So, who's gonna win with how much this weekend? It's a little late to start predictions, but I wanted to get this going nevertheless.

I think Bond takes the crown with around $50mil followed by low $40s for Happy Feet.
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Penguins are going to get their ass kicked. I'll say Bond gets $50+ mil easily. Penguins will be in the $20's.

early estimates had Bond doing 14 million on friday with the dancing feathers coming in with 11 million. Saturday numbers should allow for more family showsings so it's really anyone's guess. But both should be able to make very impressive numbers and have 40+ million weekends.

1. CASINO ROYAL SONY 3,434 14,379,000 4,187 n/a 14,379,000
2. HAPPY FEET WARNER BROS. 3,804 11,610,000 3,052 n/a 11,610,000
3. BORAT 20TH CENTURY FOX 2,611 4,876,000 1,867 -49% 81,055,000
4. STRANGER THAN FICTION SONY 2,270 2,251,000 992 -54% 18,541,000
5. SANTA CLAUSE 3: THE ESCAPE CLAUSE BVI 3,359 2,032,000 605 -62% 45,439,000
6. FLUSHED AWAY PARAMOUNT 3,307 1,572,000 475 -71% 44,821,000
7. BABEL PARAMOUNT 1,251 864,000 691 -49% 9,960,000
8. SAW III LIONS GATE 1,942 838,000 432 -62% 72,853,000
9. DEPARTED, THE WARNER BROS. 1,611 792,000 492 -51% 112,060,000
10. LET'S GO TO PRISON UNIVERSAL 1,495 702,000 470 n/a 702,000

Nice debut for Craig/007, but Saturday is usually the day the "family" goes to the movies. I expect Happy Feet to have a higher increase today and take the weekend. But I'm sure Sony will be happy with a $40 million+ opening for CR.

and Borat begins its descent, should break $100m by next weekend though, which is amazing all things considered . Guess last Friday being a holiday helped Flushed Away and Santa Clause 3 more than I thought.

Looks like 0 for 2!

Casino Royale wasn't too popular down here in the south. The theater was barely half full at a 10 showing. Kinda disappointing to see that because I enjoyed the movie. Happy Feet could pull an upset win at the B.O.

And let's go to prison.. ouch. Looks like Buster in Stranger than fiction will make more than GOB's first week Let's go to prison.


Someone made a huge mistake.

I blame Middle America for not being sophisticated enough to enjoy a good prison-rape comedy.

Saturday numbers. Final numbers will be close for 1 and 2.

1. HAPPY FEET WARNER BROS. 3,804 16,495,000 4,336 n/a 28,105,000
2. CASINO ROYAL SONY 3,434 16,420,000 4,782 n/a 30,799,000
3. BORAT 20TH CENTURY FOX 2,611 5,934,000 2,273 -47% 86,989,000
4. SANTA CLAUSE 3: THE ESCAPE CLAUSE BVI 3,359 3,811,000 1,135 -46% 49,250,000
5. FLUSHED AWAY PARAMOUNT 3,307 3,015,000 912 -56% 47,836,000
6. STRANGER THAN FICTION SONY 2,270 2,845,000 1,253 -50% 21,386,000
7. DEPARTED, THE WARNER BROS. 1,611 1,202,000 746 -48% 113,262,000
8. SAW III LIONS GATE 1,942 1,195,000 615 -57% 74,048,000
9. BABEL PARAMOUNT 1,251 1,175,000 939 -48% 11,135,000
10. QUEEN, THE MIRAMAX 606 955,000 1,576 -18% 16,605,000

It's not your off prediction, just that you were so emphatic about it.

Weekend estimates:

1 N Happy Feet WB $42,320,000 - 3,804 - $11,125 $42,320,000 - 1
2 N Casino Royale Sony $40,600,000 - 3,434 - $11,822 $40,600,000 - 1
3 1 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Fox $14,350,000 -49.2% 2,611 +45 $5,495 $90,504,000 $18 3
4 2 The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause BV $8,218,000 -51.5% 3,359 -99 $2,446 $51,620,000 - 3
5 3 Flushed Away P/DW $6,812,000 -59.0% 3,307 -400 $2,059 $48,803,000 $149 3
6 4 Stranger Than Fiction Sony $6,600,000 -50.8% 2,270 +6 $2,907 $22,900,000 $30 2
7 6 Babel ParV $2,902,000 -47.8% 1,251 - $2,319 $12,013,000 - 4
8 5 Saw III LGF $2,800,000 -59.9% 1,942 -1,071 $1,441 $74,852,000 $10 4
9 7 The Departed WB $2,605,000 -49.6% 1,611 -599 $1,617 $113,861,000 $90 7
10 N After Dark's Horror Fest: 8 Films to Die For Free $2,482,000 - 488 - $5,086 $2,482,000 - 1
11 12 The Queen Mira. $2,300,000 -15.3% 606 +122 $3,795 $17,291,000 - 8
12 N Let's Go to Prison Uni. $2,108,000 - 1,495 - $1,410 $2,108,000 - 1
13 8 The Prestige BV $2,004,000 -58.1% 1,470 -766 $1,363 $49,418,000 $40 5
14 9 The Return Rog. $1,726,000 -61.5% 1,953 -33 $883 $6,873,000 - 2
15 10 A Good Year Fox $1,625,000 -56.3% 2,067 +1 $786 $6,425,000 $35 2
16 11 Flags of Our Fathers P/DW $824,000 -70.7% 1,049 -914 $785 $32,675,000 $90 5

The Bond theatre here was packed. Line almost out of the door. Last time this happened was with Inside Man.

Incidentally, our theatre split Happy Feet and Bond, running Happy Feet during the day and switching to Bond in the evening. Someone forgot to tell the projectionist. My friend kept saying "This is the wrong reel" after we saw trailers for Unaccompanied Minors, Harry Potter, Fred Clause. Once the WB logo came up I ran out and told them to fix it. I came back to screaming and hooting. We got free passes after the show.

I'm about to help the penguins kick Bond's ass..

Probably would've been different had Brosnan come back..

Maybe, maybe not. Die Another Day did open bigger, but the previous three Brosnan flicks didn't have huge openings. This seems par for the course for the Bond franchise money wise.

Yep

Wow, I thought opening with $40+ Million would satisfy some of the people that were saying it you couldn't have a successful Bond movie without Pierce Brosnan, silly gadgets, and lots of explosions. Guess I was wrong.

I can't believe Bond didn't win the weekend It was a damn good movie! So much better than the post-Goldeneye Brosnans.

you're not going to know abou casino royale until next week and how it performs internationally. the die hard bond fans were out this week next week will be interesting.

I call shenanigans! Bond will find the extra $2mil to win or the WB folks overestimated.
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It was 10 minutes too long, but MANOHMAN was Casino Royale nothing short of a great movie. People who are holding out because Pierce Brosnan is gone are doing themselves a disservice.

Yeah a higher opening would have been nicer, but this film was JUICY.

In Bond's defense, it was playing at nearly 400 fewer theaters and did have a higher per screen average than Happy Feet.

It was also considerably longer, resulting in less showings per screen.

It was also the second highest opening in Bond history outside of Die Another Day, so anybody who thinks this opening was a disappointment has been smokin' that Goldfinger crack.