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Saturday
13Dec2008

Box Office - 'Earth Stood Still' Opens with $12 Million

It clearly won't do the business everyone over at Fox hoped it would, but The Day the Earth Stood Still opened with just under $12 million on Friday, easily enough to win its opening day, according to Box Office Mojo. We set a bar in the mid-40s for it on Thursday, and while it's possible the sci-fi remake could get to $40 million, the odds are definitely against it.

Deadline Hollywood Daily reports that the film's audience ratings put it at a C-, which means word of mouth is likely to suffer as the weekend progresses. Can the film hit $100 million in the U.S.? Possibly, but I wouldn't say it's a sure bet. They say bad reviews don't really affect a big movie like this; people see what they want to see. But with a shaky economy, you have to wonder if the blockbusters that don't curry favor with critics have a harder time.

I felt it would open quickly and decline early, but I overestimated its value on Friday by about $4 or $5 million. I had a pair of 17s followed by a 12 to add up to $46 million; if it follows the percentages based on the Friday total, it will get to about $32 million.

The rest of the box office is not too bountiful. Four Christmases, Twilight, Bolt, and Australia round out the top five with collective earnings under $10 million.

We'll have a full wrap-up tomorrow, and we'll take a gander at some of the nominated movies to see how they're shaping up in limited runs.

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Reader Comments (1)

I had a feeling "Day" would not be as huge a hit as everyone thought it would be. I feel like this happens every year around this time; there's usually an underperformer ("Golden Compass" last year, I guess "Eragon" the year before)

Saturday, December 13, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterVince

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