With an almost $12 million dollar haul on Friday night, Spike Jonze’s divisive adaptation of “Where The Wild Things Are” (critics either seemed to looove it or sneer in disdain at its lack of narrative and drive) the film seem poised to outdo its forecasted $25 million dollar weekend and it did taking in an impressive $32.7 million this weekend. The picture, with reshoot costs north of $80 million (estimates are around $100 million noting included promotions and advertising), so it has a long, long way to go before it becomes profitable, let alone break even.
This is something Anne Thompson was wondering earlier in the week? Despite all the hub-bub will this movie actually make money? It’s hard to say, but we’ve got a feeling, it will achieve cult status and have a long shelf-life, presumably playing in theaters until at least Christmas. And hell $32.5 million is really no “cult” phenomenon either. But could it have maxed (no pun intended) its audience already? EW is speculating Oscar talk and while that seems far fetched, if you had to base it on sheer quality, we’d definitely bump, “Precious” and “Inglourious Basterds” out of the Oscar 10 to make room for ‘Wild Things.’ It’s hard to tell though whether it will make that deep of an impact, so Oscar talk remains to be seen at the moment, but we’re not totally taking it off the table, it is possible.
Taking the #2 slot this weekend was the F. Gary Gray-directed, Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler-starring, actioner, “Law Abiding Citizen,” which opened shockingly well with $21.3 million. Reviews of this one were terrible, we didn’t even bother pursuing screenings and it just looked like a leftover turn a la Butler’s “Gamer” that came and went earlier this year, but somehow audiences thought this one looked more appealing. Maybe we’ve underestimated Jamie Foxx’s audience. Either way, we still don’t have interest and this is for another audience.
“Paranormal Activity” proved naysayers like us wrong, by doing a dazzling wide release of $20.2 million after having already been in limited theaters for 3 weeks and grabbing the #3 chart position. Has a film in limited release jumped wide that high before ever? It feels like some sort of broken record, but we don’t have the stats in front of us. Good for Paramount and horror fans, but dunno, comparing it to “The Blair Witch Project,” does it no favors in our books, so we’re going to file it away into the ignore pile until it hits DVD, it just doesn’t seem like our thing.
Coming in at #4 was the loathsome, “Couples Retreat,” and the less said the better. However having taken in over $60 million so far, this one is unfortunately going to send the wrong message to the filmmakers leading them to think they shouldn’t be embarrassed by that hunk of turd which is dismaying. Everyone should learn from their mistakes, ahh well.
Positions #5 and #6 were taken by the horror, “The Stepfather,” which we know almost nothing about other than it being a remake (and surely our ignorance here is fine) and “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs,” which has been yet another gangbusters kid movie this year. The slight-looking picture has taken in over $108 million and is just another confirmation that kid movies are huge money makers when they connect with audiences. Look for a rash of new kid flicks to be greenlit soon and probably hit around 2011 as it does take Hollywood a while to capitalize on big-concept trends.
The zom-com, “Zombieland,” continued to do well taking the #7 slot and climbing to a very respectable $60.8 million total. $100 million might be out of reach, but presuming it plays until the end of the year, the film could get awfully close and its success has afforded director Ruben Fleischer the pick of almost any project he wants. Does it have the best opening credits sequence of the year? Yes. Is it overrated though? Yes.
The #8 position was taken by Pixar’s 3D re-release of “Toy Story and Toy Story 2,” and while we can’t say we paid much attention to the expectations, the pictures combined for $28.5 million after three weeks in theaters feels a little soft by Pixar standards. #9 was by Bruce Willis’ “The Surrogates” which has amassed a low $36.3 total so far. The movie has been in theaters for four weeks and was budgeted around $80 million (sans P&A) so Touchstone is probably looking at a straight up bomb here. The last post on the top 10 was taken by Ricky Gervais’ cringe-inducing atheist-centric rom-com, “The Invention Of Lying,” which brought its total to $15.4 million after three weeks in theaters. But with a very modest budget of $18.5 million, this one could still end up profitable in the end (let that be a lesson to Hollywood, even bombs can do ok if they’re managed on a smaller scale).
A stalled “Whip It!” finally topped the $10 million mark this weekend after three weeks in theaters taking the #11 spot ($11.3 million total). A nice benchmark, but well under performing what was forecasted and perhaps managing the expectations for Fox Searchlight that not all of their twee, pop-laden, hipster films aren’t always going to turn up like a “Juno” each time.
Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story,” brought its total to $11.6 million which is still relatively low and the picture might end up being Moore’s lowest grossing picture in years (“Sicko” made $24 million and that seems far out of ‘Capitalism’s reach). Another modestly budgeted picture ($22 million), Steven Soderbergh’s “The Informant,” rose to 31.8 million after five weeks and presumably, this one will be profitable after a few more weeks, plus DVD.
“New York, I Love You” topped out the limited release field taking in $372,000 on 119 screens, but that’s not exactly gangbusters indie numbers. “Black Dynamite” took in $141,000 on 70 screens which feels like a better per screen average, but our calculator is broke and we haven’t had coffee yet. Actually it was Chile’s Sebastián Silva’s “The Maid” that took the per screen average in the indie circuit taking $18,418 on one screen in New York.
Weekend Box-Office Numbers:
1. “Where the Wild Things Are” — $32.7 mil
2. “Law Abiding Citizen” — $21.3 mil
3. “Paranormal Activity” — $20.2 mil ($33.7 mil total)
4. “Couples Retreat” — $17.9 mil ($63.3 mil total)
5. “The Stepfather” — $12.3 mil
6. “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs” — $8.1 mil ($108.2 mil)
7. “Zombieland” — $7.8 mil ($60.8 mil)
8. “Toy Story/Toy Story 2 (3D)” — $3 mill ($28.5 mill)
9. “Surrogates” — $1.92 mil ($36.3 mil)
10. “The Invention of Lying” — $1.9 mil ($15.4 mil)