Moviegoers Crown New (Prom) King
April 15, 2008
Overall the box office was marginally better than expected with practically every film beating expectations. However, no film really surpassed expectations by any great amount and the overall box office was $95 million, which was almost exactly the same as last weekend. However, it was almost 20% less than the same weekend last year and now 2008 is down more than 3% from last year's pace $2.36 billion to $2.44 billion.
Leading the way at the box office was Prom Night with $20.80 million over the weekend. This is about $1 million more than Thursday's prediction and is one of the ten best openings of the year. However, its future outlook is not very bright. The film wasn't reviewed for critics before the weekend, and with good reason. It's not the worst movie of the year, but it is unlikely to win over many fans and that will hurt its legs. We can also see this in its internal multiplier, which was a sad 2.18. The film's box office numbers during the week will tell the tale, but a 60% drop-off next weekend is more than likely.
Street Kings also topped Thursday's prediction, but also by a rather limited margin with an opening box office of $12.47 million. This is a little lower than Keanu Reeves' previous wide release and his smallest debut for a wide release since Hardball. Additionally, weak reviews make it seem like unlikely that it will have long legs, especially with summer blockbusters just around the corner.
21 fell just under 32% to $10.47 million over the weekend for a total of $61.74 million after 17 days. It is closing in on its reported production budget of $75 million, a milestone it should reach in two weeks or so.
Coming in fourth was Nim's Island, which held well, down just 31% to $9.11 million over the weekend, and now has $25.39 million in total. It will need a few more weeks of strong holds like this before the film can be seen as a financial success.
Leatherheads didn't hold on as well, down 50% to just $6.28 million over the past three days and $21.98 million after ten. There's little chance the film will match its production budget at this point, even adding in its international numbers. That said, it could still earn a profit after a time on the home market, maybe.
The last wide release of the week was Smart People, which landed in seventh place with $4.09 million in just 1,106 theaters. Reviews were merely average and overall this is a disappointing start for a film I had high hopes for. After the weekend, the best it can hope for is a strong run on the home market.
The only member of the sophomore class to not reach the top five this week was The Ruins. This film fell nearly 58% to $3.39 million over the weekend for a total of $13.55 million after two. However, this is not as bad as it could have been.
Filed under: Nim's Island, Prom Night, Leatherheads, Street Kings, The Ruins, Smart People, 21