Back in Black

October 7, 2003

The predicted battle for top spot was not as close as initially thought. However, even with two movies doing well we saw a decrease of 2% from last weekend. And without a record breaker like last year's Red Dragon there was a substantial 17.5% drop from last year.

Jack Black is best known for supporting work in films like High Fidelity, even in his first staring role he was a secondary draw to Gwyneth Paltrow. So it comes as a bit of a surprise that School of Rock won this weekend's box office race with $19.6 million. It comes as a much bigger surprise than it won over so many film critics; its 91% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes is the second best for a wide release this year. Given its reviews and target audience, it may have an outside shot at $100 million.

While Out of Time failed to meet expectations this weekend, $16.2 million for an October opening weekend is still in the top ten all time. Overall the reviews are just above the level needed to be overall positive, however, its cream of the crop score is much better at 79% positive. Its legs won't be as strong as School of Rock, but $70 million or more should be attainable.

There was a little bit of good news for The Rundown this weekend, it fell less than 50% at the box office to $9.7 million. But that's too little, too late for a movie with a reported production budget of $85 million.

While Under the Tuscan Sun fell just over 20% to $7.7 million at the box office this week, that was mainly due to an increase in theatre count. On a per theatre count it was more than a 40% drop.

Secondhand Lions just beat expectations with $5.2 million this weekend. And its total box office is now just ahead of its reported production budget of $30 million.

Lost in Translation climbed three places into 7th this week with $4.2 million. Unfortunately, most analysts agree that its per theatre take is dropping too fast for it to be a serious Oscar contender.


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Filed under: School of Rock, The Rundown, Lost in Translation, Under the Tuscan Sun, Secondhand Lions, Out of Time