Weekend Box Office Report: March 7-9

Weekend Top 10

Last summer, Warner Bros. intended to release Roland
Emmerich’s latest effects-driven crowd pleaser, 10,000 B.C.  Only
it was a little too heavy on the effects and it became clear in the spring that
the project would not be ready in time for its projected release date.  Around that same time, another WB
picture was opening to unprecedented results for spring.  Anyone remember those headstrong,
rippling Spartans?  300 changed Hollywood’s idea of what they could
accomplish in the month of March.  And so, 10,000 B.C. was
moved from summer to spring in hopes history would repeat itself.  The $35 million opening is certainly
solid but that’s less than half of what 300 pulled in in its opening weekend.  Take note, Hollywood: It isn’t about
formula; it’s about timing and quality.

Regardless of whether 10,000 B.C. lived up to industry expectations, it still
clobbered the competition.  Disney’s magic could not do for Martin Lawrence what it had already done
for Vin Diesel and The Rock by turning the often R-rated Joker into a G-rated
family favorite as College Road Trip opened to just $14 million in second place.  Opening in fifth, Jason Statham has flopped for the second
time this year.  The Bank
Job barely made off with any loot, which
leads to me to wonder if anyone aside from Hollywood thinks Statham is
bankable.

Several platform releases found audiences this weekend, some
larger than others.  Opening just
below the Top 10 is the Frances McDormand/Amy Adams starrer, Miss Pettigrew
Lives for a Day.  The late 30’s period comedy will need some strong word of
mouth in order to expand successfully as its per screen take suggests there was
not a lot of advance interest.  Likewise for Married Life,
another American period piece that opened to a similar per screen but on only 9
screens.  The impressive cast, from
Patricia Clarkson to Chris Cooper to Rachel McAdams, best be hitting the talk
show circuit or their fate will be as tragic as the doomed marriages the film
portrays.

The news was not all grim for the art houses, even if the
movies were.  Gus Van Sant’s Cannes
favorite, Paranoid Park opened to very
promising results.  The dreamy
skater trip posted a better per screen average than any other film in release,
pulling in $15K on just two screens.  David Gordon Green is sure to have a huge hit on his hands this summer
with the Judd Apatow produced The Pineapple Express but for now his suburban drama, Snow
Angels, opened to $7K per screen on also
on two screens.  Both films expect
to expand slightly next weekend.  Finally, enjoying a successful expansion is the Oscar winner for Best
Foreign Language film, The Counterfeiters.  The Austrian production
added another 26 screens and saw its business jump another 64%.

Next Week: What’s that, Horton?  What do you hear?  Is it a who?  No?  Oh, it’s the sound of millions of
dollars exchanging hands and overly excited kiddies bouncing throughout the
multiplexes.  Key demographic
pleasers Never Back Down and Doomsday open wide but will prove no match for the voices of
Jim Carrey & Steve Carrell in Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who.