Weekend Box Office Report: February 29-March 2: Semi-Pro is semi-successful

Weekend Top 10

Will Ferrell opens his latest laugher, Semi-Pro, atop the box office this weekend but with his
lowest numbers in more than a decade.  Are people tiring of Ferrell always repeating the same shtick over and
over again?  Probably
not.  What kept people away from
this basketball folly was the film’s R rating.  Most Ferrell pics come with a kid-friendly PG-13,
allowing for his number one fans, the teenage boys of the world, to get
courtside seats.  This time out
Ferrell played to an older crowd and they were not terribly forgiving.

Audiences did however find forgiveness in their hearts and
money in their wallets for last week’s holdovers.  Vantage Point, The
Spiderwick Chronicles and Jumper have all declined this week by more than 30% but
they’re having an easier time holding on to their audiences than last week’s
art house debuts, Be Kind, Rewind and Charlie Bartlett.  These two each dropped off by
approximately 50% and considering they weren’t starting from a solid place to
begin with, their hopes of finding an audience through expansion are pretty
much hopeless.

Limited releases needn’t throw in the towel just yet.  The week’s second highest debut and
highest average in the Top 10 belongs to The Other Boleyn Girl.  Playing in approximately one third of the theatres as Ferrell’s
champion, the period drama starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson as
sisters who will stop at nothing to win the affections of the King of England
(Eric Bana), pulled in a solid $7K per screen for a total of $8 million.  Reviews were not positive so it may not
have an easy time as it expands in the weeks to come but never underestimate
the buying power of the film’s main demographic, the teenage girl. If only Zac
Efron were in the movie … The week’s other Top 10 Debut, the oft-delayed Penelope, opened to a
tepid per screen and an ensured quick disappearance, proving that people don’t
like their movie stars with pig noses.  Who knew?

You may now be able to visit your favorite entertainment
sites without hearing the words “Academy” and “Awards” for at least a couple of
weeks now that the telecast has finally passed.  Best Picture winner, No Country for Old Men, nearly double its theatre count and saw its
business shoot up 66% to find a return to the Top 10 in its 17^th week in theatres.  Juno held on for one more week in the Top 10 after winning an Oscar for Best
Original Screenplay  The film dropped off another slight 19% and is now a
bigger hit than its parent company’s Live Free or Die Harder.  Also,
Best Foreign Language Film winner, The Counterfeiters from Austria, saw its business blow up by 130% for
a stellar per screen of $11K.  I’d
say this proves that the Oscars do matter but every other winner suffered a
loss and the telecast itself was the least watched in thirty years.

NEXT WEEK: Warner Bros. hopes distorting history will pay
off big with 10,000 B.C.; Martin
Laurence takes a College Road Trip with
Raven Symone (pull over, I have to puke); and a trio of art-house flicks hope
to find their homes – Married Life, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park.