Box Office Report: 10-30-05

Dude here again. Did you remember to turn back your clocks? I did. I was rewarded with an extra hour of sleep. It was glorious. I had a great dream, fighting zombie cyborg dogs. At my old job. Then Harrison Ford showed up and asked if he could borrow ten bucks. Swear to God this really happened.

This week, a shock of a number opens us up. Shock in a good way, really. Well, not for me, so much, but for the...alright, I 'm gonna stop this nonsense. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates. Numbers could change on Monday).

• Saw II (LG)- $30.5, 2949 screens, week 1, $30.5 total
• The Legend of Zorro (Sony) - $16.5, 3520 screens, week 1, $16.5 total
• Prime (UNI) - $6.395, 1827 screens, week 1, $6.395 total
• Dreamer (DW) - $6.3, 2491 screens, week 2, $17.5 total
• Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (DW) - $4.4, 2935 screens, week 3, $49.79 total
• The Weather Man (PAR) - $4.2, 1510 screens, week 1, $4.2 total
• Doom (UNI)- $4.06, 3042 screens, week 2, $22.868 total
• North Country (WB) - $3.65, 2555 screens, week 2, $12.199 total 
• The Fog (Sony) - $3.3, 2587 screens, week 3, $25.5 total
• Flightplan (BV) - $2.6, 1766 screens, week 6, $81.19 total

Ok, those are the numbers, so what does this all mean? Well, it means that Saw made a lot of money. A hell of a lot of money. Like it's budget several times over in three days alone. I guess people still want the R-Rated horror flicks, and this gives me hope. It also means that a lot of people managed to catch the original Saw on the home video market and couldn't wait for this to come out. (By contrast, this time LAST YEAR the original Saw only made $18 million in it's opening weekend). Still, impressive numbers from both outings on the Saw franchise. If any people care about records and such, Saw 2 would be the fifth highest opening weekend in October. (Those records are like in kindergarten, everyone gets a ribbon for participating). But the weekend does mean one thing: This can pretty much guarantee that this time NEXT YEAR, we will be lining to catch Saw 3.

If you're The Legend of Zorro, you might be a little bummed out. Opening in a strange time of year, seven years after the original Zorro movie, (and opening against another sequel) the latest movie opened to a respectable $16.5 million. Not bad, but a lot of folks were counting on this movie to be the big money maker this weekend. It was considerably less than the original's $22.5 million opening, however. At the same time, it apparently toned down some of the violence and sexuality to bring it in for a family friendly PG rating. It will most likely dwindle in the next coming weekends.

If you're Prime, third place isn't bad at all. (no doubt there will be an ad claiming it "The #1 comedy in America." Just you watch). Of course, a $6 million dollar opening weekend isn't all that great either, but that's okay. it's been a rough patch, and this weekend was just a freak occurrence. Still, Universal's been releasing a lot of films lately, and none of them seem to do to well. Skeleton Key, Serenity, Two for the Money, Doom, now Prime. Something is amiss over at the House of Universal. But, what are you gonna do?

If you're the Weather Man, you're probably a little upset, or depressed. And from what I understand about the movie, everyone who's actually SEEN the movie feels the same way. Taking in a tame $4.2 million...I'm sure there's a lame pun to be made here about weather, but I just don't have it in me today. Sorry. But it is another misfire (financially speaking, I'm not talking about content) for Nicolas Cage. I say more power to him, he's a better actor in these movies than in National Treasure, which naturally makes tons of money. So Nic's not crying himself to sleep at night. Still, I hear this one's really depressing. Like About Schmidt depressing.

The holdovers are performing alright. Wallace and Gromit and Dreamer are luring in the family crowds. The Fog dropped some more as more horror fans flocked to see Saw. (Fans flocked to see Saw. Say that ten times fast). Doom made a staggering dip of 73.8% from last week's gross. North Country dropped as well, but nowhere as steep as Doom.

Below the radar, Good Night and Good Luck continue to draw in numbers while adding screens, bringing it's total to $7.2 million. Capote has earned almost $3.7 million total. Shopgirl added 34 more screens, and earned $459,000, which is a 99% INCREASE from last week. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang added 44 more screens and brought in $339,000. And the all-star Three...Extremes (three short films directed by three "extreme" filmmakers from Asia, such as the director of Oldboy) opened to $35,000 on 19 screens.

So I take back last week's words of not expecting some big weekends until Harry Potter comes out in a few weeks. This was a big weekend. the first two movies took in almost as much as last week's top ten. So, who knows. It's a roller coaster ride.

There you have my wonderful break down. Next week, we have Disney's attempt to make a computer animated film without the help of Pixar. Will it work? Will Disney come crying back? Will the voicing of Zach Braff bring in the kids? (BRRRRAAAAAFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!) Who knows? We also have the gulf war drama Jarhead, which is from Sam Mendes.

Until next weekend....