Box Office - Clint Earns $30 Million with 'Torino'

Clint Eastwood has been a major box office player for years. Dirty Harry kicked off three straight movies in that franchise that were in the top ten of their given years in the 1970s. Every Which Way But Loose, his 1978 brawling comedy, was the fourth biggest hit of that year. Unforgiven and In the Line of Fire did great business,and even Space Cowboys made $90 million. And at 78, Eastwood has his biggest debut ever, as well as the biggest wide release debut for a leading actor in his 70s. Gran Torino, which had been in limited release for a couple of weeks, put a stranglehold on its competition this weekend, outgrossing Bride Wars and The Unborn by nearly ten million dollars each. Eastwood's latest earned $29 million this weekend, according to Box Office Mojo, a phenomenal number when you consider all the factors. There's nobody else in the movie anyone's paying to see and there are a number of other choices for audiences - other Oscar favorites in theaters, the NFL playoffs - so the fact that we're sitting here talking about Eastwood really proves his remarkable clout with moviegoers. Though it will make money, you have to be somewhat disappointed with the performance of Bride Wars if you're Fox. It wasn't even close to winning the weekend, reviews were horrible, and on a per-screen basis, it was blitzed by The Unborn and Not Easily Broken . The Anne Hathaway-Kate Hudson flick had a strong Saturday, which is the only day this weekend it finished in second place. That was enough to overtake The Unborn, which finished less than a million dollars behind it. Elsewhere, it appears that Benjamin Button is cooling off after an impressive couple of weeks. The potential Academy Award nominee took in another $9 million, which puts the film less than a week away from $100. Paramount will need a strong international showing, though, for the movie to really be a hit. Ditto Valkyrie, a much easier sell overseas, which is right now on the verge of breaking even, but because the production budget was essentially doubled by the marketing for the WWII film, it still has a long way to go. Not Easily Broken has also approached the break-even point. The difference is, it only cost $5 million. It won't be a movie that's around a long time, but if it makes another $7 million or so, I guess that would make it really profitable. For the awards movies, we tend to pay more attention their per-screen averages, because they're not in wide release. Defiance was huge again, earning $33,000 per screen, as opposed to $10,000 and change for Gran Torino. The Wrestler, Revolutionary Road, Torino, and Waltz With Bashir round out the top five in that category, all of which earned over $10,000. The Top Five:
1 - Gran Torino ($29 million)
2 - Bride Wars ($21.5 million)
3 - The Unborn ($21 million)
4 - Marley & Me ($11.3 million)
5 - Benjamin Button ($9.4 million)

Comments

[Allan]

Colin: Clint is the man! Don't forget that Sudden Impact, the fourth Dirty Harry movie, was also in the top ten. Any Which Way You Can made almost as much as Every Which Way But Loose. The Bridges of Madison County was big in North Amertica, but VERY BIG overseas, and Million Dollar Baby grossed over $100,000,000 in North America, and well over $100,000,000 overseas. Many people forget that the musical/western Paint Your Wagon, though expensive to make, was also in the top ten. The experience of working on that movie convinced Clint to start his own production company, Malpaso.

[Allan]

Hi Colin: Sorry about the typo on "America." I got a little excited typing. Clint has been my favourite actor for over forty years, and my favourite director for thirty-seven.
By the way, I want to compliment you on your site. I have been a frequent visitor for the last few months.