Box Office - $63 Million for 'Madagascar'

It was a tremendous weekend for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, as the animated sequel absolutely dominated the box office with a three-day total of $63 million, according to estimates released by Box Office Mojo. That was more than even the biggest estimates, and it was a $27 million Saturday - a 56% increase over Friday - that really sealed the deal. Madagascar now has the fourth-biggest opening of 2008, and I think you can guess the top three.But that was not the only film making big money this weekend. Role Models, an R-rated comedy with Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, had a very consistent weekend, although in a much lower tax bracket, and took home just shy of $20 million. It has already caught up to Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which has only made $20 million in ten days, and will struggle to clear $40 million. Role Models, on the other hand, should break the $50 million mark by the time it's said and done.The other new R-rated comedy, Soul Men, tanked, drawing just $5.6 million and finishing out of the top five. It will be interesting to see how strong Madagascar's second weekend is when it faces much stronger competition from Quantum of Solace.The Top Five:1 - Madagascar ($63 million)
2 - Role Models ($19.2 million)
3 - High School Musical ($9.5 million)
4 - Changeling ($7.2 million)
5 - Zack and Miri ($6.5 million)

Box Office - 'Madagascar' Roars with $17 Million on Friday

Audiences escaped 2 Madagascar on Friday, driving its domestic box office receipts to $17.4 million, according to Box Office Mojo. On Thursday, we estimated that the film would make $49 million, and if the Friday trend holds, it should do significantly better than that. Of course, over the past couple of months, what we've seen out of most new releases is that they aren't always following the Friday trend.

Steve Mason at Fantasy Moguls has the sequel doing upwards of $58 million, which I still think is a little high. If I were allowed to readjust my prediction based on this first number, I'd say $54 million. The main thing is that the movie did what it was supposed to do, which can't be said of everything that's new in theaters. Soul Men, the new Samuel L. Jackson-Bernie Mac comedy, is bombing. We expected the film to top $10 million this weekend, and that's not going to happen. It didn't even make $2 million on opening day, which is a shame - because Bernie Mac is sincerely funny in his final role - and a big surprise. Role Models, the week's other new comedy, did significantly better than anyone expected, taking in almost $7 million on Friday.

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Movie Review - 'Soul Men'

Soul Men Starring Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson Directed by Malcolm D. Lee Rated R

The f-bomb is one of the most powerful and versatile words in the English language. It can connote sex, anger, frustration, surprise, excitement, and devastation and it can do so as a noun, verb, and adjective. The f-bomb is fully exercised in the new comedy Soul Men, put through its paces by Samuel L. Jackson, one of the samurai masters of its usage, and Bernie Mac, who punctuates the majority of his sentences with it. I have no particular issue with the word, though I confess that it can sometimes be a distraction in movies. Jackson’s Formula 51 overused it, and there were moments in the recent Pride and Glory where it felt a little taxed. I don’t believe either one of those movies uses the f-bomb as often as Soul Men, but the key is that they didn’t use it as well. At times, Soul Men is as funny as it is bawdy. That doesn’t mean it’s a great movie, because it's not, almost exclusively because of the things we don't need, the things not named Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson. They play The Real Deal, former backup singers and musicians for Marcus Hooks (John Legend) when the Stax and Motown sounds were ruling the charts. Hooks went solo in the mid-70s, and The Real Deal put out one album before calling it quits. Floyd (Mac) opened a successful chain of car washes and Louis (Jackson) opened a less-than-successful life of addiction and theft. Out of the blue, their old frontman shrugs off his mortal coil, and The Real Deal is asked to reunite for one show only, at a televised tribute taking place at the legendary Apollo. The movie would be no fun if both Floyd and Louis thought this was the best idea they’ve ever heard, so naturally, Louis is opposed to it and it takes a great deal of arm-twisting to get The Real Deal on the road again.

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Fearless Forecast - Mad Money for 'Madagascar'

And so begins a big month of box office activity that could beat December totals when all is said and done. We have three big releases this weekend, only one of which will make a huge chunk of change, and then with Quantum of Solace, Bolt, and Twilight all with blockbuster potential, November is like a second May, the last month that saw big movie after big movie after big movie.It all starts with Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. I've seen some really high projections for this flick, some ballooning up to $60 million on its opening weekend. But what I haven't seen is a lot of advertising, certainly not as much as Quantum of Solace, which opens next week. I have no doubt that it will do well, both this weekend and over the long haul, but $60 million seems a bit high to me. Consider this: The first movie opened in third place on Memorial Day weekend back in 2005 with $47 million, albeit against a lot of competition (Star Wars, The Longest Yard). But even though it will easily take a victory lap this weekend, only six movies have opened north of $60 million in 2008, and this doesn't exactly have that aura.The good news for Madagascar is that it's opening against a couple of very adult-oriented comedies that have modest expectations - Role Models and Soul Men. Role Models is getting great reviews, actually, but probably doesn't have any real staying power. That's tougher to find for comedies, anyway. Soul Men will draw a slightly bigger crowd at first because of the passing of Bernie Mac, but it, too, will struggle after about the second weekend. I think you'd be generous to say that either one of those movies will have a total box office greater than Madagascar's output in just its first three days.As for the movies already in theaters, the only real story is how close Eagle Eye will get to becoming another $100 million movie for Shia LaBeouf. It's already made $93 million, believe it or not. The rest of them, from Zack and Miri to High School Musical, have pretty much done most of their damage. Changeling is the only film among that group that could still be doing decent business in another couple of weeks, because it draws a much older crowd that will see something they really want to see three weeks late rather than spending money on something just because it's new.The Top Five:

1 - Madagascar ($49 million)
2 - Soul Men ($12.5 million)
3 - High School Musical ($10 million)
4 - Role Models ($9.5 million)
5 - Changeling ($6.5 million)

Last week, our predictions were thrown off by Halloween night. We apologize for not taking that into consideration. Still, we got the order exactly right, knowing that High School Musical would outdraw Zack and Miri. Our totals for the top three films were off considerably because of the Friday night hiccup, but we finished strong, predicting where The Haunting of Molly Hartley would wind up and suggesting - against the objections of our readers, by the way - that Changeling would do $9 million.

Trailer - 'Soul Men' with Samuel L. Jackson and the Late Bernie Mac

It was indeed sad to hear that both Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes had passed away so suddenly and within 36 hours of each other. Then I learned, as many others did, that they're both in Soul Men, which opens this November. The title is a tip of that to the song "Soul Man," of course, but how many people knew that's actually an Isaac Hayes tune? Sam & Dave performed it back in the 1960s, though to the majority of us, the version recorded by The Blues Brothers is the one stuck in our heads from time to time. Making it all the more bittersweet is that the movie is about a pair of singers who reunite 20 years after their last performance to honor the memory of their former bandleader, who has just passed away. There's a trailer for the film now, which co-stars Samuel L. Jackson and is directed by Spike's cousin, Malcolm D. Lee. Here it is, fresh from Trailer Addict: Soul Men will open on November 7th. And yes, that is the recently departed Don LaFontaine voicing that trailer, if my ears don't deceive me.