Friday Box Office Estimates
Orlando Bloom, You Are Fired!
By John Hamann
October 15, 2005
Orlando Bloom, you are fired. Hollywood provided three new releases this weekend, as studios tried to pry viewers away from the MLB Playoffs on Friday night. Once again, all three films failed miserably with critics, and moviegoers caught the stench before heading out last night. Our third place film on Friday should rise past the openers and repeat at number one.
Elizabethtown
Orlando Bloom showed up on movie screens again this weekend, and again audiences avoided him like the plague. However, because the rest of the crop was so weak, he may get another shot at a number one opener, although Wallace and Gromit may have something to say about that. Elizabethtown, also starring Kirsten Dunst, earned about $3.8 million on Friday, and should finish the weekend just ahead of The Fog with about $11 million. That gives it a date-movie multiplier of 2.9, and a lame finish for Cameron Crowe's follow up to Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky. Critically this one got hammered, and audiences caught on.
The Fog
Another PG-13 rated horror flick (you know, for kids!) hit screens this weekend, this one another remake of an old John Carpenter movie (the other one this year was Assault on Precinct 13). The TV marketing will be able to get this one above $10 million for the weekend, as The Fog earned about $4.1 million on Friday, placing first. The horror multiplier has it doomed for second or third though, as a 2.6 multiplier will bring its total up to $10.7 million, but move it into second or third behind Elizabethtown and Wallace and Gromit.
Domino
Ah, Domino, you could have been great. This one had all the elements of being a great movie. A Tony Scott movie starring the gorgeous Keira Knightly as a bounty hunter – how could it go wrong? Well, critically it sucked, and again North America has caught on (cue my golf clap). Domino earned a not-so-good $1.6 million on Friday, and will finish the weekend with a gross of less than $5 million.
Holdovers
There is some good news in the holdovers. Wallace and Gromit dropped only 23% compared to last Friday, pulling in gross yesterday of about $3.1 million. It should finish the weekend with about $12 million, grabbing the top spot. Ryan Reynolds' Waiting fell 53%, so that order will be to go with a weekend total of about $3.2 million. We've yet to hear how The Gospel did on Friday, which does not bode well for a second appearance in the top ten from the religious film (unless it rises from the dead). Check back tomorrow when I will have the full weekend wrap-up and discussion about this weekend's top ten films at the box office.
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Projected Estimates for the Top Ten (Three-Day)
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Projected
Rank |
Film |
Estimated Gross |
|
1
|
Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit
|
$11.8
|
|
2
|
Elizabethtown
|
$11.0
|
|
3
|
The Fog
|
$10.7
|
|
4
|
Flightplan
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$6.5
|
|
5
|
In Her Shoes
|
$6.1
|
|
6
|
Two for the Money
|
$4.7
|
|
7
|
Domino
|
$4.6
|
|
8
|
A History of Violence
|
$3.6
|
|
9
|
The Corpse Bride
|
$3.5
|
|
10
|
Waiting...
|
$3.2
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