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SUNDAY AM: As July ended, three opening studio movies — Dinner For Schmucks, Charlie St Cloud (which collapsed 32% from Friday to Saturday because Zac Efron’s High School Musical fans frontloaded the grosses), Cats & Dogs 3D: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore – made for a crowded summer box office what with holdovers Salt, Inception, and Despicable Me still going strong. Here are Friday, Saturday, weekend, and cume U.S. and Canada grosses. This weekend will be the first since June 4th without a $30+ million grossing pic. But overall ticket sales still look to total $135M a point or two ahead of last year:
1. Inception (Warner Bros) Week 3 [3,545 Dates]
Friday $8.1M, Saturday $10M, Weekend $27.5M (-36%), Cume $193.3M
Look at those dreamy legs… Chris Nolan’s original film for Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures just keeps going, and going, with great holds. It’s the No. 1 movie for the 3rd straight weekend after briefly giving way to Dinner With Schmucks Friday.
2. Dinner For Schmucks (Paramount) NEW [2,911 Dates]
Friday $8.4M, Saturday $8.3M, Weekend $23.3M
TParamount, DreamWorks, and Spyglass all financed a third of the $62M budget. (This is the first movie new DreamWorks invested in.) Paramount has worldwide distribution and will roll out international in the fall. The behind the scenes maneuvering to turn this comedy from a mediocre grosser to average moneymaker makes for an always interesting but far from atypical story. Back on June 9th, I reported that the buzz had been “it’s not working” on this pic so Paramount, DreamWorks, and Spyglass delayed Dinner For Schmucks originally scheduled for release on July 23 to the younger-skewing weekend of July 30. Well, within minutes of my writing that, I was told no less than “129 people involved with the film lost their minds” as only Hollywood types can. I received panicky calls and emails admitting why the buzz was bad and explaining why it wasn’t anymore. What happened is that the movie’s first test screening last March in Thousand Oaks produced only average scores. Excellent was 35, the top two boxes were 70, and the definite recommend was 50. ”Literally, right on the norm. But not where you expect for a high-profile movie directed by Jay Roach and starring Steve Carell,” an insider told me. “Everyone felt a sense of disappointment.”
So the studio, the producers, Carell, and Roach huddled. Roach worked to fix the tone “making sure the movie didn’t play in mean-spirited fashion because the audience found that line had been crossed,” the insider explained. The result was that, at the next screening a month later, the scores had improved: Excellent was 60, the top 2 boxes were 90, and the definite recommend was 75. ”So you see how far the movie moved as Jay worked on it,” said an insider, praising Roach for being so “malleable”. (Is that a compliment for a film director?) Despite poor reviews, the film with its “B” CinemaScore this weekend now is meeting Hollywood’s mid-$20sM expectations. It tracked very well among young males and balanced across all age and gender ranges, and the audience was, too (55% male/ 45% female, 46% under 25/54% over 25) — similar to Carell’s last film Date Night (which opened to $25M and went on to gross over $100M).
3. Salt (Sony) Week 2 [3,612 dates]
Friday $5.9M, Saturday $7.7M, Weekend $19.2M (-47%), Cume $70.8M
Sony thinks this holdover starring Angelina Jolie has locked up $100M for sure, and probably at least $110M. It grossed an estimated $24.5M for the weekend abroad, bringing the international cume to $32.8M and a worldwide total of $103.6 million in a little more than a week.
4. Despicable Me 3D (Universal) Week 4 [3,602 Dates]
Friday $4.6M, Saturday $6M, Weekend $15.5M, Cume $190.3M
Still surprising people with its strength. Remember this was a cheap $69M toon, and it’s heading well past $200M domestic. ($230M? $240M?)
5. Cats & Dogs 3D: Kitty Galore (Warner Bros) NEW [3,705 Dates]
Friday $4.2M, Saturday $4.6M, Weekend $12.5M
Big box office disappointment even with those higher 3D ticket prices because the original 2D Cat & Dogs back in 2001 debuted on the Fourth of July with a $21.7 million first weekend. Sequel only mustered a “B-” CinemaScore, and only a +9% matinee bump from Friday to Saturday. For weeks now, the family tracking was not as strong as the studio hoped. What a stupid ad campaign, and those cats looked scary even to me.
6. Charlie St Cloud (Universal) NEW [2,720 Dates]
Friday $5.6M, Saturday $3.8M, Weekend $12.1M
Rival studios thought Friday’s result for this Relativity/Universal drama was frontloaded by Zac Ephron’s High School Musical fans. So right. The pic fell a jaw-dropping -32% from Friday to Saturday, which is either a big error or proof that Zac needs to stick to light comedy. Actually, weeks of tracking had indicated a $13M weekend, in line with other movies of this genre. (Miley Cyrus’ The Last Song debuted Easter weekend and its 3-day was $16M as a result.) Zac did everything publicity-wise including envelope openings to push this pic. But the marketing stupidly gave away the whole plot in the ads. Moviegoers gave it a “B+” CinemaScore overall but under-18s upped that to an “A-”.
7. Toy Story 3D (Disney) Week 7 [2,107 Dates]
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $2.3M, Weekend $5M, Cume $389.6M
At $826.1M globally, Toy Story 3 now stands as the 4th biggest animated title and 23rd biggest movie on a worldwide basis.
8. Grown Ups (Sony) Week 6 [2,269 Dates]
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $1.8M, Weekend $4.5M, Est Cume $150.7
9. Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Disney) Week 3 [2,524 dates]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.7M, Weekend $4.3M, Cume $51.8M
Jerry Bruckheimer’s domestic disappointment has now opened in 28 territories representing 30% of the international marketplace where it’s made $40.8M. Right now it’s global cume is $92.7M.
10. Twilight Saga: Eclipse (Summit) Week 5 [2,334 Dates]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $1.5M, Weekend $3.9M, Cume $288.1M
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Just got back from DINNER WITH SCHMUCKS. They’re lucky to get a $25 mil opening weekend with this bomb. Unbelievably unfunny, painful to sit through…Paul Rudd looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.
Dinner for Schmucks was sold out at the Grove in LA. Played well. Many laughs. Carell and Rudd were great together, as usual. Doc Michaels, which theater did you attend?
I was at the Grove to see DWS last night and LOVED it! I was concerned with the meanness factor but thought they handled it very well. I saw it at 8:30 and the audience laughed out loud many many times throughout. My husband said the moment he saw the opening credits and he works at Disney so his opinion is questionable (j/k) he thought this is a gonna be a funny film. At the end he said he wanted the DVD for sure. All in all a good movie and I for one will miss Steve Carrell when he leaves TV…Paul Rudd has nothing to be ashamed of.
My buddy at work went to see it with some friends, some place that served beer to go with the popcorn, and he told me it was one of the most painful movies he’s ever sat through.
If that’s with friends and booze…
…it must have been really bad.
Why is it weird for Paul Rudd to look like he would want to be anywhere else when dealing with the weird characters in the movie/ sorry but isn’t that his character? its called acting.
I’m not saying the movie doesn’t suck, maybe it does, but please…
Definitely agree on all accounts. When Darla came on, I heavily contemplated leaving. Yet, the audience I was with absolutely ate it up… they even applauded at the end…
Unless the cast is there, if you applaud at the end of ANY movie, you’re officially an a$$hole.
Why?
oh my god! That was a great movie. The whole theater laughed all the way to the end. This was the best comedy I have seen in a long time. I highly recommend this movie!!
I recommend it as a rental. It’s not worth the full ticket price.
Jane, there, works for the studio.
You can spot their comments everytime.
This is called damage control, everyone.
When they say everybody just roared … but they don’t say why … you can bet the poster is a plant.
THIS MOVIE SUCKED!!!
There was only one time the we laughed – and that was the stripper girlfriend joke by the elevator. ONE funny scene! That’s it. The rest of it was trivial and contrived.
And Rudd definitely looked like he was wishing the movie would end sooner.
What huge waste of Carrell’s eager machismo.
So, if we agree with you, cool. But if we disagree with you, we’re studio plants?
Not everybody is a bitter hater.
I loved the movie. I had a blast watching it. I was in a packed house of people who loved the movie, especially Carell, Rudd, Galifianakis and Clement. The beginning was slowish, but the third act dinner played HUGE. Like no other third act in a comedy I’ve seen since Something About Mary.
Have you really even seen the movie? If you haven’t YOU’RE the plant.
Most of the negative reviews have focussed on the issue of it being a remake. It’s not. Doesn’t pretend to be. I recommend see it, judge for yourselves. Some of Carell’s best work. Jemaine Clement is amazing.
I haven’t seen the movie so have no opinion. But why is it that someone doesn’t like something they’re a “bitter hater?”
He’s not a plant. Someone who incessantly hates on a movie is called a troll.
A plant, or studio plant, is someone working for the studios who publicly and anonymously posts having seen a particular movie, usually one that looks like crap, and claims it’s the second coming of Christ to try and convince people that it’s worthwhile, but the plant barely says how it’s good. And that guy above is not working for the studio.
This film was a rental, a matinee price at best, and it’s not worth a second viewing. The director and stars deserve better.
“the third act played huge”? who talks like that who doesn’t work for the studio? whatever you are attempting really isn’t working.
btw, there is no stripper girlfriend, and no stripper girlfriend joke by the elevator, proving you haven’t seen the movie…
In the scene by the elevator, Rudd’s boss gives him the Swiss mogul’s investment account to handle because he’s “the only one here who’s not divorced or dating a hooker.” Okay, not “stripper.” But you get the idea…
DFS was so bad that I got up in the middle to wander around the theater for about 10 minutes. My friend to the left was asleep the entire show – the rest of us tried to make the best of it by playing pattycake. What a piece of shit. I liked this movie the first time, when it was called “The Cable Guy.”
probably the worst unfunniest movie I’ve ever seen.
Dinner was sweeter than I thought it would be. I just wish Carrell hadn’t made his character so damn broad. He played it as a cartoon buffoon with big teeth who is completely out of touch with reality.
Needed to be more “Being There” and less “purty laaadddddy!”
It felt like Carrell was embarrassed by the role and hid behind false teeth and Jerry Lewis tics instead of giving an earnest portayal of a nerdy schlub. If they’d let a decent writer smooth the rough spots they could have had something. Instead it comes off as “In The Company Of Men and Morons”.
This def shows Efron can pull in an audience, no matter what anyone says.
considering the bad buzz for Schmucks this def shows paul rudd is box office star.
Unfortunately for Efron, if these estimates hold, he has lost half of the audience that came out to see HSM4, errr, 17 Again, in its opening weekend.
But 17 again was an outright comedy whereas this one deals with death, which may not be something parents want to bring younger kids too. Efron definitely can open a movie — he is flying solo on this one and I had expected this movie to do a little better — good it’s playing in the summer — where I saw it — it was nearly sold out.
I skipped this one, because I tend to avoid sad movies.
I skipped this one because I tend to avoid bad movies.
LOL…
sorry Ana. You left yourself wide open for that one.
Point to Mr. Ian.
“Every night I play catch with my dead brother.” Who greenlights this shit?
Uh…it’s number 4 on its opening weekend.
I don’t think you understand how the business works. Who cares what # it is at the box-office. What matters is what it cost versus what it made. Charlie st. Cloud was real cheap to make so opening to 14 mil is a good number. It spanked Remember Me which had THE Robert Pattinson. I’m sure universal is pleased with the result.
remember me did 8M on 2100 screens, charlie st. cloud did 12M on 2700 screens.
the robert pattinson flop was a total mis-reading of the success of the twilight franchise. the fans are only commited to the character in the book. it’s like with harry potter. daniel radcliffe can’t open a film either.
zac efron i think will be around for a while. he should try to stick to comedies. but everyone will forgive him trying his hand at drama. brad pitt survived Meet Joe Black and numerous other flops.
I heard that Charlie st Cloud had a budget in the mid thirties, hopefully it will make it back. Pattinson’s was 16M and it made 3x with foreigns. St cloud I believe had a huge marketing budget as well. I wonder how much was spent on this movie? Efron maketed the hell out of this one, ads everywhere, too many commercials turn people off. It will do Ok overseas.
Let’s just say I am not part of any target audience for High School Musical or those vampire films. That said, I truly believe from the little I have seen, (trailers and excerpts) that if Zac Efron can make sage choices between lead, supporting, ensemble, character, independent, big-budget, comedy, drama, etc., he could have a very successful career. He is not without talent and not without presence. So far I think his choices have been good. I won’t watch this film in the theaters but I will watch it some day.
How ’bout we agree that Efron and Pattinson both suck equally and leave it at that?
Thanks for the early ballpark estimates. I have to think that Charlie St. Cloud will be more front loaded than the studio weekend estimate indicates. The Last Song started with a $7.2 million friday and ended with a $16 million opening weekend. And it had two days to bleed off some of it’s front loadedness. So maybe $12 million for Zac, I’m guessing.
I don’t think Paul Rudd is much of a box office star… I struggle to differentiate him from all the other secondhand comedians. What probably carried Schmucks this high is “From the director of Meet the Parents.” That alone almost got me to the theater, but then I heard all the bad buzz and backed off.
And mfan, The Last Song wasn’t front-loaded; it opened on Easter weekend, so obviously Friday was going to make up a large part of the total. Anyone who would pay to watch Charlie St. Cloud obviously doesn’t put much stock in critical-thinking, so it’s unlikely the film could be too sappy… the sappier, the better!
The Last Song’s first Friday was Good Friday. Not a just comparison.
I had forgotton that The Last Song opened on Easter Weekend.
I hope the numbers for CSC is higher than this. From the twitter and the FB comments, the fans love it. Despite what the critics say, its what the fans think about the movie that is most important.
The Last Song pulled in that 7.2 million on Good Friday, which is generally a strong movie day, and dropped over 50% on Easter Sunday. There were also two other movies in the top 10 that had bigger Friday-to-Saturday drops. I think its performance is more indicative of the effects of the holiday weekend.
But yeah, I still don’t think Charlie St. Cloud will have a great multiplier.
keep guessing, you moron.
I’m not sure what your issue is. Right now, Universal is predicting a $15 million weekend based on an estimated $5.6 million friday. That’s a 2.68 friday to weekend ratio which is right in line with The Lake House which had a $5,079,658 friday.
So basically, Universal is saying Zac Efron will frontload this movie to the tune of a half a million dollars. But if he has pulled in, say one million extra on friday, then a 2.68 multiplier on $4.6 million would be $12.3 plus the one million for a $13.3 million weekend.
And if he has pulled in $1.5 million worth extra on friday, then 2.68 X $4.1m = 11 + 1.5 = $12.5 million.
So this is just a difference of opinion on how popular Zac Ephron is, and how many of his fans rushed to see him on friday. I believe the studio is being too conservative on that score.
i was wrong. i apologize.
Well vince, it looks like the “anonymous moron” was on to something.
Charlie st. cloud looks like the sappiest movie ever. i cringed both times during the trailer when i saw inception twice
Yeah, well you’re not the target audience. Not everyone has your high standards.
Not everyone can tolerate movies with substance like you. Don’t you have a talking animals movie to jerk off to?
There are so many sad and wonderful things about Jack’s post.
So Inception has a shot at being #1 three weeks in a row? That’d be interesting. Of course when the estimates are coming in this early they could wind up anywhere. Salt’s apparently going to continue on similar to Robin Hood. I guess that’s a little disappointing, but since it only had half of RH’s budget it’s hardly worst-case scenario.
I sure hope not, Salt is a whole lot better than RH. Jolie rocked it.
If you think Jolie rocked it, you must have low standards.
(Thank God they make movies like Inception for the smarter people..)
Condescending much?
Inception was made for a mass general audience, hence all the car chases, gun fights and explosions. If you think that makes it a movie for “smarter” people, you must have low standards.
Actually I think think the opening was due to Steve Carell and the heavy reliance on him and “the wacky guy from The Hangover” more than Rudd.
Inception is having good holds considering the summer mid week numbers are strong..however, expected a smaller drop than this.
it’s word of mouth is terrific and so is the desire to see the film again. expected it to pull off a terrific hold.
maybe next weekend.
Charlie st cloud is the worst movie of the year, am surprised it did this well. It is sad that the Tweens have no taste
Efron will continue doing these crappy movies until the teens latch on to the next guy with abs or a pretty face, and then he will thankfully be gone
You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. He’s 22 with a first look producing deal @ Warners. They’re throwing all kinds of movies at him with good adult roles like THE LUCKY ONE. Name another young 20′s studio friendly actor with leading man potential. Besides Shia there’s not much.
“This def shows Efron can pull in an audience”
Not if he can only come #4 on opening weekend. He needs to come higher than that if he wants to show he can pull in an audience.
well that’s not fair — this is summer, you don’t have to open at number 1 to show you can open a movie — 15 million Plus for a movie that is all on Efron’s shoulders — pretty solid and I’m sure he will get a lot of solid weekday numbers as well. All of Efron’s movies should play in the summer, because that’s when his audience is free. I still thought it was a mistake to have opened high school musical 4 in September.
Except the last film that was all on Efron’s shoulders opened with a bigger gross…and number one. Sorry but this isn’t a triumph. It may not be an out and out failure, but I don’t think Universal is celebrating these lackluster numbers.
Terrible numbers for Cats and Dogs. Cost $85 million to make and I’ve been seeing so many ads everywhere, I have to think it cost another $100 million to market.
“Dinner For Schmucks” has the potential to be the worst movie of the year. Shockingly bad. With all that talent, its a shame! Its almost worse because of the cast. WOM will kill this movie!
Saw Schmucks at The Arclight. Sold out three shows. Laughing like idiots. Shrieks of laughter. Applause and yells at the end. The whole place was rocking. I don’t get it. What am I missing? What’s so funny?
Applause and yells at the end? I’ve been to many, many, many movies in my life, as we all have. I can count on one hand the number of movies that actually really got applause at the end beyond a few sparse claps, and no one has ever, ever yelled. I think all these applause anecdotes, that we read every single weekend on Deadline, are fake.
Agreed! Perhaps a dozen films during my moviegoing career. I like Carell and Rudd, but this,no.
Actually in L.A. almost every movie gets some applause at the end due to the immense number of industry folks in the audience.
They are really clapping for themselves and their own selfish pretentiousness.
People who try and use audience numbers or audience reactions at the Grove or Arclight as proof of a movie’s quality or financial success need to remember that the moviegoers at those theaters are about the most unrepresentative sampling group possible. They do not reflect the tastes and behaviors of the majority of moviegoers across the country – they are outliers in every respect.
ehhhh… zac. so not taylor lautner. this shows he has no audience. he USED to, but they all moved on to taylor. to kids, its just not hip to love zac. he needs to stop thinking like a leading man, take two steps back, do a bunch of ensemble pieces and re-emerge in 5 years as a leading man.
Hmmm, I smell a PR rep here. Can you tell me which movie Taylor Lautner has opened? Um, oh, gee, yeah, he hasn’t even starred in a film yet. Did you get your Quija board out to guess Taylor Lautner’s BO totals on the films that haven’t come out yet, or are you just making stuff up.
I’m guessing from the BO totals for Zac Efron, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart that the stars of the HSM series and the Twilight series are the series themselves. Which is why it is so incredibly stupid for Hollywood to overpay the actors who have little or no intrinsic value whatever.
Taylor hasn’t even had a movie on his own and efron — opened 17 again with 22 million — what is with all the efron haters?
Uh, I like Taylor as much as the next pedophile but the last movie he headlined was Sharkboy. Efron has the classic makings on a movie star and he’s shouldering his own movies. Why didn’t you at least bring up Rob Pattinson. Oops, Remember Me died. That’s why.
“…I like Taylor as much as the next pedophile…” is the line of the day.
i HATEEEE TAYLOR LAUTHNER WITH ALL MY HEAT
ZAC EFRON ALLL THE WAY
I’VE BEEEN ZACS FOR FOR ALMOST 5 YRS NOW AND NOO SHITTYYYY TAYLOR LAUTHNER CAN CHANGE THAT..
dnt give advices to ppl..
The weirdest post of all time.
The average movie star has a five year career lifespan; teen stars less. Seen any great Hilary Duff movies lately? How ’bout them Olsen twins? All the money to be made on Efron was made in the HSM franchise. Once they run out of Twibooks Lautner should file for social security. Sad but true; kids don’t go to college with their HSM posters.
I’m surprised Charlie St. Cloud was able to pull in $5.3M, despite being clobbered by critics. Well, that crowd doesn’t care about reviews anyway. I guess Zac Efron really can draw a crowd. Salt is slightly disappointing, but will probably still reach $100M, which is still pretty damn good. Dinner with Schmucks did about as well as I expected.
finally saw inception. hate to use a 20 dollar word. but there’s too much exposition in this film. it thinks it’s smarter than what it is. i hated the use of the edith pilaf track in the movie with marion cotillard in the film. it was like someone wanted to scream ‘look how smart we are with our references.’
and why is it that french women are excused their bad english accents and lispes in movies but french men are rarely given the chance to do the same thing? and has pete postlethwaite been like pushing 70 for 30 years?
none of this means i don’t like chris nolan. i’m a huge fan. i just could not get lost in this movie. i hated that in the end this film was a love story. i hate that. why can’t someone write at least one f**kin mainstream film that doesn’t have a love story or bromance at it’s core?
and the whole james bond snow sequence at the end was extremely annoying.
Totally agree. The exposition got too tedious for me. It tried to be too deep and profound with the dream talk that they forgot to write an actual story. I feel like hitting people who say the film is so smart. The story never explained why those bad guys were bad. Sure, they are big and powerful and they can take control of the energy industry. And…? Totally glossed over it seems in favor of endless exposition scenes talking about Inception. What about this film is so genius? My ears are open, so please enlighten me. I do admire that it tried to be more ambitious and challenges the audience, but in the end it didn’t amount to much for me.
What made the film a lot of money were the great images in the trailers/commercials.
yes, that’s exactly right. where the hell was the story?
and yes, the trailers were genius. but then when we got to the room with the floating people, i was completely disappointed. i kept hoping the van driver would get shot in the head.
and can’t someone somewhere find a brazilian actress to cast as a lead in a movie or set a film in sao paulo instead of paris? it’s a much bigger market than france. latin accents are sexier. and the women age better. there must be some brazilian film fund somewhere if the country has money to fund the olympics and the next world cup.
I’ll agree with the accent, and the film was a bit too expositiony at points. But it definitely wasn’t distracting and it definitely wasn’t a bad thing. And you have to have a proper mix of things to be a great film. And I HIGHLY doubt that you could call what was in this a romance. You could say it was more of a redemption story because of the shame and sorrow the lead had about his wife. . . but that’s really it. There wasn’t much of “romance” in it at all. . .
And I don’t see how the snow scenes annoyed you because they were pretty amazing. I feel like the whole movie was just a mash up of all the best parts in most other great movies. But yeah, you have yours and I have mine.
I couldnt have said that any better. Way too much talking and not enough sci-fi action stuff. Completely agree with you on that snow scene, little bit too much seasoning of bond there. Nolan has the talent and creative vision, but he needs a lot more schooling in the art of creating a well made, well rounded action film.
i kinda agree. i’m not a hater either, and i didn’t hate inception or anything. i would summarize my impression of the movie in one word–OVERHYPED.
i think people are just used to watching such dumbed down and stupid movies that when inception came along people forgot what it meant to think during a movie. but i remember coming out of the matrix and being blown away. i came out of inception a little ticked off that i had seen the ending coming.
Would be awesome if inception won three straight weeks the middle of the summer. An original idea for a movie, an empowered filmmaker, a studio handling marketing and distribution (and not creative), not some ex-studio head producing and collecting millions of dollars to add nothing creatively….maybe studios would start to follow that formula. As opposed to a remake, with 10 different writers, a director who is a shooter, and a producer who has no opinion other than whatever it takes to get the movie made, and a studio making all the creative decisions.
Well the reviews for St. Cloud terrible, and the marketing was awful for it. And i don’t know if any one can say he can pull in box office, that’s a shitty number in my opinion, but whatever.
Saw Schmucks tonight, HORRIBLE. I really liked Salt (and Inception), Jolie is excellent in this role. I must say Salt is getting a raw deal, obviously it could not compete with Inception in it’s second weekend, but for it to be shut down by this Schmucks nonsense this time around is a crime.Seems like the movie going public is split between wannabe intellectuals (Inception) and brain dead sleepwalkers (Schmucks).
Cats & Dogs 2 should get way more than $12 million for the weekend with a $4.3 million Friday. As a kiddie/family film, they don’t open too high on the first Friday (as it’s a weekday) usually as rule. Probably will jump to $6 million(ish) for the Saturday and $4 million for the Sunday for more like $14 million I think…
Wow! I just saw Dinner for SUCKS and I must say
It was a more painful experience then THE LAST AIRBENDER!
I did not laugh once and a few people walked out, god how
I wished I had joined them.
The Worst Film of the year!
I saw Dinner for schmucks in a packed house at the urging of a friend who told me she couldnt stop laughing when she had seen it earlier in the day. It was a great, funny movie. The whole theater was laughing during many parts of this movie and even clapped at the end. This was a laugh out loud movie and from the reaction of the audience I was with I know Im not the only one who thinks this.
What’s up with all the studio plants?
Was it really that great? Was it? Was the whole audience, like, doing back-flips down the aisle, pi$$ing their pants and dumping buckets of popcorn over their heads?
Are their husbands definitely going to go out and buy the DVD when it comes out? (See above comment)
You guys are so freaking obvious.
Zefron opening at #3 or #4 isn’t stellar but I bet it’s better than anything Taylor Lautner does, that isn’t named Twilight. Neither of them appeal to males, but Zefron is shrewdly cementing his teen girl base, with weepies and romances. Lautner is relying on action movies, when the male action movie base won’t turn out for him.
The danger with “cementing the teen girl base”, and depending solely on it, is that those teen girls eventually acquire boyfriends.
When the couple sits down to select a weekend movie to go to, the male is almost always going to veto anything with Zac Efron in it.
I think you’re exactly right. If they are trying to push Lautner as an action star they are in for a very rude awakening. Guy who like action films despise Lautner and all he represents. Which is too bad for him in a way, because I have heard he is a very accomplished martial artist. No dudes will every see Lautner as an action hero.
The biggest news is that Toy Story and Grown Ups are still in the Top 10, at weekend 7 and 6. Toy Story is truly a monstrous hit.
Grown Ups has had almost zero competition this summer. It is like everybody forgot about the adult comedy genre.
Grown Ups is an adult comedy ?????
Funniest (and saddest) comment I have read here in a long time.
I think last song opened on a wed so it’s Friday was smaller. It had a 5 day of 25 I believe. Miley is bigger than Zac.
“Salt” and “Robin Hood” are on totally different points; Salt crosses $100M domestically and it is a better then break even. Robin Hood needed about $225M domestic to really be a profitable enterprise. “Salt” might top out between 100-150, but it’ll get a sequel; RH no way. (I say this as someone who didn’t really like Salt, which I thought was kind of a mess all the way through).
Toy Story 3 looks as though by end of run it’s going to top $400M. Which makes it the biggest hit of the summer. Take that Twilight fans.
I’m trying to look at the slate and see if there is anything else on the boards left until the end of the year with a legit shot at $400M, and outside of HP7 part1, I don’t see anything else out there with the potential to catch it. So that’s a great performance for Pixar.. I’m trying to think of the last time an animated was in contention for #1 in a year, I think that was Lion King?
Sorcerors Apprentice is absolutely doing dreadful business. Charie St. Cloud will be front loaded, but even if it’s just an $18M weekend, the film was super cheap to make, so no one really loses there.
It was Shrek 2 in 2004, the last animated film before that to be top for the year domestically was Toy Story in 1995.
The Lion King was #2 for 1994.
I understand that perfectly. My observation was about the pure numbers being almost identical on the opening weekend and the second weekend hold, if estimates are accurate. Robin Hood’s crazy budget obviously means that the films are going to define “success” at completely different levels.
I think TRON has a chance at $400M, opening Dec 17.
It won’t earn all of that in ’10, though.
The Tron trailer looks good! Not interested in any of the new releases this week. I’m thinking The Other Guys might get me to the theater next week.
“I’m trying to look at the slate and see if there is anything else on the boards left until the end of the year with a legit shot at $400M, and outside of HP7 part1, I don’t see anything else out there with the potential to catch it.”
Huh? No Potter film has ever grossed anywhere near 400M domestic. Unless you’re counting on a 3D bump?
You’re correct that no potter film has broken 400M. Then again, HBP crossed $300M, and looking at the slate, there are no other real “tentpole” films out there that can say they have that in their belt. I was saying unless something crazy happens, TS3 will be the box office champ for the year. Out of all the films I’ve seen this year, only 3 really stand out (TS3, Inception, Temple Grandin.. though that’s HBO, but damn, too bad that didn’t get a theatrical).
So HP7 with some 3D bump. But I’m thinking what we really saw this weekend is that audiences have either been burned out or aren’t sold on the 3D bit. See: Cats & Dogs2. Studios throwing out absolute crap in 3D doesn’t sell as much, meanwhile TS3, which now is in 3D nowhere still clicks along.
I think the audience is coming to the conclusion the crazy increase in cost for 3D isn’t worth it unless a film is fundamentally designed for it.. and Avatar was the exception to the rule.
I don’t see HP7 getting a big enough bump to go over $400 million on 3D alone.
The box office performance of the films is relatively solid, the audience has been established and isn’t likely to grow massively with the upcoming film so at best I think you will get only what the addition of 3D will give.
If – as has been reported – that 3D adds about $18 million for every $100 million gross then based on a rough average of $300 million for the Harry Potter films (which is actually slightly rounding up) then HP7 may get to about $350/$360 million with the 3D factor involved, assuming it earns about the same as the last couple of films.
However, that should give it a shot at being the first Harry Potter film to then top $1 billion global take once you also add on international 3D dollars.