Box Office - 'Schmucks' Edges 'Inception' on Friday

The comedy Dinner for Schmucks got a quick start at the box office on Friday, bringing in $8.4 million, which was just enough to beat Inception. However, because it is such a close race after one day, and because Inception has about 600 more screens (or about 20% more), I wouldn't expect that to hold all weekend. Inception checked in with $8.1 million, bringing the 15-day total to just under $175 million in the US, and by the end of the weekend, we'll be very close to $200 million here and roughly half that amount overseas. That puts it very close to real profitability, which was not assured given the circumstances. Hopefully, now that it will make some good money, more studios will follow Warner Bros.' lead and get more daring in the summer season. And even though Friday was the first day in 15 that Inception was not number one, I think it's still going to compete for another two weeks, so that total will probably exceed $250 million by August 15th or so. Where would that be on the summer countdown? Fourth, behind Toy Story 3, Iron Man 2, and Twilight. It could maybe break the top three, but Inception would need a lot of business to pull that off. Schmucks will probably do even better than we projected on Thursday, which itself was a higher number than a lot of other estimates. It still could capture the flag this weekend, because both this film and Inception seem headed for high-20s. Depends on the word-of-mouth business now; if people don't love Schmucks, that number should slide a bit. The other new releases, Charlie St. Cloud and Cats and Dogs, finished behind Salt, which drew about $6 million to start its second weekend. In fact, Cats and Dogs trailed Despicable Me, likely giving Steve Carell two movies in the top five this weekend.

Comments

[Anonymous]

I think Schmucks will falter. I don't think WOM will be all that great. I think your 24M estimate is about right. I think this decent opening day is due to the fact that there hasn't been a straight up comedy since Grown Ups. Despite how funny some people think Schmucks may be, I don't think there will be a lot of people coming back for seconds. The movie is okay, but this is the kind of movie that should have been exceptional for it to have been more successful.