Weekend Box Office Equal Parts Gold and Fool
February 12, 2008
Results over the weekend were mixed with the number one film opening above expectations by a small degree, but the top five weaker than predicted. This led to the overall box office coming in at just over $112 million, which is down 12% from last weekend. However, it is virtually tied with the same weekend last year. (It is currently down by less than $200,000, but that could change as some independent films finalize their weekend figures and release the numbers later this week.) If late returns can't make up the difference, 2008's winning streak will be over, but it is still up 15% over 2007, which is a huge margin.
It turns out Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson just needed to work together to end both of their slumps. Fool's Gold opened in first place with $21.59 million, which was just over Thursday's expectations. Additionally, with the romance angle to the adventure film, and Valentine's Day later this week, the film should have better legs than its reivews would otherwise indicate. I don't think it will reaching $100 million, but it should top its production budget and make a profit sometime during its home market run.
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins opened on the low end of expectations but still grabbed second place with $16.21 million over the weekend. Even poor legs brought on by weak reviews shouldn't prevent this film from topping its production budget shortly and while it is unlikely to have much international appeal, it should still earn a profit by its home market run.
It turns out the Fangirl effect was in full force this weekend. Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour still had an impressive weekend, though, with $10.30 million in 687 theaters for a total of $53.18 million, making it the highest grossing concert film in our database. There are plenty of other reasons to celebrate; for instance, the film earned more money during its second weekend than it cost to make. Also, its per theater average was just shy of $15,000 and the second best for the weekend. Granted, $100 million is not out of the question, but it is still one of the biggest hits of the year so far and will go down as one of the most profitable as well.
The Eye finished on the high end of expectations with $6.53 million over the weekend for a total of $21.42 million after two. It is hard to be enthusiastic about the film's performance at the box office so far, but it could have been worse.
Juno beat out 27 Dresses for fifth place $5.60 million to $5.41 million. For the former film, its running tally hit $117.51 million while the latter has pulled in $65.08 million so far. Both films could benefit from Valentine's Day this week while Juno also has Oscar pulling for it.
Both Over Her Dead Body and Strange Wilderness fell more than 50% during their sophomore stints. The former was down 57% to $1.74 million while the latter was down 51% to $1.49 million. Neither will be heard from again.
Filed under: Juno, Fool’s Gold, Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, The Eye, Over Her Dead Body, Strange Wilderness, 27 Dresses