August 26, 2008

Box Office Update 8/22-8/24: Tropic Thunder Keeps The House Bunny At Bay

One of the funniest films of the summer battled this weekend, successfully clinging on to its position at the top of the charts. It took in more than $16 million, representing a drop of just 37% from last week. the movie performed considerably better than I thought it was going to in its second weekend out. I am happy for it, as it is a very funny comedy that skewers action films and the industry alike, and is actually pretty smart too. The star studded affair should be able to make it to $100 million if it has a few more weekends like this.

This weekend was expected to be topped by Death Race, but that obviously did not happen. The remake (or reimagining, or "we liked the title and bribed the original producer") came in third, not terribly far off the pace, but enough to be labeled at least a little disappointing. It does not help that the film is nothing more than a live action video game with only the barest resemblance to the original (not that it was a great piece of art, but I would have loved to have seen the scoring system remain intact). Still, it was entertaining in a superficial way.

The biggest surprise, that shouldn't have been a surprise, is how well The House Bunny performed, easily above expectations, finishing in second. In retrospect, this should not have been too hard to see. The past few weeks have been dominated from male-centric films like The Dark Knight, Pineapple Express, and Tropic Thunder. This week brought something for the female audience, and they went out, perhaps not in droves, but they were there. All things equal, the film was not terrible either. Anna Faris is like the female equivalent to Leslie Nielsen.

One other film cracked the top ten this week, although just barely. Coming in tenth place is the sports drama The Longshots. This is actually a pretty good film that does things a little differently than your typical entry in this genre. Now, I can understand its low take, how many of these do we really need? Although it is notable for being the big screen directorial debut for Limp Bizkit front man Fred Durst. Yes, you read that right.

Among the remaining films, The Dark Knight continues its amazing run as it closes in on $500 million with another sub-40% drop. Also, Mamma Mia! continues to roll suffering a drop of less than 30%.

Next week will see holiday weekend competition from Traitor, Babylon AD, College, Disaster Movie, and Hamlet 2. Could be an interesting weekend.

Three movies dropped off the top ten this week: Vicky Cristina Barcelona (11), The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (13), and Step Brothers (14).

This WeekLast WeekTitleWknd GrossOverallWeek in release
11Tropic Thunder$16,272,195$65,839,9152
2NThe House Bunny$14,533,702$14,533,7021
3NDeath Race$12,621,090$12,621,0901
42The Dark Knight$10,542,424$489,416,8856
53Star Wars: The Clone Wars$5,661,456$24,999,0542
65Pineapple Express$5,452,163$73,780,1913
74Mirrors$5,010,663$20,211,0662
87Mamma Mia!$4,314,840$124,469,9006
96The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor$4,177,950$93,921,2454
10NThe Longshots$4,080,687$4,080,6871


Box Office Predictions Recap
When you're off, you're off, and this week I was off. Who would have guessed that Death Race was going to falter? Bigger than that, who would have guessed The House Bunny would be the new release to challenge for the top spot? Not I. I also wouldn't have pegged Tropic Thunder to repeat at the top, no matter how much I thought of it. My biggest goof of all had to be The Rocker. That movie tanked right out of the gate, not even the early Wednesday open was able to nurse it to a top ten finish. For that matter, its first five day take wouldn't have gotten it onto the three day top ten list.

Here is how the field matched up:


ActualPredictionTitleWknd GrossPrediction
31Death Race$12,621,090$15.5 million
12Tropic Thunder$16,272,195$15 million
43The Dark Knight$10,542,424$11 million
24The House Bunny$14,533,702$10 million
125The Rocker$2,636,048$8 million
56Star Wars: The Clone Wars$5,661,456$7 million
107The Longshots$4,080,687$6.5 million
68Pineapple Express$5,452,163$4.5 million
79Mirrors$5,010,663$4 million
910The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor$4,177,950$3.5 million

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