As you might have guessed, “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” topped the box-office again for the second weekend in a row taking in a $15 million dollar total and bringing its cumulative gross so far to almost $62 million.
Conversely, Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make A Porno,” vastly underperformed considering it was on 2,735 screens only taking in a $10.7 million total and some, including even the Weinsteins themselves think this estimate is too high, perhaos a million dollars too high. “There’s no question that we’re being a little bit aggressive,” admitted Weinstein Co. distribution chairman Steve Bunnell to Reuters. Final numbers come out on Monday. If ‘Porno’ does somehow hold out for it’s $10.7 million weekend it will be Kevin Smith’s highest opening weekend ever. His biggest box-office debut weekend thus far is “Clerks II” which opened to to just over $10 million in 2006, but if estimates are a million dollars high, it will seem Smith won’t have broken his best record.
Either way, this underwhelming showing can’t help the Weinstein Company that are in bitter straits these days economically. Though the plus side for everyone involved is the budget for ‘Porno’ was only $20 million.
The rest of the weekend is unremarkable and to be expected, Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” in wide release took in a respectable $9.4 million and the cheap, schlock horror, “Saw V” took in another $10 million to its gross.
1. “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” $15.0 million | (3,626)
2. “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” $10.7 million | 2,735
3. “Saw V” $10.1 million | 3,084
4. “Changeling” $9.4 million | 1,850
5. “The Haunting of Molly Hartley” $6.0 million | 2,652
6. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua”$4,747,000 | 3,004
7. “The Secret Life of Bees” $4,000,000 | 1,611
8. “Max Payne”$3,700,000
9. “Eagle Eye” $3,400,000
10. “Pride & Glory” $3,260,000
