By Ryan Parsons | Image property of 20th Century Fox, Variety.
Night at the Museum
With 2007 now in full gear it is the family films of 2006 that continue to reign over the box office. Night at the Museum continues to easily hold the top spot with Will Smith's Pursuit of Happyness in second.
Night at the Museum, Happyness and Children Lead Box Office
Museum and Happness have been dominating the box office over the last three weekends. One a holiday comedy and one a drama, both films have enjoyed the fact that moviegoing families need to see movies too. Happyness may have had better reviews than Museum, but it looks like it is the kids who are making the decisions for 2007.
The only problem with having two films targeted at families at the top of the BO is that studios take notes and decide that hundreds more such films are in order.
Fortunately, it wasn't only the safe films to score over the weekend. Alfonso Cuaron's adaptation, Children of Men, was gnarly enough to take in $11.9 million with an expanded to release to just over 1200 theatres. The film's per-engagement average was $8,515, the highest of any film in the top 10 next to that of Dreamgirls. Solid numbers for a niche film surrounded by family. Cuaron has to appreciate the family genre, however, with his last film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
When entering my local theatre this weekend I encountered an intimidating line that I could only assume was for Pan's Labyrinth or Children of Men. Upon asking what film the line was for I was shocked to learn that Paramount's Freedom Writers, or what I like to call "Dangerous Minds 8", did find itself an audience. Who was standing in line? A bunch of high school kids from Huntington Beach that somehow figured they could relate to Long Beach. Fortunately for Paramount High School kids have money and they were enough to help the film take in $9.7 million and the fourth spot. Freedom Writers will have an expanded release next weekend with an addition of 700 screens.
With Museum and Happyness keeping the family audiences busy, Lionsgate's Happily N'Ever After came in at sixth with $6.8 million.
Cedric the Entertainer's Code Name: The Cleaner got no love from the critics and therefore none from audiences. Hard to say whether it was the chintz poster or the poor reviews, but the film opened to the number 10 spot with $4.6 million.
With only 852 locations, Dreamgirls continues to find audiences. The film continues to have the highest per-playdate average in the top 10 with $10,358.
Add to Heffee!
