Friday Estimates:

1. AMERICAN GANGSTER UNIVERSAL 3,054 15,821,000 5,180 n/a 15,821,000
2. BEE MOVIE PARAMOUNT 3,928 10,179,000 2,591 n/a 10,179,000
3. SAW IV LIONS GATE 3,183 3,610,000 1,134 -75% 43,647,000
4. DAN IN REAL LIFE BVI 1,925 2,588,000 1,344 -37% 17,406,000
5. 30 DAYS OF NIGHT SONY 2,627 1,167,000 444 -45% 31,403,000
6. GAME PLAN, THE BVI 2,844 1,063,000 374 -42% 79,156,000
7. MARTIAN CHILD, THE NEW LINE 2,020 1,056,000 523 n/a 1,056,000
8. MICHAEL CLAYTON WARNER BROS. 2,107 825,000 392 -48% 31,126,000
9. TYLER PERRY'S WHY DID I GET MARRIED? LIONS GATE 1,403 762,000 543 -53% 49,212,000
10. GONE BABY GONE MIRAMAX 1,617 688,000 425 -45% 13,238,000


Impressive pull for American Gangster, solid start for Bee Movie -- which may still win the weekend depending on Saturday (family movies get a huge boost Saturday/Sunday). Saw IV predictably dropped huge (down 75%, ouch! should even out to about 60 - 65% when all is said and done).

I hope American Gangster is #1 this weekend, the theater I went to last night was nearly sold out, I hope it pulls at least 30-35 million.

I hope American Gangster take #1 this weekend; but I think its going to get schooled by Bee Movie on Saturday.

Of course, I can see a bunch of bitchy mothers saying, “That Jerry Seinfeld is a bad, bad man!” and won’t let there kids go see the movie.

Nice start for AG.

Impressive start for American Gangster. I guess I need to go see it.

However, I think we're watching Lars this weekend.

I might sneak off the AG on Sunday. I'd say I hate to see Saw IV take such a huge hit, but I really didn't like it that much.

I am always surprised to see how badly horror films tend to do in their second week, irrespective of quality.

I wonder when we are going to see a genuine 'hit' horror film that does Pirates of the Caribean or Transformers style numbers - $200,000,000.00 plus at least? Surely, somewhere, there has to be a horror idea that would catch the wider public's imagination and lead to at least one mega-hit for the genre? Somewhere?

The Blair Witch Project?

It was called The Exorcist.

Not technically horror, but The Sixth Sense did $293mil.

Horror is very particular thing, even within the genre there are countless sub-categories, so for something to catch on big is unlikely. But most horror flicks are made for cheap, so they probably make more money for the studios in the long run. In that way the Saw films are blockbusters.

I think if a horror would be a mega hit, it would have to be pretty general, which may not be that interesting. The Sixth Sense is closest the genre will get, but it's more of supernatural drama.

The Saw movies are "event" films for their crowd. Everyone who is REALLY wanting to see it goes and sees it on the opening (Halloween) weekend, so the massive drop off is not really surprising.

But then again, I saw a movie tonight and 2 showings of Saw 4 were sold out, and it's the movie's 2nd weekend.

I was wondering why people were impressed that American Gangster did $16MM. I thought that was for the weekend.

I think this movie will do great with word of mouth.

Weekend Estimates:

1 N American Gangster Uni. $46,344,000 - 3,054 - $15,174 $46,344,000 $100 1
2 N Bee Movie P/DW $39,100,000 - 3,928 - $9,954 $39,100,000 $150 1
3 1 Saw IV LGF $11,010,000 -65.3% 3,183 - $3,459 $51,060,000 - 2
4 2 Dan in Real Life BV $8,125,000 -31.2% 1,925 +4 $4,220 $22,950,000 - 2
5 3 30 Days of Night Sony $4,000,000 -41.7% 2,627 -232 $1,522 $34,229,000 $30 3
6 4 The Game Plan BV $3,853,000 -37.1% 2,844 -498 $1,354 $81,957,000 - 6
7 N Martian Child NL $3,650,000 - 2,020 - $1,806 $3,650,000 - 1
8 6 Michael Clayton WB $2,900,000 -41.1% 2,107 -478 $1,376 $33,198,000 - 5
9 5 Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married LGF $2,730,000 -51.6% 1,403 -494 $1,945 $51,185,000 - 4
10 7 Gone Baby Gone Mira. $2,400,000 -37.1% 1,617 -96 $1,484 $14,948,000 - 3
11 8 Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3-D (2007 re-issue) BV $1,543,000 -55.2% 562 -2 $2,745 $12,844,000 - 3
12 10 The Comebacks FoxA $1,475,000 -56.3% 1,632 -1,180 $903 $11,940,000 - 3

I hope FOX is taking note of the success of so many recent R-rated films next time they want to "PG-13ize" movies that should be rated R.

Looks like HD DVD will have 2 more big exclusives. That is a fantastic per screen average for AG.

Holy Cow that is huge, I hope it holds up for several weeks to come, and yes Fox needs to get their head out of their asses and realize that Adults like to go to the movies to, and start making some R rated movies again.

Geez. AG made more in its opening weekend than The Kingdom has made so far. Seems like a decent year so far for Universal, right?

(Well, except for Evan Almighty)

I guess there was some love in the heart of town after all.

Is that seriously what that lyric in the commercial says?

Anyway, to Bee Movie. Saw it with the wife yesterday and we both really enjoyed it, I would bet it will have some strong legs.

The formula for CGI movies seems to be comedian + animal = Box Office Gold

Can't wait for the Dave Chapelle as a goat movie coming out.

Nice that AG beat out the Bee movie, although they both did very well. I'm looking forward to AG, Denzel always does interesting stuff. Kind of surprised to see that John Cusack bombed.

New Line pretty much dumped Martian Child. And John Cusack has never been guaranteed box office without some other stars in the movie. It was nice to see he finally had a hit with 1408.

Why would they say that about Jerry? Because he stuck up for his plagoristic author wife?