Welcome Xmas: Weekend Box Office For Jim Carrey
11/09/2009 11:04:00 AM
kenmouse
, Posted in
Holiday movie season and high Oscar season have kicked off. But only one is kicking mistletoe.While Jim Carrey's A Christmas Carol led a bah-humbug weekend with an underwhelming $31 million, per estimates, the Oprah Winfrey- and Tyler Perry-backed award-show contender Precious grossed a stunning $1.8 million at only 18 theaters.
Elsewhere, Michael Jackson's This Is It did its thing (solid $14 million here, bigger $29 million overseas), George Clooney's The Men Who Stare at Goats ($13.3 million) did better than expected for a movie with goats and George Clooney in it, and Cameron Diaz's The Box ($7.9 million) just didn't really open.
A look inside the numbers:
• It's not that it's bad to make $31 million in 72 hours, as A Christmas Carol is expected to do. It's just that it's not good to not make something closer to your $175 million-ish budget (especially when you're charging 3D-ticket prices).
• This time last year, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa started off the holiday season with a $63.1 million bang.
• Here's the good news for A Christmas Carol: One, holiday movies tend to keep well during holiday season; and, two, director Robert Zemeckis has experience at turning a sluggish start into a success story. In 2004, his pricey The Polar Express impressed nobody with a $23.3 million opening; the Tom Hanks film ended up avoiding disaster, and, given reissues and overseas receipts, grossing $305 million.
• Precious is not messing around. Not since Dreamgirls has a movie averaged at least $100,000 per theater (by comparison, A Christmas Carol averaged $8,417), and not since ever, Exhibitor Relations says, has a movie playing at more than 10 theaters averaged six figures.
• To put it another way, Precious grossed about as much at 18 theaters as The Stepfather ($1.9 million) did at 1,400-plus.
• For those keeping score, Jackson's concert film held up better in its second weekend than Miley Cyrus' did. Cyrus' Best of Both Worlds, however, remains the genre champ (for now) with a $65.3 million overall gross. This Is It currently stands at $57.9 million.
• Jackson continues to dominate Cyrus globally. Overall, Best of Both Worlds "only" made $5.4 million overseas; This Is It broke the $100 million mark on Thursday.
• George Clooney is a bona-fide movie star, but, outside of the Ocean's Eleven franchise, he's not exactly a box-office star. As modest as its debut was, the quirky The Men Who Stare at Goats opened bigger than all but seven of Clooney's 20-plus movies.
• With a reputed budget of $25 million, The Box isn't a bomb. But the thriller is Diaz's lowest-grossing wide-release opener since the prophetically titled Very Bad Things back in 1998.
• For one weekend, at least, Milla Jovovich's The Fourth Kind ($12.5 million) scared up more money than Paranormal Activity ($8.6 million; $97.4 million overall).
• Jigsaw has been cut down. Saw VI ($2 million) dropped out of the Top 10 after just two weekends. To date, the horror sequel has grossed $26.2 million. The previous "lowest"-grossing Saw, the 2004 original, took in $55.2 million.
• Missing again: Hilary Swank's $40 million Amelia ($1.8 million; $11.3 million overall, per Box Office Mojo) disappeared from the Top 10 after a one-weekend stay.
Here's a look at the weekend's top-grossing films based on Friday-Sunday estimates as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
1. Disney's A Christmas Carol, $31 million
2. Michael Jackson's This Is It, $14 million
3. The Men Who Stare at Goats, $13.3 million
4. The Fourth Kind, $12.5 million
5. Paranormal Activity, $8.6 million
6. The Box, $7.9 million
7. Couples Retreat, $6.4 million
8. Law Abiding Citizen, $6.2 million
9. Where the Wild Things Are, $4.2 million
10. Astro Boy, $2.6 million
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