While the vast majority of studios would have been thrilled to have a film open at $56.6 million, the expectations, along with tracking, for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian were so high that only the word disappointment could be applied to its first weekend results.
With reviews and tracking being strong, with tracking coming in at north of $80 million, how did it miss by so much? Add the fact that there really wasn't much competition, with Iron Man slowing down in its third weekend, and Speed Racer never taking off, it makes it even more puzzling.
There seems to be three things that happened in its slow start. First, the marketing wasn't really great for the movie, with the first installment in the series, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, being counted on heavily to promote the film.
Second, and probably most significant, is the genre of magic and fantasy build upon novels written for children may be overused at this time, and that may be the most significant element of the weekend numbers. Still, the opening of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe opened at $65 million in its first weekend, and was able to finish at $291.7 million domestically.
But that will be hard to duplicate this time around, as the Christmas season helped The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe stay on top for about a month. Next weeks introduction of Indiana Jones will make it about impossible for Prince Caspian to perform strongly as Wardrobe did. It'll be interesting to see if word of mouth helps Caspian at all.
The third factor, which is too early to measure, is if consumers are starting to stay away from the theater because of economic concerns from higher gasoline and food prices. If this is the case, it will be a long and difficult summer for Hollywood, which broke sales records last year.
Iron Man finished in second place this weekend, holding better than its 50 percent drop in the second weekend, grossing $31.2 million, only a 39 percent fall in its third weekend. So far the Marvel film has brought in $22.5 million domestically, the fourth-best performance for films based on a comic book; behind the three Spider-Man movies.
The third spot was won by "What Happens in Vegas," which served up an option to moviegoers from the other films, earning a respectable $13.9 million, a small drop of 31 percent. Amazingly, it'll end up outperforming Speed Racer, already close to $16 million ahead of it at this time.
Top ten for weekend:
| 1 | The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian | $56,573,000 |
| 2 | Iron Man | $31,200,000 |
| 3 | What Happens in Vegas | $13,850,000 |
| 4 | Speed Racer | $7,645,000 |
| 5 | Baby Mama | $4,593,000 |
| 6 | Made of Honor | $4,500,000 |
| 7 | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | $2,538,000 |
| 8 | Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay | $1,800,000 |
| 9 | The Forbidden Kingdom | $1,000,000 |
| 10 | The Visitor | $687,000 |
Other Box Office Sites:
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