It would be a bit obvious for us to say that “National Treasure: Book Of Secrets found gold at the box office this weekend,” but we’re very tired from a busy, busy month, and we’d like to go home and spend the day off tomorrow with our families. The Disney sequel starring Nicolas Cage cinched the #1 spot at the box office, though last week’s #1 and #2, I Am Legend and Alvin and the Chipmunks, were close behind with respectable takes at #2 and #3 this week. The next charting releases were a far-behind trio of new titles – the Tom Hanks political comedy Charlie Wilson’s War (#4), the dark Tim Burton/Johnny Depp musical Sweeney Todd (#5) and the unconventional romantic comedy P.S. I Love You (#6). Disney’s self-spoof Enchanted is still hanging on a month later, this week at #7, with the only other new movie, the music biopic lark Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story coming in at #8. The big budget fantasy The Golden Compass barely added to its disappointing take, landing at #9, though it has done considerable business abroad, prompting talk of the two sequels based on author Philip Pullman’s other two books in the His Dark Materials trilogy. In limited release (and opening in Worcester on Christmas Day) is the dark horse comedy Juno at #10. Don’t expect too much of a change next week, as also-rans The Great Debaters, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem and The Water Horse are the only new movies opening this week.
To those readers who celebrate Christmas, we all wish you and yours a joyous one. Please enjoy this video Christmas card: “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”… played on Tesla coils!
With only one movie – the #5 ranking Jessica Alba medical thriller Awake – opening in wide release, this weekend’s box office looks much like last weekend’s. Audiences are still smitten by the button-cute Amy Adams in Disney’s storybook spoof, Enchanted. The #1 movie doubled the take of its closest competition, the #2 Beowulf, with the holiday comedy This Christmas closely behind at #3. After a month on the Top 10, the audience and critical hit American Gangster dropped off, as did the innocuous Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (with the #10 No Country For Old Men returning). Another one-movie weekend this coming with the respectable fantasy adventure, The Golden Compass, opening in wide release.
•••TOP 10 MOVIES FOR THE WEEKEND OF•••
NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 2, 2007
Disney’s self-effacing “up yours!” to all the other studios that have parodied the House of Mouse turned to be an “and your mother’s, too!” after the long holiday weekend, as the self-referential (but not self-reverential) spoof scored big with audiences. The PG-rated hit matched the combined box office of the #2 surprise This Christmas and the #3 former champ, Beowulf. Another holiday release, the high-octane R-rated action-thriller Hitman scored a #4 slot, with #7 August Rush trumping #9 The Mist. Apparently, the highly touted horror show, based on the bestseller by Stephen King, proved to be too glum and gory in this traditional time of togetherness (there is hope for the world). Don’t count on much of a change for next weekend, as this rare five-Friday November holds only one new release for November 30 – the medical thriller Awake starring Jessica Alba and Hayden Christensen.
•••TOP 10 MOVIES FOR THE WEEKEND OF NOVEMBER 23-25, 2007•••
Considering that Beowulf opened against just one other movie – the #5 slouch Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium – it’s no surprise that the spectacular CGI adventure was #1 this weekend (also consider that many theatres charge more for tickets to the 3-D version of the film). New placers include the latest from the Coen Brothers, No Country For Old Men, hitting #7 as it continues its wide rollout, and the #10 snoozer, Love In The Time Of Cholera. Bee Movie, American Gangster and Fred Claus hold on with the #2, #3 and #4 spots, respectively, though considering the sheer number of releases this week (Wednesday) like The Mist, Enchanted, August Rush and Hitman, expect them to slip, with titles like the #8 Lions For Lambs and #9 Saw IV dropping out of the Top 10 entirely.
•••TOP 10 MOVIES FOR THE WEEKEND OF NOVEMBER 16-18, 2007•••
“Seinfeld” fans disappointed at their Jewish-American idol’s second place showing last week will walk tall this week with Bee Movie kicking last week’s champ, American Gangster, out of the #1 spot, with the supposed heir, Fred Claus, only placing at #3 (though it’s a sure-fire long-runner). Preachy Lions For Lambs only managed #4, with the Steve Carell starrer Dan In Real Life staying on the chart at #5 in its third week in theatres. The only other new release on the list is the under-marketed thriller, P2 at #8. The longevity award goes to Disney’s way-clunky family flick The Game Plan, going into its third month of release, this week at #7. Look for this week’s openers Beowulf and Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium to knock everything down two notches next weekend as the Wicked Big Thanksgiving Weekend approaches.
•••••TOP 10 MOVIES FOR THE WEEKEND OF NOVEMBER 9-11, 2007•••••
We will leave the sports metaphor to you, dear reader, when we say that the PG-rated Disney comedy The Game Plan defeated the odds-on favorite, The Kingdom (coming in #2). The only other new movie that charted this week was the dramatic comedy, Feast of Love, just out of the Top 10 at #11, though the Beatles musical Across the Universe did crack the Top 10, after a couple weeks in release. The rest of the list looks pretty much like last week’s, with last week’s top two, Resident Evil: Extinction and Good Luck Chuck, being bumped to #3 and #4, respectively. Late summer hits The Bourne Ultimatum and Superbad fell off the list after 8 weeks in release.
Critic haters who point out that this weekend’s #1 movie, Resident Evil: Extinction , did not screen for critics in advance of its Friday opening and still managed a decent $24 million at the box office don’t often consider that studio Sony spent so much to promote it that a #1 spot would be as likely as gravity reversing itself. A distant #2 (insert poop joke here) is the Dane Cook-Jessica Alba comedy, Good Luck Chuck, with the only other brand-brand new release in the Top 10 being the #6 scoring Snow White spoof, Sydney White, starring the super-cute Amanda Bynes. Two remnants of summer – the #8 Superbad and the #9 The Bourne Ultimatum – continue chugging, up over the $100 million and $200 million marks, respectively (and respectably).
It was an actual shootout this weekend, with Jodie Foster’s heat-packing vigilante in the #1 The Brave One out-gunning last week’s champ, the Western remake 3:10 To Yuma in the #2 spot. The stale comedy Mr. Woodcock starring Billy Bob Thornton took a close #3, with the flaming mess Dragon Wars at #4 (though it has already chalked up $50 million in worldwide release since early August. Superbad (#5) and The Bourne Ultimatum (#7) still continue to hold on, even in their seventh weeks in release, with Mr. Bean’s Holiday eking out a #10 berth (but an impressive over $200 million worldwide).
Contradicting the “Labor Day is a crap weekend at the box office” rule, rocker Rob Zombie’s #1 grossing remake of John Carpenter’s Halloween slaughtered the competition, more than doubling the take of the biggest movie of last Labor Day weekend, Invincible, and becoming the biggest-grossing Labor Day opening of all time. The teen comedy Superbad is still playing strong across-the-board, pulling down the #2 spot in its fifth weekend in release, with the #3 movie, the sports spoof Balls of Fury, close behind. The only other new movie this week is the revenge drama (”from the makers of Saw and the writer of Death Wish“!) Death Sentence, landing in the distant #8 spot. Notable also-rans include the #4 movie, the Matt Damon! actioner The Bourne Ultimatum, breaking the $200 million mark in its fifth week in release, and the #6 Mr. Bean’s Holiday, which broke $200 in worldwide ticket sales.
Just when Hollywood thought that this weekend’s #2 movie The Bourne Ultimatum would be the last gasp of the summer movie season, along comes the pedigreed teen sex comedy Superbad, which remained #1 at the box office this past weekend against a slew of mostly no-name comers. With Rush Hour 3 still in the top 3, the closest any new movies made it to that spot was Mr. Bean’s Holiday at #4, adding to the whopping $189 million it has already earned overseas since its release earlier this year. The latest pairing of Jet Li and Jason Statham, War, didn’t get too much action, landing at #5, with the only other new movie to even see the Top 12 being the #6 The Nanny Diaries. Unless Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween opens strong on Friday — and its take should be cannibalized by the Wednesday opening of Balls of Fury – don’t expect much of a change after next weekend’s “Labor Day Dump.” While this summer’s box office set an all-time record of $4 billion in ticket sales (a week before the season officially ended), the cost of movie tickets is at an all-time high, as well, so this really signifies little.
With only one movie – the #5 ranking Jessica Alba medical thriller Awake – opening in wide release, this weekend’s box office looks much like last weekend’s. Audiences are still smitten by the button-cute Amy Adams in Disney’s storybook spoof, Enchanted. The #1 movie doubled the take of its closest competition, the #2 Beowulf, with the holiday comedy This Christmas closely behind at #3. After a month on the Top 10, the audience and critical hit American Gangster dropped off, as did the innocuous Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (with the #10 No Country For Old Men returning). Another one-movie weekend this coming with the respectable fantasy adventure, The Golden Compass, opening in wide release.
Disney’s self-effacing “up yours!” to all the other studios that have parodied the House of Mouse turned to be an “and your mother’s, too!” after the long holiday weekend, as the self-referential (but not self-reverential) spoof scored big with audiences. The PG-rated hit matched the combined box office of the #2 surprise This Christmas and the #3 former champ, Beowulf. Another holiday release, the high-octane R-rated action-thriller Hitman scored a #4 slot, with #7 August Rush trumping #9 The Mist. Apparently, the highly touted horror show, based on the bestseller by Stephen King, proved to be too glum and gory in this traditional time of togetherness (there is hope for the world). Don’t count on much of a change for next weekend, as this rare five-Friday November holds only one new release for November 30 – the medical thriller Awake starring Jessica Alba and Hayden Christensen.
“Seinfeld” fans disappointed at their Jewish-American idol’s second place showing last week will walk tall this week with Bee Movie kicking last week’s champ, American Gangster, out of the #1 spot, with the supposed heir, Fred Claus, only placing at #3 (though it’s a sure-fire long-runner). Preachy Lions For Lambs only managed #4, with the Steve Carell starrer Dan In Real Life staying on the chart at #5 in its third week in theatres. The only other new release on the list is the under-marketed thriller, P2 at #8. The longevity award goes to Disney’s way-clunky family flick The Game Plan, going into its third month of release, this week at #7. Look for this week’s openers Beowulf and Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium to knock everything down two notches next weekend as the Wicked Big Thanksgiving Weekend approaches.
It was an actual shootout this weekend, with Jodie Foster’s heat-packing vigilante in the #1 The Brave One out-gunning last week’s champ, the Western remake 3:10 To Yuma in the #2 spot. The stale comedy Mr. Woodcock starring Billy Bob Thornton took a close #3, with the flaming mess Dragon Wars at #4 (though it has already chalked up $50 million in worldwide release since early August. Superbad (#5) and The Bourne Ultimatum (#7) still continue to hold on, even in their seventh weeks in release, with Mr. Bean’s Holiday eking out a #10 berth (but an impressive over $200 million worldwide).
