Saturday, January 17, 2009

weekend box office income - january 2009

Final Numbers for the Weekend of Jan. 9th - Jan. 11th

1. Gran Torino ($29.4 million)
2. Bride Wars ($21.0 million)
3. The Unborn ($19.8 million)
4. Marley and Me ($11.3 million)
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ($9.2 million)
6. Bedtime Stories ($8.8 million)
7. Valkyrie ($6.6 million)
8. Yes Man ($6.0 million)
9. Not Easily Broken ($5.3 million)
10. Seven Pounds ($3.8 million)

Box-Office Prediction: January 16-18, 2009

1. Paul Blart: Mall Cop
For the record these are three day projections. It’s a very tough call at the top spot with three potential winners. I’m taking Blart because it’s rated PG and looks dumb. That should be enough to get it the top slot.
Estimate: $19.5 million

2. Notorious
Here’s the movie I hope wins as I’ve seen it and liked it. They aren’t screening My Bloody Valentine so I have no clue there. I put Notorious down for a number in between Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and 8 Mile. My only concern is that it doesn’t have enough awareness to hit this amount.
Estimate: $18.4 million

3. Gran Torino
It will regress 44.5%. But I still give everyone involved credit for taking even one weekend at the box office.
Estimate: $16.4 million

4. My Bloody Valentine 3-D
It could very well win the weekend, but I think Unborn might have stole a little steam. I’ve got it making $6200 per theater, if it had 3,000 theaters it would definitely trouble me more.
Estimate: $14.3 million

5. Hotel for Dogs
I put this at half of Chihuahua because it doesn’t have enough marketing dollars. That and Blart’s PG rating make it less likely to open large.
Estimate: $11.4 million

6. Bride Wars
I’m only dinging it 51.5%, mostly because the new releases are all in different genres. Unless you count My Bloody Valentine 3-D as competition… which isn’t completely crazy I guess.
Estimate: $10.2 million

7. The Unborn
The first rule of box office they teach you is that horror opens strong and fades swiftly. Thus, The Unborn will drop 54% at the very least this weekend.
Estimate: $9.1 million

8. Defiance
What an odd release schedule this one has had. They opened early in NYC/LA to try and get awards buzz. Then, whiffing on that, they are expanding to 1500 theaters this weekend. Clever!
Estimate: $5.7 million

9. Marley and Me
Two dog movies in the the top ten. That really sums up the movie-going experience these days, doesn’t it?
Estimate: $5.5 million

10. Slumdog Millionaire
The million dollar question is this: Will Last Chance Harvey’s new theaters help it grab this spot? Or will Slumdog’s Globes carry the day? My only concern is that the people who watch The Golden Globes have already seen Slumdog Millionaire. So it’s quite the social experiment at the bottom of the top ten this weekend.
Estimate: $5.1 million