Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
April 19, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Forbidden Kingdom
The first-ever pairing of legends [bp:50_]Jackie Chan[/bp] and [bp:141_]Jet Li[/bp] brought in $7.6 million on Friday. This should bring Li's first $20 million opening as a lead actor and Chan's best opening weekend in a film not named Rush Hour. Barring ridiculous pent-up demand that brought out everyone on Friday night, Forbidden Kingdom should win the weekend with around $21.2 million.
[tm:3874_]Forgetting Sarah Marshall[/tm]
The Judd Apatow-produced comedy, written by and starring Jason Segel (and also starring BOP-fave Kristen Bell) earned $6 million on Friday. This is about what could be expected from it, perhaps a little better. It's certainly got a chance to build solid word-of-mouth and an $16.8 million weekend is an excellent start.
88 Minutes
The long delayed [bp:456_]Al Pacino[/bp] thriller earned $2.3 million Friday, nearly equivalent to the 2.3 years the film spent on the shelf. Call it $6.4 million, and may we never have to speak of it again.
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
It pains me to admit that Ben Stein's Expelled did indeed make the top ten on Friday with $1.2 million on its 1,000 screens. This is pretty good, actually, content notwithstanding, as it's certainly very easy for documentaries to crash and burn, especially if they don't have [bp:4502_]Michael Moore[/bp] or penguins (witness Morgan Spurlock's Where In the World is Osama bin Laden?, opening on 100 screens and earning $43,900.) Figure about $3.7 million for the so-called satirical film.
Notable Holdovers
[tm:1868_]Prom Night[/tm] drops 64% from a Friday ago, but it's not the plunge of the week, as that honor belongs to Street Kings, which plummets 74%. Prom Night will be solidly third for the weekend with $10.2 million and Street Kings will be in the pack of also-rans at the bottom of the top ten with $4.4 million.