Weekend Box Office Report: March 14-16: Horton hears some ka-ching, ka-ching

Weekend Top 10

Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! has trampled all competition to become tops at the box office this week. Granted, there really wasn’t much competition to speak of but if we can learn anything from Horton, it’s a that a movie’s a movie, no matter how small. Still, there is nothing small about this elephant’s haul.  With Easter holidays right around the corner and thus gargantuan amounts of money still to be made, 20th Century Fox must be thinking sequel. What will Horton hear next? 

The Top 10 saw two other entries this week but they’ll surely be gone shortly given the lack of interest.  The mixed martial arts drama, Never Back Down, opened in third but with a weak average.  Maybe if they had thrown in three or four hot young men, people would have cared. And director, Neil Marshall’s follow up to The Descent, Doomsday confirmed that the North American population in a Mad Max for the new century by crashing into 7th place with an even weaker average. 

Last week, I suggested that Jason Statham is done after The Bank Job barely registered a dent in the Top 10.  Well, this week, I stand corrected … for now. The film only suffered a decline of 15% which is almost unheard of for a sophomore frame. He should write each critic who gave this a good review a personal thank you card because good reviews and word of mouth have salvaged the film … for now. 

Meanwhile, this week’s highest profile art flicks didn’t inspire any excitement.  Michael Haneke’s American remake of his own film, Funny Games didn’t scare as many people in the theatre as it did scare them away from it. The film only managed a per screen average of $1800 for a total of $500K on 289 screens. Still, that was better than the Charlize Theron starring Sleepwalking, which earned $50K on 30 screens. Blasted by critics, this film had people either sleeping when watching or just walking out.  

Several other platform releases posted healthy improvements over last week. The Counterfeiters was up for the fourth week in a row by 61% ($1.2 million total gross). Married Life expanded by 13 theatres and increased by 88%. Snow Angels added just one screen and improved over 80%.  And finally, Paranoid Park, despite my telling everyone I know to avoid it, improved over 170%, taking in $81K in during its second week. 

Next Week: Owen Wilson returns to theatres to make people laugh for the first time since his suicide attempt with Drillbit Taylor. American horror remake, Shutter, opens on the same number of screens.  It might not matter though as box office power house, Tyler Perry, unleashes Meet the Browns.