The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.
After two weeks of Will Ferrell and the Robinsons dominating the box office, two thrillers opened in theatres on Friday the 13th, resulting in the DreamWorks/Paramount thriller Disturbia pulling out a solid #1 opening with an estimated $23 million in 2,956 theatres, averaging an impressive $7,872 per theatre. It was a great way to end the week for 20-year-old Shia LaBeouf after the announcement on Thursday that he would appear in the upcoming Indiana Jones IV and then hosting “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend. LaBeouf follows his first #1 hit as a leading man with a voice role in Sony’s animated Surf’s Up and the starring role in Michael Bay’s Transformers over the coming summer.
That’s not to say that it did much damage to DreamWorks’ other recent hit, the Will Ferrell comedy Blades of Glory, which brought in an estimated $14 million for second place with a drop of 38% from Easter weekend. The $61 million budgeted comedy has grossed $90.1 million in three weekends, making it the second Paramount/DreamWorks comedy of 2007 to cross that mark following Eddie Murphy’s Norbit.
Disney’s Meet the Robinsons continued to bring in a lot of the family business, dropping to third with $12.1 million and bringing its total to $72 million.
Despite going into the weekend as the favorite to win, Sony’s R-rated thriller Perfect Stranger starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis, was obviously hurt by the teen draw of the PG-13 thriller, as it grossed $11.5 million over the weekend, averaging $4,321 per theatre. Though it’s still a respectable opening, it was Berry’s lowest opening movie since 2002’s Monster’s Ball.
Sony’s comedy sequel Are We Done Yet?, starring Ice Cube, dropped down two places to #5 with $9.2 million and a total gross of $33 million.
After being delayed for months by 20th Century Fox, Marcus Nispel’s Viking epic Pathfinder was given a moderate release into 1,700 theatres where it made $4.8 million over the weekend, enough for sixth place.
Retaining seventh place and continuing to hold up well was the runaway Touchstone comedy hit Wild Hogs, which earned an additional $4.6 million over the weekend, taking its total across the $150 million mark.
Dropping three places to #9, Warner Bros.’ historic blockbuster 300 crossed the $200 million mark over the weekend with an additional $4.3 million.
Last week’s horror offerings, Warner Bros.’ The Reaping and Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s double feature Grindhouse were both hurt by the introduction of two new thrillers. The latter took an enormous nosedive, dropping from #4 to #10 with $4 million, down 65% from Easter weekend. Grindhouse has grossed a mere $19.7 million in its first ten days, making it uncertain whether the Weinstein Company might try to split up the two movies in the next few weeks as damage control.
The other three new movies opened outside the Top 10 with the initial release from real estate mogul Daniel Sudek’s Chicago Releasing, the racing flick Redline, earning roughly $4 million to open at #11, while the Cartoon Network cult animated comedy Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres grossed roughly $3 million in 877 theatres–most of that amount on Friday–putting it just outside the Top 12.
Likely to wind up on the outskirts of the Top 20, the Lionsgate thriller Slow Burn starring Ray Liotta was dumped into over 1,100 theatres with little fanfare, and unsurprisingly, it made a mere $800 thousand over the weekend, an average of just $687.
Opening in limited release, Mike White’s canine comedy Year of the Dog, starring Molly Shannon, grossed $112 thousand over the weekend in 7 theatres, averaging $16K, while the Todd Robinson crime drama Lonely Hearts, starring John Travolta and James Gandolfini, made slightly less in three times as many theatres.
Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 13 films.
