Weekend Wrap-Up
Fast & Furious Races To Over $70 Million
By John Hamann
April 5, 2009
Fifth goes to the comedy I Love You, Man with Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Now in its third weekend, I Love You, Man earned $7.9 million and was off 38%. That's two consecutive strong holds for this one, as it performs admirably amongst some solid competition. As an off-shoot, there was a story in my morning paper today about where to go on man-dates in California. This one may turn into the next Paul Blart, but let's wait another weekend to get into those comparisons. I Love You, Man has now earned $49.3 million, and is well ahead of where Forgetting Sarah Marshall was after three weekends ($44.7 million), despite similar opening weekends.
Sixth goes to our other new film in release this weekend, Greg Mottola's Adventureland. With an opening in sixth, Adventureland is obviously no Superbad ($33 million opening on 2,948 screens), but it did okay considering. Adventureland opened to $6 million from a slim venue count of only 1,862, giving it a rough average of $2,127. The biggest problem for this flick is how busy it is overall at cinemas. Adventureland and its 88% fresh rating at RottenTomatoes got squeezed out of the box office pie, as the comedy failed to have a hook to draw patrons. I'm hoping Adventureland doesn't go away after one weekend, and that word-of-mouth propels this one in the future.
Duplicity takes the number seven spot, as the Julia Roberts/Clive Owen flick has failed to gain any traction at the box office. Duplicity earned $4.3 million this weekend, its third, and drops 44% compared to last weekend. The $60 million production has now earned $32.4 million.
Eighth goes to Race to Witch Mountain, as The Rock battles to get his flick into the $70 million area. He has a better weekend than last, when Race dropped 55% against the open of Monsters vs. Aliens. This weekend, Race to Witch Mountain earned $3.4 million and drops 42%. It has a running total so far of $58.4 million.
The Fox and WWE flick 12 Rounds lands in ninth. Expectedly, the John Cena action flick earns $2.3 million and falls 57%. Time to give this one the hook with a gross so far of $9 million.
Overture Films' Sunshine Cleaning finishes tenth despite being out to only 479 venues. The comedy, which stars Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, brought in $1.9 million, an increase of 48% from last weekend when it was out to only 167 venues. This one is 67% fresh at RottenTomatoes, and has a running total of $4.8 million.
Overall this weekend, things are very, very good. With the surprisingly large open for Fast & Furious, on the heels of Monsters vs. Aliens, the top 12 films earned an awesome $152.3 million, a figure we didn't see last year until May, but this year, with the economic downturn, have seen a remarkable three times. A year ago over the same weekend, the top 12 films earned only $80 million, a far cry from what we are seeing this weekend. Next weekend, things could be big again. Miley Cyrus opens Hannah Montana: The Movie for Disney, Seth Rogen opens Observe and Report which looks an awful lot like Paul Blart: Mall Cop (except this one might be funny), and Fox brings up Dragonball Evolution. See you next weekend.
| 1 |
Fast & Furious |
Universal Pictures |
$72,507,950 |
$70,950,500 |
New |
$70,950,500 |
| 2 |
Monsters vs. Aliens |
DreamWorks |
$33,510,000 |
$32,609,165 |
- 45.0% |
$104,799,387 |
| 3 |
The Haunting in Connecticut |
Lionsgate |
$9,550,000 |
$9,481,647 |
- 58.8% |
$37,171,280 |
| 4 |
Knowing |
Summit Entertainment |
$8,130,000 |
$8,146,156 |
- 44.6% |
$58,219,770 |
| 5 |
I Love You, Man |
DreamWorks Pictures |
$7,850,000 |
$7,722,468 |
- 39.1% |
$49,159,558 |
| 6 |
Adventureland |
Miramax Films |
$6,010,000 |
$5,722,039 |
New |
$5,722,039 |
| 7 |
Duplicity |
Universal |
$4,300,010 |
$4,174,240 |
- 45.6% |
$32,250,215 |
| 8 |
Race to Witch Mountain |
Walt Disney Pictures |
$3,351,000 |
$3,212,602 |
- 44.6% |
$58,249,111 |
| 9 |
12 Rounds |
20th Century Fox |
$2,300,000 |
$2,260,906 |
- 57.6% |
$8,982,767 |
| 10 |
Sunshine Cleaning |
Overture Films |
$1,879,000 |
$1,807,164 |
+ 41.8% |
$4,702,721 |
| 11 |
Taken |
Twentieth Century Fox |
$1,580,000 |
$1,544,471 |
- 42.7% |
$139,416,323 |
| 12 |
The Last House on the Left |
Rogue Pictures |
$1,311,525 |
$1,259,325 |
- 52.4% |
$30,674,195 |
| |
Also Opening/Notables |
| |
Bart Got a Room |
Anchor Bay |
N/A |
$32,764 |
New |
$32,764 |
| |
Tulpan |
Zeitgeist |
N/A |
$8,620 |
New |
$10,357 |
| |
Song of Sparrows |
Regent |
N/A |
$7,863 |
New |
$7,863 |
| |
Sin Nombre |
Focus Features |
$194,057 |
$184,380 |
+162.8% |
$398,982 |
| |
Watchmen |
Warner Bros. |
$1,085,000 |
$1,074,320 |
- 60.7% |
$105,346,566 |
| |
Slumdog Millionaire |
Warner Independent Pictures |
$510,000 |
$499,257 |
- 57.1% |
$140,244,722 |
|
Click here for all weekend data
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Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations
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