Box Office - 'Up' Kicks Off Weekend with $21 Million

A big debut weekend awaits Pixar's Up, which is clearly the dominant film in theaters at the moment. The Friday numbers were incredibly encouraging - $21 million, according to Box Office Mojo - and that probably translates to an easy $60 million over the first three days, perhaps in the upper 60s depending on the Saturday increases. That kind of opening would be pretty standard for Pixar, and running mostly uncontested until Ice Age in July means that Up should make at least another $130 - $150 million in June. Drag Me to Hell appears headed toward a third place finish, which is not surprising at all. A $6.4 million start is good but not great for a PG-13 horror movie in 2,500 theaters, and the good reviews and word of mouth should keep this one around for a couple of weeks, even if it opens with a lower number than our mid-20s estimate. Right now, it's probably looking at a $20 million weekend, but as the only horror movie around for a couple months, the business should be there for Drag Me to Hell for weeks to come. Night at the Museum will more than likely take second place, but the drop is substantial. A $20 - $25 million second weekend would be a decrease of more than 60%, and that's just not a great hold. Speaking of bad second weekends, Terminator Salvation seems destined to wind up with about $15 - $18 million this weekend. Ouch. In terms of percentages, that's also roughly a 60% slide, although not as bad as Wolverine. There is some good news for the older movies, however: Star Trek is the first $200 million movie this year, and it's still right on track with our second week estimate that put its total box office around $255 million when all is said and done. We'll recap the whole weekend tomorrow, and I'm pretty interested to see what the next couple of days holds for the second- and third-weekend movies. It doesn't look pretty for the Memorial Day pair of Night at the Museum and Terminator.

Comments

[Sean]

WOW

Up was incredible what a beautiful wonderfully told story...

It was pure and real and truthful and just an inspiration!

What an emotionally impactful and exceedingly hilarious film...

I did not ever expect to witness such a story coming from an animation ..

I tell ya, Pixar and films such as these blow movies with humans and people out of the water, I mean it seems filmmaking in this area has greatly risen while real life human films are steadily progressing...

The only bad thing I have to say about UP is that it ended!!!

A must see!

[Get The Big Picture]

The secret isn't in the animation. It's all in the stories. They spend years just working on the scripts. That's why a six month writing schedule for a big budget sequel usually leads to disaster. The Pixar guys can develop what works and throw out what doesn't.

[Sean]

Oh I see... Well then your saying these guys are FANTASTIC storytellers!

If there SOOO good telling these stories aimed at children and/or the youth then Hollywood big budget guys should hire these guys to write screenplays involving human beings and REAL LIFE situations....

I mean wouldnt that be the next step? I mean wouldnt that make films with people have more substance and depth???

[Evan. G.]

Sean, you're overreacting. Movies with "humans" as you put it do have great stories. The way you put it is that the greatest movies ever made were animated films and any other "human" film has been crap. There are many great stories told in films out there, blockbuster Hollywood and not, you just have to look for them.

[Get The Big Picture]

Pixar makes one movie a year now, and this is the most productive time in the company's history. They spend so much longer on every project and can afford to. But when they spend years on a script as opposed to pumping out three Twilight movies in 18 months, the finished product is just going to be better.

And Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) is working on a live action film about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. But why would you leave Pixar where you have all this creative freedom and a great environment for the assembly line working on scripts for other studios?