Box Office - 'Schmucks' Fades, 'Inception' Wins Again

Dinner for Schmucks couldn't keep the heat on Inception over the course of three days, and wound up finishing the weekend in second place. We thought that would probably happen; the lead after Friday was neglible and given the advantage Inception had in the number of theaters and its terrific holds in the first two weeks, it just looked like it was headed to a third straight win. That is, in fact, what has happened. Inception earned enough on Saturday and Sunday to pull ahead of Schmucks for its third victory, and a very healthy $190 million-plus after just over two weeks in theaters. We mentioned yesterday that the end of the road is north of $250 million for this one, but I won't predict a $300 million total at this point. It'll be close, though. Probably about $225 after next weekend, so there's a slim chance that could happen. As for Schmucks, it didn't get enough of a push after Friday to knock over the Christopher Nolan-Leonardo DiCaprio effort. For that, we'll need to wait for Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in The Other Guys next weekend. That ought to do about the same business, maybe better, but Inception will drop to below $20 million, so it's an easier road. Somebody's going to have to tell me where the $62 million budget went, though, because on the screen, Schmucks looks like it shouldn't have cost more than half that much, certainly not more than $40 million. So that makes its overall profitability tougher to negotiate. $62 million? Really? Salt took third place for the weekend, didn't drop 50% from its debut, and is now at $70 million. Again, a big enough budget that Sony can't rely on just the opening weekend to gauge whether or not this could be a hit. But it should top $125 million, and that's a good start given what Angelina Jolie will probably mean to the overseas business. The week's other two new releases - Cats & Dogs and Charlie St. Cloud - didn't do well, combining for less money than Inception made in its third frame. That probably hurts Cats & Dogs more, because it's something like a franchise, it has 3-D ticket prices, and it cost $85 million. Won't even come close to making that back in the US. Charlie cost about half that much but still shouldn't make back its budget based on a $12 million start. Off in the distance is Toy Story 3, which placed seventh, and with a $5 million weekend is now at $390 million total. Here's only the third $400 million movie since The Dark Knight, joining Avatar and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. More importantly, it's bound to be one of the top ten films all-time in the US. The Top Five:
1 - Inception ($27.5 million)
2 - Dinner for Schmucks ($23.3 million)
3 - Salt ($19.2 million)
4 - Despicable Me ($15.5 million)
5 - Cats & Dogs ($12.5 million)

Comments

[Anonymous]

I think there were cast and director fees involved with Schmucks. Plus, despite the mediocre quality of the comedy, it had good production value in terms of camera work and lighting and such. It won't reach 100M, though.