Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
November 12, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The 300-ish Immortals earned a surprisingly strong $15 million on Friday. The solid Friday is probably best attributed to the lack of a pure action film since the summer. Films like Conan, [tm:5254_]Drive[/tm] and The Three Musketeers tried over the last couple months, but this one finally stuck with audiences. Veterans Day perhaps had a little to do with it but had a far bigger impact on [tm:4875_]Puss in Boots[/tm] (more on that in a bit). It's a rather inexplicable breakout, but it still is one. Immortals wins the weekend with $38.2 million.
Jack & Jill
[bp:1130_]Adam Sandler[/bp]'s Jack & Jill opened to $9.9 million on Friday, which is sadly what many were hoping it would earn over the entire weekend. Somehow, despite having absolutely no redeeming qualities, Jack & Jill managed to get enough of Sandler's fanbase to stop playing Modern Warfare 3 (or if you're like me, Skyrim) for a few hours. If you're wondering, this is less than the opening day of You Don't Mess With the Zohan ($14.8 million in June 2008) and Grown Ups ($14.4 million in June 2010, though you can probably credit Kevin James with some of that) but more than February's Just Go With It ($9.4 million), though his rom-coms usually start out somewhat slower. Sadly, this isn't a Little Nicky, but it's headed towards being a Funny People. Look for Jack & Jill to have a $24.8 million weekend.
[tm:5219_]J. Edgar[/tm]
The Oscar-bait starring [bp:3444_]Leonardo DiCaprio[/bp] and directed by [bp:269_]Clint Eastwood[/bp] starts with $4.3 million. Only in 1,900 theaters, it's obviously hoping to build award buzz and expand over the next few weekends, but this start might not be good enough. With tepid reviews, there's not much of a reason to think audiences will react to it, and box office bombs traditionally don't attract Academy Award nominations. Give J. Edgar a weekend of $12.4 million.
Puss in Boots
After last weekend's non-existent decline, Puss In Boots finds itself in third on Friday with $9 million. Why yes, that would actually be a 15% increase over last weekend. Thanks to a calendar anomaly of Friday being Veterans Day, schools were closed, which gave families ample time to see the Shrek spinoff, so you get probably the most unprecedented third Friday in box office history. It probably won't duplicate last weekend's 4.2 multiplier since Friday was artificially inflated with a holiday, but it should actually come in with a weekend eerily close to its first two, though the unexpected breakout of Immortals keeps it out of the top for a third weekend. Give Puss in Boots a weekend of $31.5 million.