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SATURDAY PM: Here’s first look at early North American box office numbers for today…
1. G-Force 3-D (Disney) $11.7 million Saturday & $32M this weekend. Jerry Bruckheimer attempted his first 3-D foray featuring secret agent guinea pigs. Which just goes to show that sometimes moviegoers will watch anything. But this CGI family fare was incredibly expensive so the pic’s profitability is a real question mark.
2. Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince (Warner Bros) $11.2M & $29M weekend. It continues to drop harder than the last one. Cume is now $221M.
3. The Ugly Truth (Sony) $9.7M & about $27.5M weekend. This Katherine Heigl-Gerard Butler pic, directed by Legally Blonde‘s Robert Luketic, barely received 15% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and The New York Times‘ Manola Dargis stuck it to Sony’s Amy Pascal for making such anti-feminist crap. But audiences liked it, judging by the surprising “A-” CinemaScore.
4. Orphan (Dark Castle/Warner Bros) $4.7M; $12.7M weekend. (OK, I hoped this would bomb. It didn’t. But Joel Silver still should be ashamed both for making this revolting movie and then marketing it so callously that adoptive parents groups were very vocally protesting.)
5. Ice Age 3-D: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs (Fox) $3.1M; $8.4M weekend; cume $170M.
6. Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen (Paramount) $8M weekend. Its $379M cume passed Lord Of The Rings 3‘s $377M as the 10th highest grossing film of all-time.
Weekend’s total box office should add up to $140M, down 33% from last year which had The Dark Knight.
SATURDAY AM: Here’s first look at early North American box office numbers for Friday…
1. G-Force 3-D (Disney) $11.5 million today & around $35M this weekend.
2. The Ugly Truth (Sony) $11M today & about $29M weekend.
3. Harry Potter/Half-Blood Prince (WB) $9.5M today & probably $30M weekend.
4. Orphan (Dark Castle/Warner Bros) $5M today & near $13M weekend. (Ouch! Then again, Joel Silver should be ashamed both for making this revolting movie and then marketing it so callously that adoptive parents groups were very vocally protesting.)
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Brad, Ebert gave “Knowing” four stars and I barely survived that piece of crap.
This weekend we have opening a cheap talking animals kids movie, a Katherine Hiegl romantic comedy, and a lame demon child horror film. This doesn’t sound like a lineup for the end of July, more like the middle of March. Must have been the writer’s strike.
Nikki, how’s Hurt Locker doing in limited release? Saw it twice and loved it.
Yeah, Nikki, we really wish you’d stop blindly disparaging any newly released horror movie that tries to push the envelope with its content or present a story that happens to imperil women or children. It kind of makes you come off as a fuddy-duddy who thinks everything that happens in a film which aims to unnerve should be left to the imagination so a soft MPAA rating can be preserved. Any film is narratively justifiable, no matter how extreme it reveals itself to be within its particular genre, as long as it’s handled with dexterity and innovation.
Orphan I thought was ultimately an unwieldy blend of psychological thriller, slasher flick and all-out camp-fest where none of those aspects were fully optimized, but it was still very well-made overall. I certainly don’t regret seeing it, mostly because of the pair of standout performances by the tormented adoptive mother and the demon seed. It’s hard to get a gauge on what will have legs nowadays, especially in light of Harry Potter 12 surprisingly falling off the map so abruptly, but I feel confident in presupposing that Orphan will be huge on home video after a modest first run. If it has a slight percentage dropoff next week I won’t be surprised, though, because it’s the type of guilty pleasure movie (with a doozy of a third act revelation) that could get people buzzing.
Also, this garbage about special interests groups for the adopted being outraged just proves that we live in a needlessly sensitive age where anybody will eagerly jump at the opportunity to express phony outrage just to put their own inflated sense of integrity on a pedestal.
My friends and I are waiting for HP to open at Smithsonian IMAX next week. Perhaps there is a small but still sizeable group of folks who are willing to wait? We also like HP but none of us are fanatical about it.Maybe the next wave, made up of moderate fans, will sustain HP’s box office.
Oh God! I see delusional Harmonians are even suggesting HBP’s box-office is being affected by the lack of their own ludicrous relationship theories. And by the way, the movie is doing stupendously internationally, as usual.
Harry Potter 6 is a great big FAIL. I haven’t read any of the books, and even I could figure out that the handling of the last 45 minutes–after all that interminable teen romance–was a botch. IMAX won’t save this one.
Most of the great horror movies don’t open too strong so this is good news for Orphan being a low-budget horror flick. It might have legs or a great DVD run based on word of mouth. Its getting great reviews and mixed among critics but its a good mixed.
Maria, ORPHAN’s p & a has been quite large. This pic is a total miscalculation by Warner and Silver.
It is a tired premise (recycled OMEN) with a lousy ad campaign (trailer, those bazillion bus stops with that ugly one-shot)…
Money-loser. Will have no legs and it won’t perform on dvd either.
Jennifer Davisson-Killoran produced Orphan for Appian Way, Di Caprio’s production company. She sucks so the movie sucks. Not surprised at all.
@JD
It’s because she’s vile – the woman can’t hide the fact, even when she’s on a PR offensive – stone cold dead eyed never gonna be a film star
Dear romantic comedy illiterates:
ALL ROMANTIC COMEDIES ARE THE SAME!
What’s different are the stars and the chemistry.
Heigel is hot.
Butler is hot.
People hope they will screw.
Bullock is hot.
Reynolds is hot.
See grosses for my point.
ps: Saw Orphan. It sucked.
Once Orphan’s twist becomes widely known it is going to make a lot of money. Most people I know who saw it think it’s hilarious and great.
For what it’s worth, I’m one of the people who has HP6 IMAX tickets and is waiting to go.
Nikki, your analysis is usually spot on, but saying that “Jerry Bruckheimer scores” with G-Force is really off the mark. Do a little digging and you’ll find that this picture cost a LOT more than you might think. A $32m opening weekend isn’t a good start down the road to profitability. Unless the foreign BO is way beyond the domestic, this is going to be a big write-down for Disney.
“The Orphan” nosedived at the theater I work at from Friday to Saturday. We might be getting rid of it after the first week for ’500 Days of Summer.’
[SPOILER ALERT... SPOILER ALERT...]
Also, people are griping/laughing that the girl is really a 33 year old midget who kills siblings and mothers to seduce fathers to have sex with her. Not making that up. Nikki, you were right, this is vile trash. And this movie wasn’t campy, it took itself too seriously.
@shootasdirected
She already is a film star you idiot. This is her third box office hit in row.
G-force cost 180 million dollars. Pretending like 32 mil is a success would be a horrible joke. I was really pulling for Jerry, but kids stuff is proving not the right genre for him.
To CineFileX:
It shouldn’t be that way.
This was a bad career move for Heigl. Her sweet All- American girl image is now blown. I’m not letting my wife drag me to any more of these types of films.
Nikki, have you even seen Orphan? If you or any of those whacko parents that are protesting actually saw the movie then you probably wouldn’t be getting so worked up. Don’t judge a movie based on its marketing and don’t judge it before you’ve even seen it.
Although The Ugly Truth looks god-awful, I’m glad that Katherine Heigl is having success on the big screen.
Some may find her to be ungrateful and so forth, but I on the otherhand find her to be a breath of fresh air. An actor who is not afraid to speak her mind. I find it interesting that when a female actor speaks her mind, she is basically stoned to death by many of the general public but when an actor of the male persuasion does it, people barely say anything. Double standard much!
You people need to shush…the ONLY reason HP6 is performing low is becuz it has no IMAX showings…which TF2 and Star Trek had. It has made 220 mil so far. No disappointment there.
Nikki, I’m sorry but regarding Orphan or any other movie for that movie — I DON’T KNOW WHY SOMEONE WOULD WANT ANY MOVIE TO BOMB — especially someone in the industry. A movie that does well is good for the whole industry and for the viewing public at large. And regarding that comment about adoptive parents — that is the most laughable thing I’ve ever heard of. Not every adoption is happy-go-lucky great and no every adoption is horrific. Orphan is just one tale.
IMAX might help a big, but this may be a case of diminishing returns for IMAX.
You know, with the smaller IMAX screens, the digital presentations that aren’t really IMAX, and the increased ticket prices, I don’t know if the company is setting itself up to be a fad, rather than a viable alternative to traditional theatrical exhibition for Hollywood fare.
Uh ohh…looks like MOVIEFAN is a little preturbed by
the comments towards his so so precious HP6. If your
a Harry potter fan and you serious thought it would
out perform Tranformers you must have been smoking
crack as well as endulgence in many other hard drugs
lol. IMAX or no IMAX, dosent make a difference…it
aint messin with TF2. Dosent carry nearly the histeria,
excitement, hypeness, and anticipation as does TF2 and
besides would you really care to watch some teenage
kid do magic after watching Optimus Prime put his foot
through Starscreams jaw structure with state of the
art visual achievement and brand new 3-D technology.,
i dont think so. I sure as hell wouldnt and will never.
o be perfectly honest i see HP6 having a hard time
pulling 300 mil, especially with G.I. JOE and DISTRICT
9 around the corner.
Nikki, HP6 is performing at the same level as its predecessor. It dropped to around $30 million on its second weekend, and this movie was only slightly below it. It’ll still be among the Top 5 highest grossing movies by the end of the year.
I think that’s quite impressive considering only three IMAX theaters were able to show it, compared to the previous movie. It might go up slightly next week when the four week exclusive IMAX window with TF-2 expires, but who knows.