During a crowded weekend of holiday newcomers, Marley and Me won the hearts of family audiences to become the top dog at the box office. The PG-rated adaptation of the bestselling novel made an estimated $37 million over the 3-day weekend from Friday to Sunday after a record-breaking Christmas Day $14.7 million.
The previous Christmas record, set by Ali in 2002, was also broken by the second and third place new openers, awards contender The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ($12 million) and Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories ($10.5 million).
The two titles flipped after the holiday and Sandler’s movie (also PG) edged into the second spot with $28.1 million over the weekend. Brad Pitt’s backwards-aging love story earned $27 million.
In fourth was Tom Cruise’s producing and starring vehicle, Valkyrie, which performed above expectations with $21.5 million over the weekend and an $8.5 million Christmas. The shuffled release dates and poor early reviews didn’t seem to deter many people from the WWII epic, a good sign for the flailing stardom of Cruise and his restart company United Artists.
Rounding out the top five was Jim Carrey’s Yes Man with $16.5 million and a total since last weekend of $49.6 million. I guess I was the only one who wasn’t a fan of it.
The only soft opening was Frank Miller’s The Spirit with only $6.5 million. It’s particularly bad considering it is almost a mirror image of Sin City which opened to five times that amount during a slow April and contained similar star power. I’m still not sure why Lionsgate tried to slide it in with all the other Christmas debuts. This one goes in the “failure” column for the comic book genre.
In the specialty markets, the reunion of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road earned a per theater average of $64,000 in each of its three locations, the best PTA of 2008.
link to article....
http://newsinfilm.com/I had and have no intentions to see this movie, I also didnt expect it to have such a huge impact.
-T.ROSS PRODUCTIONS
February 08, 2008, 06:52:23 AM
