BOX OFFICE BATTLE: Weekend Of 11.12.10

15Nov/10

BOX OFFICE BATTLE: Weekend Of 11.12.10

Coming as a shock to no one, MEGAMIND held strong for the second week in a row at the box office, bringing in another 29mil. That makes the worldwide total a cool 115mil which is pretty solid, though about 15mil off of the rumored production budget. I have no doubt that it’ll earn that back before Friday even rolls around, but one has to wonder how much Dreamworks spent marketing this one. If it is as much as I think it is, this may be another one of those IRON MAN 2 cases where the movie makes a ton of money but barely breaks even.

However, it can be said MEGAMIND proved that Denzel Washington is, in fact, stoppable. Haha. Okay, I’m kidding. But seriously, UNSTOPPABLE only managed to score 22mil last weekend which is a far cry from it’s rumored 100mil budget. I’d like to say that this flick is going to have legs and play for a bit (I actually dug it), but I’ve got a feeling that HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HOLLOWS PART I: THE PHANTOM MENACE and THE NEXT THREE DAYS (which will be vying for the core audience that UNSTOPPABLE is) might step all over it. It’s too bad really, especially since the flick is actually pretty good.

Speaking of pretty good, MORNING GLORY belly flopped into #5 with a paltry 9mil haul. I say pretty good because I’ve heard that the flick is actually decent and that Harrison Ford is really great in it. Unfortunately, it would seem that nobody gives a shit and they’d rather support Ford in stuff like INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULLS than quality work. At least it didn’t go DTV like CROSSING OVER did.

What the hell happened with SKYLINE? I honestly thought this was going to be the big winner this weekend, what with the badass previews and the surprisingly good early buzz. Unfortunately, critics who did see this on Thursday and Friday ravaged it into the fucking ground and probably are responsible for it underperforming. It definitely isn’t a bomb by no means (11mil opening weekend VS 10mil budget), but I honestly thought this one would do better. Of course, I haven’t seen it yet and I might have a change of heart once I do, but for the time being, I thought this one was the one to beat last weekend.

Outside of that, the rest of the box office was a bit of a mess. DUE DATE dropped a whopping 52% from last weekend and eeked out an extra 15mil. If I had to guess, it’s probably on the way of the top ten and won’t even be in theaters come Christmas-time. Not because it’s a bad movie (I liked it), but because the marketed for it seemed to stop the second that it hit theaters. Leading up to release, you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing ads for this. But the second it hit, the ads dried up, the marketing stopped and people seem to have already forgotten about it. What a shame.

Oh, and it would seem that SAW 3D might be the final installment (till the reboot) of the series for the moment. The flick made it’s money back (88mil worldwide off a 20mil budget), but it is currently the second lowest grossing installment (SAW VI being the lowest) of the once-popular series. Guess SAW followed the tradition of the great horror franchises of yesteryear: Pump out sequels till the audiences can’t stand the sight of you. See you in two year Jigsaw when Lionsgate reboots the whole damn thing.