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Sunday
02Nov2008

Box Office - 'Musical' Takes 'Zack and Miri' to School

DateSunday, November 2, 2008 at 1:16PM
The Halloween weekend finally got on track at the box office, but for the new releases, it was too little too late. High School Musical won again, and was the comeback kid, recovering from a fifth-place finish on Friday to zoom to the top spot on Saturday, according to Box Office Mojo. The Disney flick has now earned over $60 million in ten days and might have one more really good week left.

The big loser actually finished in second place: Zack and Miri Make a Porno only made about half of what it was expected to, so you could argue that it suffered the most from the industry-wide aberration on Friday in which the top five films combined for less than $10 million.

The Kevin Smith comedy starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks will still make money, especially once it hits DVD, but there was a lot more marketing for this than we're used to seeing for a Kevin Smith movie, and the audience that didn't show up Friday also didn't make its presence felt on Saturday and Sunday. Even if had made another $6 million on Friday night, which seems like a stretch, Zack and Miri still wouldn't have hit its estimate of about $20 million.

In the long run, we're looking at another sub-$40 million earner from Smith, which again, is perfectly fine. It's just not what they hoped for.

Saw V finished in third place and Clint Eastwood's Changeling and The Haunting of Molly Hartley rounded out the top five. Guy Ritchie's Rocknrolla, which expanded to about 850 theaters, didn't do very well by any stretch of the imagination, and its per-screen average indicates that even where it's playing, it's not a must-see movie.

The Top Five:

1 - High School Musical ($15 million)
2 - Zack and Miri ($10.7 million)
3 - Saw V ($10.1 million)
4 - Changeling ($9.4 million)
5 - The Haunting of Molly Hartley ($6.7 million)

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AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , , , , , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

Changeling was the most amazing movie I have ever seen. Angelina deserves another Oscar for this one!!!

Sunday, November 2, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterMonica

#2 is still the highest opening spot Smith has ever had. Jay and Silent Bob came in at #3, though I think it would have been higher if not for preview screenings that were packed the weekend before. Either way, his audience will come out on DVD day. I did expect more considering Rogen is the star though.

Monday, November 3, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterKevin

It's not the placement in my mind, because it was the widest release among new movies. It shouldn't have been lower than second place, anyway. It's the fact that the Weinsteins wanted a major hit, advertised the hell out of it, and about 250,000 people saw it on opening day. They had to believe it was going to generate more interest than that.

It'll perform about as well as all of his movies.

Monday, November 3, 2008 | Registered CommenterColin Boyd

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