It’s nice to finally look at a top three and not feel as if the cinematic world is coming to an end (okay, last week was pretty good too). Moneyball and The Lion King are two great films and although I haven’t seen Dolphin Tale, it looks like a perfectly satisfying family feature well worth the price of admission if that’s the kind of film you’re looking for (okay, maybe not the 3D ticket price). As far as this Friday’s early estimates, let’s take a closer look.
Moneyball stands on top with $6.7 million on Friday, which I see translating to about $24 million by the end of the weekend, which I am also assuming will be enough to hold off the mighty Lion King, which continues to roar at the box-office bringing in $6 million and I am betting it will bump to about $21 million for the weekend. I just received the new Lion King Blu-ray on Friday and plan on watching it tonight and cannot wait. A classic Disney film and I’m happy to see people are still willing to pay money to see it.
In third is WB’s Dolphin Tale with a respectable $5.1 million. That will probably result in a $15 million weekend and I wish I had numbers for how much of that came from 3D screenings. I think the idea of selling this one as a 3D film is the only problem with it.
In fourth is Taylor Lautner‘s Abduction, which they wouldn’t even screen here in Seattle but did screen in other markets. However based on what I’m reading here and the 4% it has at RottenTomatoes it would seem I’m not missing much. Abduction opened to $3.8 million and will likely end the weekend around $9-10 million. My bet is Lautner and his agents could probably just set up personal appearances across the nation and make just as much money. After all, the only thing these fans are interested in Lautner for is his role as Jacob in Twilight. People are kidding themselves if they think this kid is going to be a star… that is, unless he finally learns how to act.
Rounding out the top five is Killer Elite, a generic actioner starring Jason Statham, Robert De Niro and Clive Owen, which I found to be a bit of a muddled mess, but not an all out disaster. The film opened to $3.5 million and will battle with abduction for that fourth place spot.
I have included Friday’s top ten below and will be back on Sunday morning with a complete wrap-up.
- Moneyball – $6.7 million
- The Lion King in 3D – $6 million
- Dolphin Tale – $5.1 million
- Abduction – $3.8 million
- Killer Elite – $3.5 million
- Contagion – $2.6 million
- Drive – $1.8 million
- The Help – $1.3 million
- Straw Dogs – $685,000
- I Don’t Know How She Does It – $677,000
