Saturday
08Nov2008
Box Office - 'Madagascar' Roars with $17 Million on Friday
Saturday, November 8, 2008 at 12:51PM
Audiences escaped 2
Madagascar on Friday, driving its domestic box
office receipts to $17.4 million, according to
Box Office
Mojo. On Thursday,
we estimated that the film would make $49
million, and if the Friday trend holds, it should do significantly better than
that. Of course, over the past couple of months, what we've seen out of most new
releases is that they aren't always following the Friday trend. 
Soul Men, the new Samuel L. Jackson-Bernie Mac comedy, is bombing. We expected the film to top $10 million this weekend, and that's not going to happen. It didn't even make $2 million on opening day, which is a shame - because Bernie Mac is sincerely funny in his final role - and a big surprise. Role Models, the week's other new comedy, did significantly better than anyone expected, taking in almost $7 million on Friday.
Role Models has received better reviews than some bigger name R-rated comedies this year, better than Pineapple Express, Step Brothers, and Zack and Miri, and that probably helped its opening day total. If you believe the $58 million projection for Madagascar, then this thing is on its way to $22 million. But the R-rated flicks have been all over the road, with some opening huge and diminishing the next day and others taking time to secure an audience. So, $15 - $17 million seems likely for Role Models, good enough for second place. In any event, it should tower over our original estimate.
High School Musical, Zack and Miri, and Changeling are all within about $400,000 of each other, and should comprise the rest of the top five this weekend. We'll have full results and analysis tomorrow.
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