Weekend Wrap-Up
Coen Brothers win the top spot
By John Hamann
September 14, 2008
Fifth through seventh is a dogfight between our summer holdovers. The ranking looks like this right now, but could change when actuals come out tomorrow. Number five goes to four-weekend-old The House Bunny, as the Anna Faris flick has an exceptional hold with a 22% drop, and grosses $4.3 million. From Sony, The House Bunny cost only $25 million to make, and has now grossed $42.1 domestically. Sixth goes to Tropic Thunder with $4.2 million, and while it doesn't have a House Bunny hold at 42%, it does cross the $100 million mark, which is good news for any kind of satire (wouldnât the Coen Brothers love that?). The Ben Stiller-directed flick now has a total of $103 million against a $90 million budget. Seventh goes to The Dark Knight, now in its ninth weekend in the top ten. The extremely successful Batman flick earned $4 million and drops only 27%. Its running total has now reached a truly awesome $517.7 million.
Eighth goes to the truly ugly Bangkok Dangerous with Nic Cage. After finishing first last weekend basically by default, the action flick nose dived 69% to eighth, earning a woeful $2.4 million. This one cost $45 million to make, and is going to have to be happy with less than $20 million domestically, although international sales may bail it out. The same thing happened with Vin Diesel's Babylon A.D., which opened in second, then earned $4.2 million last weekend and $1.8 million this weekend, a drop of 58%. Maybe people are tiring of crap.
Ninth goes to Traitor, the Don Cheadle flick. Traitor earned $2.1 million and was off 50%. It has a running total of $20.7 million against a production budget of $22 million. I'll look forward to it on DVD.
In tenth is Death Race, the Jason Statham car accident. Death Race earned a paltry $2 million and was off 46%. Death Race now has a total of $33.2 million against a budget of $45 million.
Falling just outside of the top ten is Mamma Mia!, which should be noted. Mamma Mia earned $1.7 million this weekend and dropped 39%. It has a total now of $139.3 million stateside, and a foreign total approaching $300 million.
So, after the top 12 grossed a sad $50 million last weekend, we get a nice bounce back this weekend. The top 12 films earned a much more healthy $86.6 million thanks to the new product. A year ago had Jodie Foster and The Brave One on top with $13.5 million, and the top 12 put up a score of $64 million, which leaves last year well ahead of this year, at least for September. Next weekend brings another weekend of so-so product, except for maybe Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais.
1 |
Burn After Reading |
Focus Features |
$19,403,679 |
$19,128,001 |
New |
$19,128,001 |
2 |
Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys |
Lionsgate |
$18,020,000 |
$17,381,218 |
New |
$17,381,218 |
3 |
Righteous Kill |
Overture Films |
$16,500,000 |
$16,288,361 |
New |
$16,288,361 |
4 |
The Women |
Picturehouse |
$10,088,406 |
$10,115,121 |
New |
$10,115,121 |
5 |
Tropic Thunder |
DreamWorks |
$4,180,000 |
$4,183,405 |
- 42.1% |
$102,974,069 |
6 |
The House Bunny |
Columbia Pictures (Sony) |
$4,300,000 |
$4,154,427 |
- 24.6% |
$42,008,459 |
7 |
The Dark Knight |
Warner Bros. Pictures |
$4,015,000 |
$4,128,153 |
- 25.1% |
$517,792,764 |
8 |
Bangkok Dangerous |
Lionsgate |
$2,400,000 |
$2,592,656 |
- 66.7% |
$12,723,787 |
9 |
Traitor |
Overture Films |
$2,132,000 |
$2,131,639 |
- 50.1% |
$20,734,170 |
10 |
Death Race |
Universal Pictures |
$2,017,035 |
$2,056,415 |
- 44.6% |
$33,232,495 |
11 |
Babylon A.D. |
Twentieth Century Fox |
$1,775,000 |
$1,864,585 |
- 55.4% |
$20,415,057 |
12 |
Mamma Mia! |
Universal |
$1,744,550 |
$1,827,985 |
- 36.0% |
$139,401,320 |
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Also Opening/Notables |
|
Towelhead |
Warner Independent Pictures |
$53,000 |
$52,823 |
New |
$52,823 |
|
Greetings From the Shore |
Newstyle |
$46,252 |
$40,527 |
New |
$40,527 |
|
Moving Midway |
First Run |
N/A |
$6,539 |
New |
$6,539 |
|
Moving Midway |
First Run |
N/A |
$6,539 |
New |
$6,539 |
Click here for all weekend data
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Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
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