Glory Road takes top spot.
Hey folks! Here are the box office totals for the weekend of January 13-15. This report does not include the Monday holiday.
January 16 Box Office Overview
1. Glory Road $13.6 million (1st week of release): As much as I hate these kind of movies, due to how unoriginal they are, the rest of America obviously disagrees with me because they continue to check them out. If you look back at past Disney films with similar themes like The Rookie, Remember the Titans and Miracle you’ll get an idea about why Disney continues to make these types of films despite how repetitive they are. The fact of the matter is these films are very inexpensive to make and due to the success sports movies have in general, like horror films, they tend to turn around a profit fairly fast; Glory Road is no exception. While Glory Road may not have had the $20 million opening the previously mentioned films did, $14 million is nothing to complain about, especially during a time when moviegoers aren’t out in full force. With fairly favorable reviews and a ton of hype going for it--thanks to the theme and timing of the release--Glory Road should have no problem reaching at least the $50 million mark by the time its run is over. They key to Glory Road’s success will be seen in the numbers for next week. Is this film good enough to keep it’s weekly drops low for the next couple of weeks or will it play out like Hostel and take a huge hit in its second week of release?
2. Last Holiday $12.8 million (1st week of release): As you’ll see in my box office predictions, the opening success of Last Holiday was a little bit of a surprise to me. Granted, I expected to make its debut in the top 5, but I never thought it would be able to knock Chronicles of Narnia out; yet it did. From the looks of it, Queen Latifa has just moved a step closer to A-List status. Sure, she may not due monster opening numbers like Julia Roberts or Cameron Diaz, but the fact that her name played a big part in scoring a film with little advertisement a $13 million opening needs to be congratulated. With movies that I thought would never so respectable she’s two for two, having done the same thing with Beauty Shop. As good of an opening as this was, I’m not too confident on the long term success. Look for Last Holiday to take a big drop next week, but with a production budget of only $45 million, it should be able to make its money back, albeit slowly.
3. Hoodwinked! $12.4 million ($12.4 million total): Here is a film that flew so low under the radar, I had no idea it was set to be released nationwide this week. Hoodwinked spent the past four weeks in limited release, had next to no advertising and still managed to gross $12 million. If I were the Weinstein’s I’d be pretty happy that it made that much, but still worried about the future. I’m a little puzzled about why this film wasn’t advertised more. The Weinstein brothers are just getting started in trying to make their new studio a successful one and you would figure they would want to get some kind of buzz out to bring the families out. With Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and Chronicles of Narnia going into the fourth and sixth weeks of release, the Weinstein’s should’ve pushed harder at the family audience. Perhaps they were a little worried about the PG rating that was attached to this film. There is no information about how much Hoodwinked cost to produce, but most CGI films run in the neighborhood of $70 million to produce, so Hoodwinked has a long way to go before it is deemed a success. Update: Hoodwinked had a production budget of $20 million.
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe $10 million ($261 million total): You knew it was going to happen. After ruling the top two spots for the past five weeks, Chronicles of Narnia was destined to take a dive. But was the drop a significant one? The answer to that is no. In its sixth week of release, Chronicles is still brining the crowds in despite a ton of competition. The film dropped only 35% from last week and the $10 million weekend total puts it only $3 million back from competing for the top spot. With a total gross of more than $260 million, the folks at Disney feel confident enough to go full steam ahead and make Chronicles of Narnia the next big franchise..
5. Hostel $9.9 million ($35 million total): If anyone thought Hostel was going to claim another week in the top spot, let me know, because I have some “magic” beans I can sell you as well. It’s very rare that a horror film can enjoy good business for more than two weeks. Aside from Scream and other franchise horror films, the majority tends to take a big drop in their second week and Hostel is no different. The film dropped 50% from last week, but still took in a respectable $10 million. In two weeks of release the film has totaled $35 million which is about seven times what it cost to produce it. Hostel should have a few more weeks left in the top 10 and should finish its run with around $50 million. If you wonder why these kinds of films keep coming out, look at how much Lions Gate has made off this film and you will begin to understand.
Fun with Dick and Jane
6. Fun with Dick and Jane $8.7 million ($92.6 million total)
7. King Kong $7.5 million ($203 million total)
8. Tristan and Isolde $6.6 million (1st week of release)
9. Brokeback Mountain $5.8 million ($30 million total)
10. Cheaper by the Dozen 2 $5 million ($73 million total)
With three new releases moving into the top five, someone had to go. After a month of battling it out with Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong finally took a major blow dropping 40% from last week and into the bottom 5. Still, despite the big drop, King Kong has so far grossed more than $203 million dollars which puts it closer to recouping the $207 million it cost to make. I guarantee you after the first couple of weeks of release, Universal was a little scared that might never happen.
Even though it also dropped into the bottom five, Sony got some good news about Fun with Dick and Jane. With only a 27% drop from last week, Fun with Dick and Jane moved closer to hitting the $100 million mark, which coincidentally, is what it cost to make. Like Universal, Sony can breathe a little easier now that they have a good shot of moving closer to the black.
Tristan and Isolde was the last new film to debut and with an unimpressive debut of $6.6 million, looks to be the first film that will be gone from the top ten by next week. Despite heavy advertising in the month leading up to its release, the film got drubbed by critics and audiences must’ve listened because they were nowhere in sight.
Box office predictions from last week:
1. Glory Road $17 million
2. The Chronicles of Narnia $13 million
3. King Kong $9 million
4. Hostel $9 million
5. Last Holiday $8 million
My faith in both Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong eventually got the best of me. For too long I counted on those two to claim at least two spots in the top 5, but I failed to consider that audiences were looking for some thing new to see. I figured that Glory Road was going to be the big winner, but didn’t think that Last Holiday or even Hoodwinked (which I forgot was even being released) was going to play a factor at all. My streak of picking the top five movies (mostly out of order….but they were all there) has finally come to end. Looks like it’s time to start another one!
Box office predictions for next week:
1. Underwolrd: Evolution $19 million
2. Hoodwinked $10 million
3. Glory Road $8 million
4. Last Holiday $7 million
5. The Chronicles of Narnia $7 million
Stay tuned for updates.
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