Weekend Box-Office (12/21-12/23) Biggest Nicolas Cage opening
 

From Fantasymoguls:

Best Day Ever for Nic Cage! NATIONAL TREASURE w/$18.5M Friday & headed for $59.2M weekend!; LEGEND #2 w/$13.25M; ALVIN #3 w/$9.15M; SWEENEY strong 4th w/$3.95M; CHARLIE WILSON soft w/$3M; P.S. I LOVE YOU and WALK HARD bomb!


Last week’s top 2 performers are showing no signs of slowing down. Will Smith’s I Am Legend grabbed another $13.25M on Friday, and it should finish the weekend with an estimated $41M. That would give the remake of Charlton Heston’s Omega Man the 5th-best 10-day gross of the year.

The animation/live action mix of Alvin benefited from the fact that lots of school kids are already off for Christmas, and the family film generated a very chippy $9.15M on Friday. Fox’s critters are headed for a very strong 3-day of $32M, representing a drop of less than 30% from opening weekend.

Dreamworks’ Sweeney Todd opened at just 1,249 locations, but it has still managed to finish 4th Friday with an estimated $3.95M and a PTA of $3,163. Reviews are nothing short of spectacular for the Tim Burton adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical with Oscar nominees Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the leads. Still, there was real concern at Dreamworks about how to sell the movie.

In some neighborhoods, this is a very bloody adaptation of a classic Broadway musical, and in others, it’s a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp horror film with musical numbers. It seems that the Dreamworks marketing team has been able to “thread the needle” by selling to both audiences. This one-of-a-kind movie experience should wrap up the weekend with $12.1M, which makes it the 6th-strongest opening of Tim Burton’s career.

Charlie Wilson’s War was #5 Friday, and it’ll likely hold tht spot when weekend tallies are in, but Universal has botched this release. Tracking indicates that the appeal for this movie is with Females 25 Plus, and that audience is busy with last minute Christmas shopping this weekend. Inexplicably, somebody at Universal decided to push the release from Christmas Day to December 21, and the result is completely underwhelming. Charlie appears to have generated a tick over $3M on Friday, and its 3-day weekend should finish at about $9.7M.

When you’ve got a well-reviewed female-skewing movie with 5 Golden Globe nominations, an Aaron Sorkin script, Mike Nichols directing and box office sure-things like Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in lead roles, $9.7 is a sorry weekend number. In fact, for Hanks, it marks only the 17th-best opening of his career, behind such gems as Turner & Hooch and The ‘Burbs and just ahead of the immortally-bad Joe Versus the Volcano.

Charlie doesn’t look much better on Julia’s resume. If the $9.7M number holds, it will be just the 20th-best opening of her legendary career, just ahead of box office turkey Dying Young.

The Hilary Swank romantic comedy P.S. I Love You is a misfire with only $2.25M on its opening day. It’ll likely limp to a disappointing $7.2M weekend. The moniker of “biggest bomb of the weekend” goes to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (Sony), which crawled to $1.4M on Friday, and, despite a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Comedy or Musical for John C. Reilly, the Judd Apatow produced and written comedy is targeting only $4.25M for the 3-day.

blasphemy.

Wow, I didn't expect Walk Hard to bomb so terribly. Although I will admit it really didn't look that appealing, even to an Apatow fan like myself. I guess with the plethora of films unleashed this weekend people stuck with what they know: big action and family crap.

I did expect Walk Hard to bomb. The trailer/poster/tv spots did not sell the movie well. I saw some clips from the film and thought they were very funny, but they were very different from the tone of the trailers.

Apatow fan here too. But at three movies a year, maybe people are just getting tired of him (?)

Agreed. Advertising for the movie made it look more like a mindless parody such as "Scary Movie" or "Not Another Teen Movie" instead of a movie more along the lines of Talledega Nights or Anchorman. Maybe if they got Will Ferrell the turnout would have been better.

It appears Universal should have kept the 12/25 release date for Charlie Wilson's War. A holiday release featuring Hanks, Roberts, and Hoffman probably should have done better than $9 million.

I still wanna see Walk Hard, Sweeney Todd and Juno which comes out on Tuesday. So many movies.

Poor day for Walk Hard to be released, an R-Rated comedy on a day most people in its key demo are traveling = bad idea.

I have to agree with you and the book was awsome I had high hopes for this movie but after I started the thread NOBODY posted on it except one other person.

Here is the thread if anybody is interested:Charlie Wilsons war thread

I wouldn't surprise me if AVP-R flops because of it's release date too.

It's rated R, but it not like theater's card anymore, so the kiddies home from school should get the dollar total up.

Really surprised that Walk Hard tanked so bad. It didn't look appealing at all to me, but I figured the Apatow name would carry some weight. Maybe people just have Apatow fatigue, its like you can't turn your head without having an Apatow -involved movie smacking you around and 2008 doesn't look any different.

Yeah, the previews before Walk Hard were really banking on his name, what with the crappy looking Adam Sandler movie and the better looking movie with Jason Segel. I'm surprised they didn't try to get a Pineapple Express preview before it too.

The Great Debaters, AVP R, National Treasure 2, Walk Hard, Charlie Wilson's War, Sweeney Todd, and P.S. I Love You...

When you open up that many movies in the span of 4 days, you gotta expect at least 2 of them to bomb hard. Each of these films have huge star power or built in fan bases, why throw them out with so much other competition? I find this strategy by the studios mind-boggling.

No kidding. Any other weekend Walk Hard would have taken it without ease. There's just too many options out there that you have to expect one of them to not get any love.

59 million weekend? That is pretty low, many box office prognasticators thought National Treasure would break 70 million.

???

None that I have seen predicted NT2 to make more than ~50-55 mill. Considering all of the competition that is a fantastic opening. The weekday tallies will be equally impressive.

Not surprising about Walk Hard though... Not one thing in the trailer made it look good, although the clip before the Monday Night Football game was great. Super Bad was really lame IMHO, if that was not a summer movie I doubt it would have done nearly as well. Three comedy movies in a year is a tough sell for anyone... The Johnny Cash theme may have put many off... I agree it looked more like a Naked Gun type movie...

I haven't heard of Walk Hard.

I think AVPR has a huge fanbase from Aliens/Predator fans so it should do pretty good, plus not a lot was spent on the movie.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Wednesday.

1. "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," $45.5 million.

2. "I Am Legend," $34.2 million.

3. "Alvin and the Chipmunks," $29 million.

4. "Charlie Wilson's War," $9.6 million.

5. "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," $9.35 million.

6. "P.S. I Love You," $6.5 million.

7. "Enchanted," $4.15 million.

8. "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," $4.1 million.

9. "The Golden Compass," $4 million.

10. "Juno," $3.4 million.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071223/...ojNiILsnQE1vAI

Wow, The Golden Compass is sinking like a stone. I know it's doing better overseas, but in the U.S. it has been a rather amazing failure.

Weekend Estimates
1 N National Treasure: Book of Secrets BV $45,500,000 - 3,832 - $11,873 $45,500,000 - 1
2 1 I Am Legend WB $34,225,000 -55.7% 3,620 +14 $9,454 $137,490,000 - 2
3 2 Alvin and the Chipmunks Fox $29,000,000 -34.5% 3,499 +24 $8,288 $84,867,000 $60 2
4 N Charlie Wilson's War Uni. $9,618,000 - 2,575 - $3,735 $9,618,000 - 1
5 N Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street P/DW $9,350,000 - 1,249 - $7,485 $9,350,000 - 1
6 N P.S. I Love You WB $6,505,000 - 2,454 - $2,650 $6,505,000 - 1
7 4 Enchanted BV $4,152,000 -25.0% 2,752 -314 $1,508 $98,351,000 - 5
8 N Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story Sony $4,100,000 - 2,650 - $1,547 $4,100,000 $35 1
9 3 The Golden Compass NL $3,980,000 -54.9% 2,953 -575 $1,347 $48,418,000 $180 3
10 11 Juno FoxS $3,400,000 +138.2% 304 +264 $11,184 $6,385,000 - 3
11 9 Atonement Focus $1,974,000 +9.3% 297 +180 $6,646 $5,787,000 - 3
12 5 No Country for Old Men Mira. $1,698,000 -39.9% 1,222 -126 $1,389 $36,715,000 - 7

Pretty good take for National Treasure considering that it should continue to pull in big money during the week next week. Looks like The Golden Compass will get no Holiday boost, as it continues to taper off rapidly. Just plain awful performance for Walk Hard. With the great reviews but a trailer that looked tailor-made to appeal to the lowest common denominator, I figured it would attract fairly good numbers. Probably be a while now before John C. Reilly gets asked to headline another movie.

PS I love you? Seriously?

I agree, blasphemy! Walk Hard bombing so big surprised me, but not as much as that statement. Such an underrated movie, it's sad it has such a bad reputation.

I figured Walk Hard wouldn't do well, but $1500 per screen average? That bomb is atomic.

How would you asses Charlie Wilsons War?

What did you call me? :grunt:

Anyway, CWW had a 3,735 per screen average. For the first weekend of a movie starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, that's pretty bad. However, I have no idea what the budget was.