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Beowulf still isn't raking it in hand over fist, and when I tell you that it dropped 15% from last week, remember that I'm going off the five day numbers and just about everything else in the top ten went up for the same period. Beowulf took in $23 million and raised its total to $56 million, but that's still miles from recouping the $150 million budget. Overseas, it's already brought in a healthy $48 million, and like I said last week, will be profitable for Paramount, but I'm still not seeing it as the explosive arrival of a new technology. Hitman opened a bit better than I expected with $21 million from 2,458 theatres for an $8.5k average. Personally, I think Timothy Olyphant (who I generally like, especially in Go and The Girl Next Door) looks pretty ridiculous in a part that was obviously made for Vin Diesel the way Professor Xavier in the X-Men movies was for Patrick Stewart. Maybe Diesel's asking price was too high, or maybe no one wanted to take a chance on him (in spite of coming off his best performance ever in Find Me Guilty), but for whatever reason, Fox execs decided to shave Olyphant bald and try and sell him as an action star. I, for one, wasn't buying, but apparently some other people were. Kudos to Fox marketing folks for putting together an unusual trailer for the flick, though, and especially the music.
Bee Movie extended its profitable run by jumping 14% to $15.9 million and raising it's domestic total to $112 million. Foreign cumes are modest at this point, but even with the $150 million price tag, Jerry Seinfeld can expect to see fine residual checks, although nothing compared to his Seinfeld syndication fees, which earn him close to $100 million a year. Yikes. Movies are big business, but even the numbers we bat around here at moviegasm often don't compare to the money networks fork out for hit shows. Fred Clause had an even bigger uptick thanks to the holiday, climbing 27% to $15 million and raising its total to a now-respectable $53 million. Clause won't exactly be a holiday classic, but also won't really hurt Vaughn and Paul Giamatti.
Feel-good indie flick August Rush opened decently in seventh place with $13 million from 2,310 theatres for a $5.7k average. Not bad for small movie with almost no stars. Another small movie with almost no stars, The Mist, opened right behind it with $13 million from 2,423 screens for a $5.3k average. Reviews for Frank Darabont's third Stephen King adaptation are mixed, and I was personally hoping for a little more business, but I also keep pointing out that counter-programming rarely works. Had the film challenged Saw IV on Halloween, my guess is it would have done much better. Still, it isn't facing much competition in the coming weeks, so if it word of mouth is decent it could find its way to a decent total.
American Gangster was pretty much flat in terms of percentage, but brought in $12 million and raised its total to $115 million, still ahead of Bee Movie, which pleases me for some reason. In tenth place was No Country for Old Men with $11 million from just 860 screens for an impressive $12k average and $16 million total after three weeks in release. For anyone interested in distribution or marketing, NCFOM is a picture-perfect platform release, letting reviews and word of mouth spread and then adding theatres slowly. Is this really being done a Weinstein-less Miramax? The Brothers' could learn a thing or two from them.