Weekend Box Office Report: April 10-12: Fast Hannah, Furious Diesel

The first time I was ever asked to write a box office report
around this same time last year.  I
had to report how Miley Cyrus and her alter ego, Hannah Montana, had broken new
ground for 3D pictures and concert flicks alike when the Best of Both Worlds concert took in over $31 million in what was supposed to be a limited
engagement.  Taking advantage of
the Easter weekend, Disney has unleashed the Cyrus’s first big screen adventure, Hannah Montana The Movie, and proved that you don’t need to lie about limited
runs to get people out on opening weekend.

Box office prognosticators debated all week whether Hannah Montana The Movie would be able to topple last week’s unexpected juggernaut, Fast and Furious.  Vin Diesel and
Paul Walker may appeal to the ladies out there but the ladies are no match for
tween girls.  Fast and Furious managed an almost respectable 60% drop this weekend but its fate was officially
sealed when Hannah Montana debuted to $17 million, the biggest opening day ever
for a G-rated non-animated film.  That one day accounted for 50% of the final weekend gross and allowed
America’s newest underage sweetheart to easily slide past F&F’s $28
million.  In other holdover news, Monsters vs. Aliens performed strongly in its third week, thanks surely to many
kids having Friday off.

Audiences and critics were essentially split on whether Observe and Report was horrifically offensive or hilarious.  Either way, this latest Seth Rogen
vehicle is his weakest opening besides last fall’s disappointment, Zack and Miri Make a Porno.  The bad press
on this one will likely ring louder than those who actually enjoyed it given
the gravity of how offensive it has the potential to be so a quick decline is
to be expected.  Even though it did
debut higher than Zack and Miri, I would expect Observe and Report to gross
less in the long run.  The week’s
only other Top 10 debut belonged to Dragonball Evolution.  None too surprisingly, the film fizzled
but it had already made over $25 million internationally prior to this domestic
release so all is not lost.

The week’s best per screen average belonged to Anvil! The Story of Anvil.  This well received
rockumentary tells the story of two Canadian buddies who made a promise to rock
out forever together and have never gone back on that promise.  Playing on three screens in all of
North America, the film pulled in a decent $11K average.  Meanwhile, quirky indie, Lymelife,
starring Alec Baldwin and Rory Culkin, pulled in an average of over $7K on four
screens.

NEXT WEEK: Crank: High Voltage (2200 screens) will try to
make as much as money as possible before its heart explodes; and even though State of Play (2700 screens) boasts a cast including Russell Crowe, Ben
Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Helen Mirren, I’m pretty sure none of them have as
much appeal these days Mr. High School Musical himself, Zac Efron, whose first
major starring vehicle, 17 Again debuts on over 3000 screens.  Screaming girls everywhere will flock
to see him; I may join them.

Weekend Top 10