While the $35.7 million brought in by 10,000 B.C. looks good from the outside, it failed to gain the type of success "300" did last year, being hyped in a similar fashion as a CG movie heavy on the special effects.
It's not surprising that this brought in a decent amount, as young males still are drawn to this type of fare, simply to see how good the effects are. Still, when compared to "300" last year, it didn't come close to the $70 million that brought in on opening weekend, and further underscores the poor start to 2008 the industry is still experiencing.
This one will plunge next weekend by a lot. But that may not matter much, as a solid start will always help a movie coast, and there's always the international market and DVD release to help it become profitable. The numbers look good because of the slow year we're having, but Warner Bros. would have liked to have a better weekend than this.
Landing in second this weekend was College Road Trip, with Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symone. At 2,706 venues, it brought in $14 million. It's probably not going to have a long shelf life.
The third spot this weekend belongs to Vantage Point, which dropped from the second spot it owned last week, bringing in $7.5 million. The film has now brought $51.7 milllion to Sony's coffers. Considering it only cost around $40 million to make, it's not a bad outing for them.
One other story at the box office this weekend was the size of the plunge of Semi-Pro. It's horrible opening guaranteed it was going to do poorly, but the approximate 62 percent drop was even worse than I thought it was going to do. It finished fourth with only $5.8 million.
Even with the decent numbers from 10,000 B.C., the top ten films didn't even break the $90 million barrier for the weekend, another sign that this year seems to be headed for dismal results.
Maybe the release of Horton Hears a Who next weekend will help break the pattern and bring things back on track. If it performs like hoped for, it could help the box office for several weekends, as successful family-targeted films have some staying power.
The top ten for the weekend:
| 1 | 10,000 B.C. | $35,730,000 |
| 2 | College Road Trip | $14,000,000 |
| 3 | Vantage Point | $7,500,000 |
| 4 | Semi-Pro | $5,900,000 |
| 5 | The Bank Job | $5,710,000 |
| 6 | The Spiderwick Chronicles | $4,800,000 |
| 7 | The Other Boleyn Girl | $4,000,000 |
| 8 | Jumper | $3,750,000 |
| 9 | Step Up 2 the Streets | $3,049,000 |
| 10 | Fool's Gold | $2,800,000 |
Other Box Office Sites:
Remember to Sign up for my feed
I saw a preview of this movie and I am shocked that it did so well that it topped the charts!
Posted by: my.care2.com/scogostology | March 13, 2008 8:01 AM | Permalink to Comment