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Weekend Box-Office Report: February 22-24 Vantage’s View from the Top
Weekend Top 10
| # | Title | GROSS | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Total | Distributor |
| 1 | Vantage Point | $24.0M | — | 3,149 | 1 | 7,621 | $24.0M | Sony |
| 2 | Jumper | $12.7M | -53.8 | 3,430 | 2 | 3,688 | $56.2M | Fox |
| 3 | The Spiderwick Chronicles | $12.6M | -33.7 | 3,847 | 2 | 3,275 | $43.6M | Paramount |
| 4 | Step Up 2 the Streets | $9.8M | -48.2 | 2,480 | 2 | 3,946 | $41.4M | Buena Vista |
| 5 | Fool’s Gold | $6.3M | -51.4 | 3,075 | 3 | 2,039 | $52.4M | Warner Bros. |
| 6 | Definitely Maybe | $5.2M | -46.9 | 2,220 | 2 | 2,335 | $21.8M | Universal |
| 7 | Be Kind, Rewind | $4.1M | — | 808 | 1 | 5,074 | $4.1M | New Line |
| 8 | Juno | $4.1M | -11.1 | 1,727 | 12 | 2,374 | $130.4M | Fox Searchlight |
| 9 | Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins | $4.0M | -53.1 | 1,873 | 3 | 2,129 | $35.5M | Universal |
| 10 | There Will Be Blood | $2.6M | -15.5 | 1,402 | 9 | 1,826 | $35.0M | Paramount Vatage |
Depending on your point of view, Vantage Point is a hit. Sure it debuted at number one. Sure it averaged a solid $7600 per screen average. It’s indisputable, right? Well, why don’t we ask last week’s
champ, Jumper? The latter debuted to similar results
and fell hard on its knees in its second week. So enjoy your success while you still can Vantage
Point. Given that you had no competition stopping you, I feel like
people won’t be returning to see you from every possible angle.
Art meets commerce while making fun of each other at the
same time sums up the chart’s only other debut, Michel Gondry’s Be Kind,
Rewind. The dreamy director pairs up with comedy’s lightest
heavy, Jack Black, for what resulted in a mediocre showing. Maybe the Gondry fans were turned off
by the mainstream Black or maybe the Black fans thought Gondry would suck all
the fun out of Black but either way, neither fan base turned out in strong
numbers. I think I might actually
skip it and make my own video version of it instead.
I don’t know if people really care this much about the
Oscars but this weekend was the last chance to catch the nominated films before
the winners were announced. Juno, which cleaned up at the Independent Spirit Awards, extended its stay in the Top 10 past three
months, dropping off another scant 11%. There Will Be Blood also
dropped off slightly but snuck its oily self back into the Top 10. No Country for Old Men bet on itself to win and added another 176 screens
which resulted in a 20% bump. In
addition to Atonement and Michael
Clayton, the five Best Picture nominees
have earned a combined gross of over $100K since the nominations were announced
in January. That’s more than
double what last year’s fivesome earned during the same period.
Another Oscar favorite in the Foreign Language category
scored a higher average than any pic in the Top 10, grossing $87K on just 8
screens. Austria’s The
Counterfeiters will surely expand in the
weeks ahead with a win.
Two films found themselves dumped by their studios this
week. Clearly having no idea how
to market them led to the weak returns for Larry the Cable Guy’s Witless
Protection and the teenage prescription
drug comedy, Charlie Bartlett (the film was slapped with an R rating – making it harder to find its audience). Both took in similar earning on similar
screen counts and I’m sure both will disappear quickly hand in hand. Maybe Charlie can get Larry some good
dope to take the edge off.
Next Week: The ladies clamor for the art house crowd as the
Scarlett Johansson/Natalie Portman sister period piece, The Other Boleyn
Girl and Christina Ricci’s pigface pic, Penelope bow in modest release. And for the boys? 3000+ screens go Semi-Pro with Will Ferrell. Seems like Will
has home court advantage.
