Box Office Report Oct 22nd 2007

Dude here again. Halloween is approaching, you know. Have you selected your costume yet? This year, I can't decide if I'm going to go as "Bad Borat" (which involves the world's worst Borat impersonator) or Ms. Pac Man, which involves putting a red bow on last year's Pac Man costume. Or could go as your mom. (BURN!)

This weekend, there were 8 movies released in rather wide capacity. It was allegedly a record. And none of them really did any well. Even the number one performed a little below expectations. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates, the actuals will be available on Monday. Just to prove me wrong).

1. 30 Days of Night (Sony) - $16.0, 2855 screens, week 1, $16.0 total
2. Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? (LGF) - $12.0, 2034 screens, week 2, $38.8 total
3. The Game Plan (BV) - $8.1, 3301 screens, week 4, $69.1 total
4. Michael Clayton (WB)- $7.1, 2585 screens, week 3, $21.9 total
5. Gone Baby Gone (Mira) - $6.0, 1713 screens, week 1, $6.0 total
6. The Comebacks (FoxA) - $5.8, 2812 screens, week 1, $5.8 total
7. We Own The Night (Sony) - $5.5, 2362 screens, week 2, $19.7 total
8. Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D (BV) - $5.1, 564 screens, week 1, $5.1 total
9. Rendition (NL) - $4.1, 2250 screens, week 1, $4.1 total
10. The Heartbreak Kid (Par/DW) - $3.9, 2782 screens, week 3, $32.1 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? It means there are far too many movies out there these days. Too many choices, and no sure things. Unpredictable business, this is. 30 Days of Night took the top spot over all the newcomers, tricking enough people into thinking the movie would be good, and not disappointing film that was released before us all. Still, at a low budget, the film should make a decent profit before the next Saw movie comes and obliterates this.

Gone Baby Gone, the directorial debut of Ben Affleck, was the next best performer of the newbies, with The Comebacks hot on it's toes. The re-release of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D performed well, being that it's fourteen years old. Which really makes me depressed every time I walk past a Hot Topic, actually. (Amongst other reasons).

Oh, and Rendition came out and once again confirmed the theory running around Hollywood circles that people don't want to see movies of a topical nature. Which is something I could have told them a long time ago, and gotten them to invest their money is smarter things. Like my magnum opus motion picture "Burger Academy 2 The Vengeance"! When will you learn, Hollywood?

Below the radar, Things We Lost In The Fire, a movie that looks pretty depressing, but is still probably pretty good, opened up and took in $1.6 million on a little more than a thousand screens. Something called Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour took in $561,000, also on a little more than a thousand screens. An animated version of The Ten Commandments allegedly opened up, too... You know what? Far too many movies opened up, and I can't keep up with it. I'm tired, and I got an Uwe Boll movie to see.

And in the "Because It's There" series: Balls of Fury took in $88,400 on 150 screens, bringing it's grand total to $32,721,000 in 8 weeks.

There you have my break down. Next week, they somehow found a way to make more Saw movies despite pretty much killing every character from the previous three. It might be worth checking out solely to see how they do it. Then again, I have to remember how much I hated that last one. There's also a movie with Steve Carell and Dane Cook, so I'm completely mixed straight down the middle on whether or not to see it. Until next weekend....