Monday, February 19, 2007

Box Office Bombings: Box Office Breakdown 2/19/07

If someone is riding on a ghost bridge, it can only mean one thing: the weekend box office, released today, Monday 2/19/07 - Dead President's Day edition

1. Ghost Rider
Last Week Rank: N/A
Weekend Gross: $44.5 million
Total Gross: $44.5 million
Weeks Out: 1
Musings: Not surprisingly, the film that people were actually anticipating finally came out and thankfully has grossed higher than that Norbit crap. To be fair though, the film has also been pegged as cheesy, and downright dialogue sappy. Also low on plot but real big on special effects. Apparently Nicholas Cage acts circles around Eva Mendes, which is neither as hot nor as difficult as that sounds. Oh well, at least Marvel's happy.

2. Bridge To Terabithia
Last Week Rank: N/A
Weekend Gross: $22.1 million
Total Gross: $22.1 million
Weeks Out: 1
Musings: This is a strong weekend for the box office (also President's Day weekend) and Terabithia was part of it. To me this film seemed like a crappy ripoff of Narnia, which in itself did not interest me enough to see it though I was familiar with Narnia as a kid. However, the reviews have been positive on a level that says the film itself does more justice to the book than the previews suggest and that it's a family film that treats kids' issues like real life does. Gasp, a fantasy film has a better grasp on children's problems then normal family films? And Disney gets a little richer.

3. Norbit
Last Week Rank: 1st
Weekend Gross: $16.8 million
Total Gross: $58.9 million
Weeks Out: 2
Musings: Look I'm glad it dropped two spots but I won't be satisfied until it's off the map. If this was the summer time, this thing would fall faster than Bush's approval ratings. It took two bigger budget films just to push this down and it's going to unfortunately take even more to submerge it. Maybe Jim Carrey can do the trick next week, but Murphy is on my hate list until he attempts to redeem himself in Shrek The Third.

4. Music And Lyrics
Last Week Rank: N/A
Weekend Gross: $14 million
Total Gross: $19.5 million
Weeks Out: 1
Musings: Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore...if you're still reading you have more of a stomach than I do. Grant is a likeable annoyance only because he's English (the guy pulled an Affleck but got away with it) [AE Note: What does that mean?] and Barrymore's last good film? The Wedding Singer, because it was also one of the only good things Adam Sandler ever did. This combo would drive me nuts, and apparently Grant is a singer and Barrymore writes the lyrics. Grant singing, Barrymore writing, this is like a lethal combo of bad movie.

5. Daddy's Little Girls
Last Week Rank: N/A
Weekend Gross: $12.1 million
Total Gross: $17.8 million
Weeks Out: 1
Musings: Tyler Perry makes a movie without a fat black woman...I think. Look either way that makes it leaps and bounds better than Norbit. However, when I read the synopsis, I see just about zero plot. Let's not make movies for the sake of making movies, a guy taking care of his three daughters is about as interesting as watching astro turf grow.

6. Breach
Last Week Rank: N/A
Weekend Gross: $10.4 million
Total Gross: $10.4 million
Weeks Out: 1
Musings: Wow, lot of new movies out this week, huh? The film is about an FBI double-agent who was also working for the Russians (true story). While this is an engaging story as it really happened, it doesn't have much oomph to it, as evidenced by its 6th place opening. Plus when you tell me Ryan Phillippe is in a film, my ears don't exactly perk up in interest.

7. Hannibal Rising
Last Week Rank: 2nd
Weekend Gross: $5.5 million
Total Gross: $22.1 million
Weeks Out: 2
Musings: More like Hannibal Falling! Yeah I couldn't resist. Seems like everyone who wanted to see this one did, and it dropped like a rock from 2nd to 7th. Expect this one to rest comfortably out of reach next week. This should stop them from making any more of these films and stop soiling the name of Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. I hear Foster locked herself in a panic room to escape this film and Hopkins is preparing a very tasteful voiceover.

8. Because I Said So
Last Week Rank: 3rd
Weekend Gross: $5 million
Total Gross: $33.2 million
Weeks Out: 3
Musings: Gah, this is still here, again another one likely to fall out of the top 10. Please stop making these kinds of movies. I know it's too much to ask to not make sappy, redundant, useless romantic comedies, especially ones with aging actresses who can't seem to find any project that's actually interesting, engaging, or makes the audience feel like they're escaping reality...you know, the reason people see movies in the first place? It's about entertainment, people!

9. The Messengers
Last Week Rank: 4th
Weekend Gross: $3.8 million
Total Gross: $30.5 million
Weeks Out: 3
Musings: Yeah this is so very toast. Another cookie-cutter horror film that piqued everyone's interest for all of 5 seconds. If I showed you the last 20 horror films to come out in previews, side by side, I wonder how many of them you could actually identify the title. Wait a minute, cookie-cutter horror film? Someone call Sesame Street, I got an idea for a muppet serial killer...

10. Night At The Museum
Last Week Rank: 5th
Weekend Gross: $3.7 million
Total Gross: $237.3 million
Weeks Out: 9
Musings: The Oscar candidate films are gone, and all that remains of December is this film, the eternal Night that never ends. It looks like it finally might though, as it stands on the threshold of DVD land. Of course we all know that once a Ben Stiller film leaves theaters, you must immediately begin promoting the next one. I'm afraid to even ask what it is.[AE Note: Among Stiller's upcoming movie list? A Hardy Boys update with Tom Cruise.] But remember, it's always darkest before dawn.

-Gonch

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