Friday's Estimates

#1. Bruce Almighty - 20,400,000
#2. The Matrix Reloaded - 11,210,000
#3. Daddy Day Care - 3,339,000
#4. X2: X-Men United - 2,523,000
#5. The In Laws - 1,935,000
#6. Down With Love - 1,171,000

The others were kind of negligable so i didn't list them... numbers from Box Office Mojo.

Anyone surprised at how well Bruce Almighty did? I was kind of expecting dissapointing numbers as the previews looked ok, but not great. Although i guess this movie appeals to a far wider audience then Carrey's previous movies as i can see older viewers.

Also, Matrix numbers seem pretty low to me... quite a dropoff from last friday. I was expecting it to do better, but maybe some of the negative reviews are spreading after the initial rush.

Look like Jim Carrey owned Keanu Reeves...that's interesting.

Matrix will probaly do around 40 maybe a little better

I'm tempted to see Bruce because I want Jim Carrey to cease and desist from the tired "Pleeeeeease gimme my Oscar!" routine, and get back to doing what he does best.

Yeah, surprised Bruce Almighty doubled up on the Matrix. If they can double up on the Matrix for the three-day weekend, I'd say that's a pretty successful weekend. I'd thought that no one could beat the Matrix for the first month. Great counterprogramming strategy.

If you aren't counting Monday, it's doubtful. Usually a movie makes about 1.5 of what it did on Friday on it's Saturday showing. Then it makes about .75 of it's Friday showing on Sunday. Going with that rough estimate, it'll make about 35 million over the weekend, not including Monday of course.

Well, I guess Spidey's overall record is safe...

I don't think it was ever in jeopardy, as mediocre a film it is.

I'm not surprised at either Matrix's drop or Bruce's large haul.

Whether you do or not, people really like Jim Carrey comedies. And its been a long time since Carrey has stepped up and made a Liar Liar type comedy, so people want to see it.

And the Matrix opened way to big to sustain that kind of dough, and with the less than stellar word of mouth (people aren't anywhere near as ecstatic about it as the first) it was bound to nose dive - and a 66% drop is a nose dive. But fear not for WB, Joel Silver, or the W brother, it'll still clear a good 250 mil.

spider-man opened bigger than the matrix did and it sustained a lot of the opening box office its second weekend. i think that the matrix went down so much because its not a good movie and a lot of people know it now. Also its R-rated.

Whoa.

Didn't ITALIAN JOB open this week?

yeah, but Spiderman wasn't a particularly great film either, in my opinion. I think Spiderman had legs (8 of them to be exact ) because it was PG-13. As a rated R flick, the Matrix only has a limited audience that will see it. As with Spiderman, there were kids seeing it multiple times over it's box office run.

Next weekend.

Yup, you hit it. I LOATHE the guy, but I don't understand why anyone is surprised at how much money this movie will make opening weekend. People WANT to see comedies this year with all that has gone on, & sadly Carrey is extemely popular, but for his comedy not his pseudo-dramatic roles. And with the Matrix opening so big & non-Matrix fans mostly bored by the movie, the drop off is to be expected.

Given that the Matrix couldn't hold the top spot in only its second week, I think its a good indication that the mostly "so so" word of mouth is spreading like wildfire.

Or perhaps not. Rated R movies don't have the legs of a PC-13. To me that's a more plausible explanation as I haven't heard that much negative word of mouth about TMR that would frighten people away.

Spidey's overall record?

... of taking in over $400 million in domestic box office gross.

Yes, but that record belongs to Titanic at over $600 million.

Impressive opening for Bruce Almighty - looks like Carrey might be back to his old self.

I actually read an article that said how Carrey's career was slumping. And I thinking, he makes a few semi-serious films in the Majestic and Man on the Moon and its slumping? The Grinch still made a truckload of money.

I'll be the first to express surprise at how low both takes were.

I'd have thought Reloaded would have made another 30 (the screening I went to was packed, again), and the same theater had Bruce playing on five screens (with several times sold out).

Hm.

He made some semi-serious films that nobody went to see.

You gotta remember this is one day, not the entire weekend. $20m in a day is a whole hell of a lot.

Bruce Almighty is around $70m for the weekend and Matrix Reloaded around $37.5m.

Bruce Almighty may hold the record opening for best non-sequel comedy. (As overspecific as that may be, it's still somewhat worth noting.. Overall comedy opening goes to Goldmember.)

Ooops. You're right.

*turns off weekend-gross mode*