Daredevil Loses Big but Still Wins Weekend

February 24, 2003

Daredevil was only able to grab $18.5 million during its second week at the box office, good enough for first place. However, the loss of 55% was greater than expected. Fox claims this loss was due in part to post-holiday weekend slumps. However, Presidents’ Day is not a big holiday for movies and the snowstorm that hit the Northeast lessened its effect even more. If Daredevil doesn’t rebound next week with a lose of less than 40% it will have a very difficult time crossing the $100 million mark. Making it the first movie to make $40 million on its opening weekend to fail to hit that milestone.

In second place, making $17.5 million (exactly what I predicted) was Old School. This teen comedy staring 30 year olds got surprisingly great reviews. It was the only movie opening wide last week that got an overall fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

Also living up to predictions was How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days with $11.6 million for third place. In fourth was Jungle Book 2 which only dropped 24% from its first weekend. A phenomenon which can be entirely explained by the complete lack of competition for its target audience, a trend that will continue till March 21st when Piglet’s Big Movie is released. Just behind in fifth place was Chicago with $8.2 million. Chicago should hit the $100 million mark next weekend.

As for the rest of the new releases, none made much of an impact at the box office. The Life of David Gale just failed to make the top 5 with $7 million. Gods and Generals made slightly more than predicted, but still not enough. Its production and advertising budget was nearly $90 million, so less than $5 million during it’s opening weekend has to been seen as a huge disappointment. And sitting in 9th place with less than $4 million is Dark Blue, which I predicted would make more than twice as much.

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Source: The Numbers

Filed under: Chicago, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Daredevil, Old School, The Jungle Book 2, Piglet's Big Movie, The Life of David Gale, Gods and Generals, Dark Blue