Saturday
20Dec2008
Box Office - A Bad Weekend for Smith and Carrey
Saturday, December 20, 2008 at 12:28PM
Another flatter-than-expected weekend at the box office
awaits us, as the Friday estimates would indicate that no movie will make as
much as $20 million from Friday to Sunday.
Box Office
Mojo reports a fairly close race between Jim Carrey's
Yes Man
and Will Smith's
Seven Pounds through one day, although it's
more likely to widen between now and Monday morning.
Will Smith, on the other hand, is looking at his worst debut since Ali opened to under $15 million seven years ago. Again, it will do slightly better today than yesterday, but with the Sunday drop-off, it will probably land on about $16 million by the time the receipts are counted.
We project both films to open over $20 million, with Yes Man in the $24 - $26 million range. I know this might be shocking, but there are a lot of films this fall that have received mixed to poor reviews and have then gone out and laid an egg at the box office. Coincidence? Or does it mean that, especially in a tough economy, people might be listening to critics?
The Tale of Despereaux kicked off the weekend in third place, but the animated film will be hard pressed to crack $10 million in a weekend when major releases are down across the board.
The same can not be said for Slumdog Millionaire, the likely Best Picture nominee, which is riding incredible word of mouth and end of the year awards into the lower rungs of the top ten this weekend. Not bad for a movie in fewer than 1,000 theaters.
We'll have more on all this tomorrow, when the final weekend estimates roll in.
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