That's right folks, Norbit made $33.7 million dollars this weekend to lead the pack. And in point of fact, I know a lot of people, smart people that I respect, who were so excited to see this movie that they made special plans and bought tickets online to be sure they caught it opening night. As of this moment, I don't know whether they liked it or not, but I did not share their enthusiasm, although apparently a whole lot of other people did.

And the hell of it is, I like Eddie Murphy. He's great- almost nomination worthy- in his duel roles in Bowfinger, and I think Boomerang is very underrated (it does get a bit too serious in the third act, but David Alan Grier and the great John Witherspoon are hysterical in supporting roles). And, of course, the first two Beverly Hills Cop movies, and his standup... there something almost dangerous, predatory, about Murphy's smile when he's really on. The guy's got range, as evidenced by Dreamgirls, and yet he insists on chasing paychecks in movies like this. Word in the Academy sewing circles is that the actual content of the movie is so bad that it's hurting Murphy's Oscar chances, which seemed unflappable just a week ago. I'm still sticking with him to take the trophy home, but I'd also love to see the Academy honor an old vet like Alan Arkin or crown a new star in Mark Whalberg.

In other news, MGM's Hannibal Rising did better than I would have expected (although about in line with industry expectations) in second place with $13.3 million and a $4.4k average. I expect that's the last we'll be seeing of Hannibal the Cannibal on the silver screen for some time, but then again, lets face it, it's only a matter of time before someone comes up with the idea of remaking Silence of the Lambs, no doubt with Jack Black playing the infamous Dr. Lechter.

Because I Said So had a good hold in its second week, slipping just 31% to $9 million for a $25.6 million total. That's far from Something's Gotta Give numbers, but this still bodes will for Keaton's resurgence. Hoepfully it'll bring some better projects her way. The Messengers fell an expected 50% to $7 million and a $24 million total. I was able to catch that one this weekend, and my assessment last week basically held up: the Pangs' did a nice job with atmospherics and scares but the script was very weak.

In fifth place was Night at the Museum, which I am, frankly, sick of talking about. But it only fell 10% ($5.7 million, $232 million total... yippee), so don't expect it to fall out of the top ten anytime soon. I'm thinking of watching it out of spite, just so I'll have sarcastic comments to make in future columns. Epic Movie was sixth with $4.4 million and a $34.4 million total. It's fallen fast after a strong opening, which will hopefully encourage Kal Penn to do something else with his time (I dug his turn on the 24). Smolin' Aces help up better than I expected, falling 38% to $3.7 million and a profitable $30.8 million in the bank.

Oscar nominees took up the final three spots in the top ten. Pan's Labyrinth continues to show very good legs, falling just 3.6% to $3.5 million and a $26.5 million total. Dreamgirls continues to struggle toward the nine-figure mark, pulling in another $3 million and pushing its total to $97 million. The per-screen average continues to hover around $1.3k, and for the uninitiated, that ain't good. And The Queen remained in tenth place (for what seems like forever now, doesn't it?) with another $2.5 million, down just 5%, and bringing its suprising total to $49 million, by far director Stephen Frears highest grossing film.

Posted in Industry , Moviegasm , Newsgasm by Sutter Cane at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Last Comment: mikey on Feb 12, 2007 12:27 PM.

Comments (3)

mikey :

So let me get this straight: Daddy Day Care was a bomb with $104M total box office (with a $27M opening), but Norbit is a hit with a $34M opening weekend?

By my calculations, the final box-office take of Norbit will come out around $100-110M if regular drop-off patterns carry through. (Final BO is generally around 3x the opening weekend gross, though it used to be higher a few years ago when films opened on *only* 1500-2000 screens). With that, Norbit will be right on par with Daddy Day Care.

So how is one a flop and the other a hit if they are gonna come out as the same gross?

1 of 3 | Posted by mikey | Posted on February 12, 2007 12:09 PM

sutter kane :

My mistake, Mikey. What I meant was that I was sure they would bomb because the trailers were so bad, when in fact they made suprising amounts of money. I often forget that sarcasm doesn't come across as well in print. And I heard back from the folks that saw it friday, and they were all disappointed. It's likely to hit $100 million, but if word of mouth is bad, it could fall short of that (it'll still be very profitable, though, with a budget of $60 million).

2 of 3 | Posted by sutter kane | Posted on February 12, 2007 12:17 PM

mikey :

Gotcha. That makes more sense now. Thanks!

3 of 3 | Posted by mikey | Posted on February 12, 2007 12:27 PM

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