A week after the boffo “Hannah Montana: The Movie” bow, Disney spawn Zac Efron courted the same audience and won with the insipid body-jumping comedy “17 Again.” The laffer, from formerly respectable “Igby Goes Down” director Burt Steers brought in $24.1 million, outdistancing its closest competitor, the much older-skewing “State of Play.” For comparison’s sake “17 Again”‘s $24 million pales in comparison to “Montana”‘s $34 million take and doesn’t approach “High School Musical 3″‘s $42 million take, but hey, it’s the biggest opening of Matthew Perry’s career, topping the $13.7 million bow of “The Whole Nine Yards.” Hey Matt, send Zefron a fruit basket or something.
Despite being the target of derision from bloggers and such folk for a likely weak theatrical bow, execs have to be happy with “State of Play”‘s $14.1 million take. The material skews much older, and it’s not the best climate to release a serious-minded film about journalism, but most called it in the $10 million range. If the $60 million budget is to be believed- holy shit, what the fuck are you doing spending that kind of money on a springtime release about journalism? If they have anything to (Russell) crow(e) about, the studio can happily claim its outgrossed the original “State of Play,” but then again, that was a miniseries for British television that was never theatrically released, so that didn’t gross anything. Hey, silver linings, y’know?
“Monsters Vs. Aliens” held strong enough to lap last week’s #1 “Hannah Montana” as they finished at $12.9 and $12.7 million respectively. “Montana” is a smidgen under $60 mil. total, while “Monsters” sits impressively at $163 mil., adding to an impressive worldwide $251 mil. take- sell those DVD’s, suckers. Rounding out the top five is “Fast And Furious” with $12.3 mil., netting $137 mil. so far, with the original’s $145 mil. take in sight. Courting the same audience as the “Furious” gearheads was “Crank: High Voltage,” which took in a weak $6.5 million at #6, less than the $10 million take of the first film’s opening. With “Transporter 3” and “Death Race” doing softer-than-expected business, might this be the end of Jason Statham: action hero? While some at this website have no love for the “Crank” series, we’d like to hope this isn’t America giving the action movie thumbs up to the Tobey Maguires and Kevin James’.
The biggest plunge in the top ten goes to “Observe And Report.” With word of mouth being what it is, the 63% plunge bringing the total gross equal to the budget ($18 mil.) is the minor reason the WB might be pleased with this offseason underperformer, though Sony’s got to be more than a little concerned for next summer’s “Green Hornet,” though, in all fairness, neither that nor this summer’s “Funny People” is going to be a dark, uncommercial, misanthropic movie about a date-rapey mall cop. In limited release, “American Violet” took in $257,000 in 61 theaters for an over $4k per theater average, while Michael Caine drama “Is Anybody There” brought in $45,100 on a $7.5k per average, but the week’s biggest indie victory goes to documentary “Every Little Step,” which debuted to $72,600 on only eight theaters, with the strongest per-theater average of the week ($9k per theater).
1. Eighties Movie Redux- $24.1 million
2. State of Play- $14.1 million
3. Monsters Vs. Aliens- $12.9 million ($162.7 million)
4. Hannah Montana: The Hair Product- $12.7 million ($56.1 million)
5. Sweaty Men In Cars Sans Self-Awareness- $12.3 million ($136.7 million)
6. Crank 2: Crankier- $6.5 million
7. Observe And Report- $4.1 million ($18.7 million)
8. Knowing- $3.5 million ($73.7 million)
9. I Love You Man- $3.4 million ($64.7 million)
10. The Haunting In Connecticut- $3.2 million ($51.9 million)