls | $4,815,337 | $6 million |
| 7 | 9 | Breach | $5,994,950 | $5 million |
| 14 | 10 | Hannibal Rising | $1,706,165 | $2 million |
0 comments:
Post a Comment