Weekend Puts a Smile on even the Biggest Jackass's Face

September 26, 2006

The weekend numbers were mixed, with more films beating expectations than not, but overall business still weak. Granted, the total box office hit $98 million over the weekend and that was up a huge 25.9% over last weekend, but more importantly this was still 2.1% lower than the same weekend last year. Hopefully this coming weekend will perform better, helping 2006 end its mini-slump against 2005.

It was an easy victory for Jackass: Number Two as the film not only got off to a faster start than expected on Friday, but earned a better internal multiplier as well. During its first three days of release it took in $29.0 million and with better reviews than the Jackass original earned, it could avoid the worst effects of sequelitis and go on to have better legs. Even if it does, $100 million seems unlikely at this point, but the film has already paid for its production budget and taken a chunk out of its P&A budget as well. At this rate it should show a profit before it ends its domestic run, something only 1 in 10 films do.

Jet Li's Fearless also beat expectations, but its $10.6 million is still the weakest opening in Jet Li's career since Black Mask. And given Jet Li's track record when it comes to his film's legs, this is not a good sign. On the other hand, 72% positive reviews could help it hang on longer, and with strong legs it should still be able to show a profit during its initial push into the home market.

Gridiron Gang showed that even poorly reviewed real life inspirational coach movies are unstoppable at the box office. The film fell a mere 34.4% during its sophomore stint to $9.5 million over the weekend and $27.0 million overall. The film is now just over $1 million from topping Dwayne Johnson's previous film with plenty of gas left in the tank and while start showing a profit after its initial push into the home market.

The same can't be said for our next film. Flyboys, which cost $60 million to make, opened with just $6.0 million. Even with legs that are insanely long compared to its reviews and an international appeal twice what would be expected, this film will struggle to show a profit even after you take into account ancillary markets like hotel chains. Even worse, the film was self-financed meaning it's poor performance won't be mitigated by past and future hits by the studio and the investors will take a huge loss on this one.

Next up is Everyone's Hero, which held up even better than the previous holdover. The film was down less than 27% to $4.7 million over the weekend. However, its 10-day total of $11.5 million is still very disappointing, even compared to other digitally animated films that have struggled lately.

The final wide release of the week was All the King's Men in seventh place with just $3.7 million. Even taking into account its low theatre count, this is a terrible start. Add in overwhelmingly negative reviews and you have a film that will be gone and forgotten in less than a month.

Moving onto the sophomore class, neither of the two remaining films performed well. The Black Dahlia fell out of the top five, down 55.5% to $4.4 million over the weekend and $17.3 million in total. Meanwhile, The Last Kiss fell out of the top ten, down 45.8% to $2.5 million for the weekend and $8.4 million in total. Neither film will show a profit any time soon.

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Filed under: Jackass: Number Two, Gridiron Gang, Huo Yuan Jia, The Black Dahlia, Everyone's Hero, Flyboys, The Last Kiss, All the King's Men