Retro IONCINEMA.com
Weekend Box Office Report: April 18-20: Chan & Li Kick Pacino’s Ass!
Weekend Top 10
| # | Title | DATE | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Total | Distributor |
| 1 | The Forbidden Kingdom | $20.9M | NEW | 3,151 | 1 | 6,623 | $20.9M | Lionsgate |
| 2 | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | $17.4M | NEW | 2,798 | 1 | 6,200 | $17.4M | Universal |
| 3 | Prom Night | $9.1M | -56.3 | 2,700 | 2 | 3,370 | $32.6M | Screen Gems |
| 4 | 88 Minutes | $6.8M | NEW | 2,168 | 1 | 3,136 | $6.8M | Sony |
| 5 | Nim’s Island | $5.7M | -38.0 | 3,277 | 3 | 1,724 | $32.9M | Fox |
| 6 | 21 | $5.5M | -47.5 | 2,903 | 4 | 1,894 | $70.0M | Sony |
| 7 | Street Kings | $4.0M | -67.9 | 2,469 | 2 | 1,620 | $19.9M | Fox Searchlight |
| 8 | Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! | $3.5M | -40.9 | 2,670 | 6 | 1,310 | $144.4M | Fox |
| 9 | Expelled: No Itelligence Allowed | $3.2M | NEW | 1,052 | 1 | 2,997 | $3.2M | Rocky Mountain |
| 10 | Leatherheads | $3.0M | -51.9 | 2,798 | 3 | 1,080 | $26.6M | Universal |
The good people at Lionsgate are surely celebrating their
Jackie Chan / Jet Li picture, The Forbidden Kingdom, debuting atop the box office this week. I bet they’re also kicking themselves
wondering why they didn’t think to pair these martial arts icons together
earlier. Imagine the returns they
could have seen had they made this movie when both actors were actually in
their primes.
Speaking of not being in your prime, my condolences to Al
Pacino’s people for his death at the multiplexes this week. His latest starring vehicle, 88
Minutes (which incidentally lasts 108
minutes), barely made a dent. The
film was only able to muster a fourth place bow, behind last week’s champ, Prom
Night, after a 56% tumble. Maybe Pacino should lobby for the role
of the killer in the inevitable Prom Night 2.
The Apatow gang made a respectable size splash at number 2
this weekend with Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It opened higher than
both recent disappointments / disasters (choose your word according to your
pessimism scale) Drillbit Taylor and Walk Hard but fell far short
of the “classics”, Superbad, Knocked
Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Granted those all opened during the much more lucrative summer season so Forgetting Sarah Marshall is
certainly a success in its own right. It doesn’t even have any A-list leads (or B-list if you ask me). Audiences are liking but not loving it
so we shall see if it will soon be forgotten.
Wait? What’s
that down there at number 9? A Ben
Stein documentary? Who let him in
here? Unexpectedly, this
documentary about the Christian agenda to stifle intelligent design, snuck its
way into the Top 10. It has the
lowest screen count amongst the bunch but it was enough to manage a respectable
standing. With a per screen
average of under $3K though, I anticipate it will be erased from the board
faster than God created the heavens.
Meanwhile, way down the chart, Morgan Spurlock’s theatrical
follow up to Super Size Me, Where
in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?, opened
to a disastrous per screen average of just $1,400. Either people are just sick of Spurlock’s cheeky persona or
have just stopped caring altogether about where the heck Osama is.
NEXT WEEK: It’s the battle of the laughs as the Tina Fey /
Amy Poehler surrogate comedy, Baby Mama,
takes on the Harold & Kumar in the sequel, Harold & Kumar
Escape from Guantanamo Bay. And The Visitor hopes to expand its stellar run after two weeks of
bragging rights for the highest per screen average of any film playing.
