Ahhh, the lazy days of early January in Hollywood. Weekends like this make my job both easier and harder. Easier because everything does basically what you expect it to, and the trajectories of this or that career continues in whichever direction it's headed. Harder because that makes my carefully considered, well-informed and meticulously researched opinions regarding the weekend box-office seem... well... less so.
But we are drawing ever closer to the Oscar nominations on January 23rd, and like it or not some of the box office receipts will affect those nominations.
For instance, Night at the Museum continued to dominate with a $24 million stranglehold on the number on spot. Down just 34%, and boasting a $6k average after three weeks in release, Night brought its total to $164 million. That could spell some technical nominations- visual effects, sound effects editing- that would not be in the cards if it was pulling in Eragon numbers. The Pursuit of Happyness hung in there at the number two spot, bringing in $13 million and bringing its total to $124 million. Besides The Departed, there aren't really any other films on Oscar's radar that have crossed to $100 million mark, so Will Smith's nomination is in the bag, and he may be making up ground on Last King of Scotland's Forest Whitaker for the actual trophy, even though he hasn't taken any of the critics awards that Whitaker has dominated.
Why is he making up ground, you ask? Well, critics don't vote on the Oscars. In fact, the academy is mostly actors, and I promise you more of them saw Happyness than Last King (domestic BO: $3.6 million). That doesn't mean too much, what with the free screeners and all, but it might make this into an interesting race.
Children of Men also upped its Oscar profile with a solid $10 million opening from 1200 theatres, an $8k average, bringing its total to $11.9 million. That's a far cry from its $76 million budget, but also good numbers for a movie many feared would be too bleak to find an audience. It's a dark horse for a best picture nod, but if Alfonso Cuaron's film manages to land one, it could show impressive legs, and finally make a star out of Clive Owen.
Freedom Writers with Hilary Swank opened at number four with $9.7 million from just 1300 theatres, giving it a respectable $7k average. While it's a pretty familiar teacher-saves-high-risk-students movie (see Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds, etc.), Swank is getting some good notices, and with a reasonable $21 million budget, this one could help her escape her non-Oscar movie curse.
Dreamgirls continues to do well in semi-limited release, bringing in $8.8 million from 852 theatres and bringing its total to $54.5 million. That's an impressive number, but it seems to me that Paramount/Dreamworks would do well to ride the good buzz the movie has into some more theatres instead of waiting for the Oscar nominations, where it looks to do well even though Jennifer Hudson is the only lock.
Happily N'Ever After (is that supposed to be clever?) opened badly with $6.8 million, thus proving Moviegasm's mantra once again: you can't piggyback on the success of someone else's creative success. In this case, Lionsgate (who usually knows better than this) took one look at the numbers for Shrek 2 and said "Hey! We can do that!" But they can't, because Dreamworks already did it. Come on, guys.
Charlotte's Web landed at number seven, still showing decent legs with $6.6 million and a $66 million cume. Next was Robert DeNiro's The Good Shepherd, with $6.5 million and a $48 million total. I don't know about so-called 'analysts' expectations, but I'm still finding the numbers for this one quite a pleasant surprise. It doesn't seem to be in the running for any major Oscar nominations, and yet looks to finish a good bit above the similarly themed Syriana's $50.8 million total. Good for parties involved, especially DeNiro, who had lost a lot of his critical Cache after Hide and Seek, Meet the Fockers, Showtime...
Rocky Balboa also continued to do well, bringing in $6.2 million in the number nine spot and upping its total to $60.8 million. Again, no clear Oscar nominations coming to this one, but it still just makes you feel kinda good, you know? Like We Are Marshall was supposed to, but apparently doesn't. Compared with the success of other feel-good sports movies (Miracle, The Rookie), Marshall is pretty well sunk, hanging on to the number ten spot with $5.1 million and a total of $35 million.
Comments (1)
I won't feel very good about 'Rocky Balboa' anymore if 'Rocky 7' comes out in 3 or 4 years. And I heard that 'We Are Marshall' is actually pretty good ... but I'm glad it's tanking, 'cuz I can't stand any director who's only got one friggin' name. Plus, McG should suffer for those abominations called 'Charlie's Angels 1 & 2'.
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Posted on January 8, 2007 12:46 PM