As expected, Spiderman 3 remained atop the box office charts this past weekend, collecting $60 million, maintaining a $14k average, and raising its domestic haul to $242 million.
What's more troubling for Sam Raimi and Sony is that it fell 60% from last weekend, and it's strongest competition was the well-reviewed but starless 28 Weeks Later.
Now, nobody's sounding the alarm bells yet. Foreign cumes are huge, totalling $379 million and making the worldwide total over $621 million. The general consensus is that the budget plus prints and advertising put the total pricetag on Spidey in the neighborhood of $500 million, but when all is said and done, Sony will be in the black on this one. But it gets back to my point from last week; word of mouth on this movie is terrible (a friend who was an extra in it said to me yesterday "I'm in it, and I can't tell anyone to go see it."), and there's no way it's going to approach Titanic or even Star Wars type numbers. And as impressive as those opening weekend figures are, it seems to me that it's much harder to make a movie that can do that and have legs. I think Spiderman movies have the potential to do that, if they can get the franchise
back on track.
As previously mentioned, opening in second was 28 Weeks Later, a sequel to Danny Boyle's terrific revisionist zombie pic 28 Days Later, this time directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, with $10 million from 2,303 screens for a decent $4.3k average. This was a bit higher than the debut for the original, and had some decent reviews, so it should do decent business over the next couple of weeks. Bad publicity may have finally caught up with Linday Lohan, as her latest pic Georgia Rule opened poorly in third place with just $5.8 million from 2,513 screens for a $2.3k average. I feel bad for co-stars Felicity Huffman (coming off an Oscar nom two years ago for Transamerica) and Jane Fonda, but Lohan's unprofessional behavior on the set was well publicized, and I hope this opening hurts her ability to draw big paychecks (or cut another album...).
Disturbia continues to hold up well, landing in fourth place with $4.8 million, down just 17%, for a $66 million total. Larry the Cable Guy's second feature in as many years, Delta Farce, opened in fifth with $3.5 million and a $1.8k average. Is it me, or are Hollywood's attempts to market directly to middle America almost always disasters? Ever since Passion of the Christ, they've been trying to figure out what makes Southern and Midwestern Christians turn out, but as far as I can tell, they don't have a clue. Larry's going to wind up next to Carrot Top in the bin of stand-comedians that failed to make it on the big screen.
Fracture fell to sixth with $2.9 million, down 21.5%, for a reasonable $30 million total. The Invisible followed with $2.2 million and an $18 million total, then Hot Fuzz with $1.6 million and an $18.9 million total. I really think Fuzz director Edgar Wright is going places, but this isn't doing much to capatalize on his post-Shaun of the Dead success.
Next continues to catch my eye with its staggeringly low numbers. Reporters are usually quick to jump on a bomb of this magnitude, but I guess Spidey's success is camouflaging Nicholas Cage's failure. For the record, it fell 44% to $1.6 million and raised its total to just $14.6 million. And in worse news for Cage, he's just signed on to play Al Capone in Brian de Palma's Untouchables prequel Capone Rising. Didn't anyone tell Cage that de Palma films are where actors go to die? Just ask Gary Sinise, Josh Hartnett, or Antonio Banderas. Nevermind the fact that Cage is the same age DeNiro was when he played old Capone. Meet the Robinsons hung onto the tenth spot with $1.6 million and a $94 million total.
And opening outside the top ten was the Zach Braff/Jason Bateman comedy The Ex with $1.3 million from 1,009 screens and a $1.3 million total. Braff is in a rough patch after making quite a splash with his writing and directing debut Garden State. I like his work on Scrubs, but Last Kiss failed to show he could do anything else, and these numbers aren't going to help. Bateman's post-Arrested Development plate is still full, so I'm not as worried about him.