By Vince Palomarez | Images propterty of Warner Bros
Wonka's factory is still the golden ticket
Here is the weekly Box office totals and analysis for the weekend of July 22-24:
Box Office Report
1.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ($28.3 million, total
gross: $114 million): Despite dropping 50% from last week Charlie
held on to the top spot for the second week in a row. This can only be seen
as a positive for Warner Bros. as the studio seemed a little worried about
how moviegoers would react to a darker version of a classic movie. Even
though it took a huge drop from last week the film managed to go over the
$100 million barrier studios use to determine if a film is a success or
not. Look for Charlie to continue to fall fast, but take enough
in at the box office to stay in the top 5 for a few more weeks.
2. The Wedding
Crashers ($26.2 million, total gross: $80.9): Wow. If
you would of told me that this movie would finish in the #2 spot for the
second week in a row and only drop 23% from last week I would've asked you
for some of those drugs you were taking cause I would've never believed
you . Great news for both Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn who are going to
be laughing all the way to the back as this film will hold strong for a
few more weeks and should hit the $100 million mark later this week.
3. Fantastic Four
($12.2 million, total gross $122.5 million): Looks like this film is following
the path of your typical summer blockbuster with no legs. Strong opening
weekend, followed by 50% drops each additional weekend. If Fox is looking
for any kind of positive sign you could point that it only dropped 46% from
last week so it maybe bought itself a little more time and a little more
money. Although a total gross of $122.5 million is definitely not a bad
thing for a movie that got mediocre reviews and alienated a lot of comic
book fans. Look for Fantastic Four to drop out of the top 5 next week and
eventually out of theaters.
4. The Island
($12.1 million, opening weekend): Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you
the first big flop of the 05 Summer Season. With all the hype, a A-List
director, big name cast and no major competition this weekend, The Island
was almost guaranteed the top spot at the box office……too bad things don't
always go as planned. A slew of bad reviews and negative hype really got
this film off to a bad start. For a $122 million dollar film $12 million
is an unacceptable first week. This can't be seen as a good sign for Michael
Bay whose first film away from Jerry Bruckheimer looks like a total disaster.
It will be a miracle if this film manages to even get close to $75 million
domestically. Maybe some decent word of mouth can keep it afloat a little
longer, but if the majority of audiences saw what I saw, you can kiss this
film goodbye.
5. Bad News Bears
($11.5 million, opening weekend): Hollywood loves their remakes. This is
the third of four films this summer to be a remake of either a television
show or previously released movie and while not being the blockbuster The
Longest Yard ($155 million) was it certainly isn't the dud that Bewitched
($58 million) is. $11.5 million isn't a great opening weekend, but despite
negative reviews and with a budget of only $35 million this film will eventually
make it's money back….albeit very slowly. You kind of had to figure this
was going to happen due to the fact that there was almost no promotion for
this movie until a month before its release. That's usually a good sign
at how well a studio thinks their movie will perform.
The rest of the pack: The weekends other new releases,
Hustle and Flow and The
Devil's Rejects couldn't muster up big box office numbers,
but managed to make enough money to consider them successful. Hustle
and Flow's take of $8 million was good enough to recoup its production
budget ($2.5 million) while also making a decent prophet along the way.
Rob Zombies The Devil's Rejects on the other hand pretty much broke
even in terms of box office take ($7 million) and production budget (also
$7 million). Look for both films to languish on the bottom half of the top
10 for a few weeks, but still make enough money to keep a lengthy run at
theaters.
Stealth steps up to plate.
Rounding out the top 10 are two juggernauts that continue to rake in the
money despite being released more than a month ago and a little documentary
that is making a killing despite showing in only a limited amount of theaters.
War of the Worlds
($8.8 million) managed to break the $200 million mark in only four weeks
in theaters while Batman
Begins ($4.7 million) in its sixth week of release continues
to stay alive on eventually on its way to also breaking the $200 million
mark. One interesting note has to be the documentary March of the Penguins.
Only being released in 695 theaters the film managed to take in $4.3 million
this week and should continue to be the sleeper hit of the summer as its
theater count increases each week.
Overall though the total box office is down again after a two week increase
compared to last year. Studios are clinging to hope that the action thriller
Stealth
can do what The Island failed to do and bring the total box office
back up again. With only one mass marketed movie (Stealth) and
two fairly unknowns (The romantic comedy Must Love Dogs and the
family film Sky High),
studios should expect another poor weekend
Box office Prediction for next weekend:
1. Stealth $38 million
2. Must Love Dogs $22 million
3. Wedding Crashers $17 million
4. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory $14 million
5. Sky High $13 million
6. The Island $7 million
7. Fantastic Four $6 million
8. Hustle and Flow $5 million
9. Bad News Bears $5 million
10. War of the Worlds $4 million
Agree, disagree? Send me an e-mail (vince@canmag.com)
and let me know your thoughts.
Wonka's factory is still the golden ticket
Stealth steps up to plate.
Add to Heffee!
