Anger Management Wins a Soft Easter

April 21, 2003

Despite most people having Friday off, this Easter Weekend was not as strong as the same weekend last year, which was not even a long weekend. And it was about a quarter less than last Easter weekend.

Anger Management was able to hang on to first place but even with the long weekend it dropped more than 40%. Still, it looks like it will be able to match Mr. Deeds’ $126 million, or at least come close. But with a production and advertising budget estimated to be over $100 million, that might not be enough.

In second place was the kids movie Holes. Originally planned for a January release, it was moved to Easter weekend, and that strategy seems to have paid off. Its $16.3 million opening weekend is just a few million shy of its production budget. And the good news continues Holes not only had great reviews, but also great CinemaScores, something that hasn’t happened in a while. Look for this movie to have legs, and it might launch the careers of some of the mostly unknown actors who played the kids of D-Tent.

Malibu’s Most Wanted did a little better than expected with $12.6 million, good enough for 3rd place. Reviews were poor, but better than expected and CinemaScores were average, also better than expected. With the lowest costs in the top five, Warner Bros. should be happy and this could result in a sequel, which will not make many critics happy.

Doing much weaker than originally forecasted, and weaker than the lower revised prediction was Bulletproof Monk. After getting horrible reviews, it did receive average CinemaScores. But the $8.7 million opening weekend after getting $3 million Wednesday and Thursday is nothing short of disaster.

Rounding out the top five was Phone Booth with just under $6 million. Phone Booth has already paid for its production budget, but is not enough to solidify Colin Farrell’s star status.

The only other movies to open in more than a few select cities were not able to maintain their early momentum. After opening in fifth place, Chasing Papi dropped all the way to eleventh. A Mighty Wind finished 13th after opening in the top ten. However, both were just a few hundred thousand away from the 9th place. In fact, there was less than $1 million between 8th and 15th.

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Filed under: Anger Management, Holes, Phone Booth, Malibu’s Most Wanted, Bulletproof Monk, A Mighty Wind, Chasing Papi