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Saturday
28Mar2009

Box Office - 'Monsters vs. Aliens' a Monster

DateSaturday, March 28, 2009 at 10:47AM
Monsters vs. Aliens raced out to a big lead Friday at the box office, which is really not a surprise. According to Box Office Mojo, the 3-D animated family film earned just below $17 million, which should put the film on target for a $50 - $55 million weekend total.

That's not too far off the pace of the last DreamWorks cartoon, Kung Fu Panda, which opened with $20 million on Friday and took in $60 million overall in its debut last June. That film went on to earn $215 million domestically, and though that's probably not in the cards for Monsters vs. Aliens it should tell you that the movie could top $150 million without too much trouble.

Next weekend will be a big determining factor; if it holds a significant amount of it audience, then we'll be able to chart out where the ceiling for this one might be.

But none of that is unexpected. What is unexpected is the performance of The Haunting in Connecticut. Though it will probably slide from this moment on, the opening night box office was around $10 million. Horror movies almost never grow at the rate other movies do when you start counting receipts; it's more common for them to have a big opening day and trail off immediately than to have consistent returns throughout their first weekends.

The PG-13 rating could help in this case, but I don't think we'll see a $27 - $30 million pull here. It could easily make $20 - $22 million, and that would have to be considered a huge win for Lionsgate.

There really isn't much news outside of those two films. The other new release, 12 Rounds, opened poorly, with $1.75 million on opening day. That should mean a $5 million weekend, which can't be what Fox wanted, even if the studio had low expectations. It should be noted that there weren't too many screenings for the press, which equals less coverage in print and online.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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