Black Friday isn't just a good day for retailers; it's a good day for
Hollywood, too. Last week's openers had miniscule Friday-to-Friday
dropoffs, and successful holdovers and family films like Elf and Brother
Bear increased signifigantly from a week ago. And unlike previous
Thanksgiving weekends, there's really only one turkey that hit theaters
this week, and two certified hits.
The Haunted Mansion
Eddie Murphy's family film earned an estimated $9.6 million Friday,
bringing it to $19.2 million after three days. The downside to the box
office bonanza that is Black Friday is signifigantly below average
internal multipliers. Look for The Haunted Mansion to finish the weekend
with $23 million for the weekend and $32.6 million for the five-day
holiday.
Bad Santa
The black comedy did moderately okay on Black Friday, earning and
estimated $4.6 million, giving the Billy Bob Thornton film $9.4 million in
three days. Being more adult friendly, Bad Santa will make $11.5 million over the
three-day weekend and $16.3 million over the five-day weekend.
The Missing
Ron Howard's Oscar bait made an estimated $4.3 million Friday and is just
under $9 million since Wednesday. This is a fairly disappointing number
for the Sony release considering the names involved, but it's no Timeline.
The Missing should find itself with $10.7 million for the Friday - Sunday
period and $15.3 million from Wednesday - Sunday.
Timeline
The one definite disappointment among the Thanksgiving openers, Timeline
earned an estimated $3.5 million Friday and stands at $7.7 million after
three days. Give the Michael Crichton book turned box office flop $8
million over the entire weekend, for a five day total of $12.2 million.
Notable Holdovers
After being the only film in the top ten to stumble from Wednesday to
Thursday, The Cat in the Hat recovered Friday, earning $10.5 million, off
just a hair from a week ago. It's going to be a close race at the top
between The Cat in the Hat, The Haunted Mansion and Elf, but the Dr. Seuss
adaptation should end up with a second weekend at the top over the three-day weekend.
Elf continues its remarkable run, up 72% from last Friday. It won't
continue at that pace over the rest of the weekend, but the Will Ferrell
comedy is now clearly the big winner of the season.
Gothika drops 26.1% from last Friday, which is worse news than you'd
think as it's the only holdover that showed a signifigant decline from
last Friday. Look for its overall weekend decline to be closer to 40%.
Extrapolated Estimates for the Top Ten (Three-Day)