Sunday
21Dec2008
Box Office - No to 'Yes,' 'Seven Pounds' Weighed Down
Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 12:44PM
The news was not that good at the top of the weekend box
office, with
Yes Man and
Seven Pounds combining to barely beat the
effort of last week's winner,
The Day the Earth Stood Still, which itself was
something of a minor disappointment.
2 - Seven Pounds ($16 million)
3 - The Tale of Despereaux ($10.5 million)
4 - The Day the Earth Stood Still ($10.1 million)
5 - Four Christmases ($7.7 million)
The real success stories right now are the films that will challenge for Oscar and Golden Globe hardware. The per-screen averages for Frost/Nixon, Doubt, Gran Torino, and now The Wrestler continue to dwarf the numbers put up by the wide releases and now, for the first time, Oscar frontrunner Slumdog Millionaire has cracked the top ten.
Next week, the box office landscape will be entirely different, with five new wide releases and a number of expansions, so it will probably take on an even more Oscar-friendly look.
The Top Five: 1 - Yes Man ($18.1 million)
2 - Seven Pounds ($16 million)
3 - The Tale of Despereaux ($10.5 million)
4 - The Day the Earth Stood Still ($10.1 million)
5 - Four Christmases ($7.7 million)
Reader Comments (3)
Does anyone want to just admit that the $8.00+ ticket price per person is more than some families can afford now that jobs are disappearing faster than Raisinetes. The weather may have been one of the factors but I feel this holiday's opening was impacted more by the increase in company closings and layoffs.
Sugar, I wondered that same thing yesterday in our Saturday box office update. I think with a money crunch, people are heading out more to see films they hear are good and aren't willing to take the chance on movie that are getting average or poor reviews.
Then again, Four Christmases made $100 million and it was pretty thoroughly trashed by critics.
$20 bucks for those of us with a significant other. I can wait and the dollar rental machine at wallmart is just so convenient.