To the surprise of no one, Dreamworks’ “Monsters Vs. Aliens” scored a decisive #1 bow, scoring $58.2 million in receipts. The kiddie hit registered the year’s biggest opening numbers, besting the WB’s “Watchmen,” but they still might need a little bit of legwork to register a success. Indeed, the Hollywood accounting system is screwy like this, with “Monsters” opening on 4,000+ theaters, rendering the opening a tad less impressive considering how the film flooded the market. It registered a less-than-muscular $14k per theater average, distressing in the wake of Dreamworks’ $60 million opening for “Kung Fu Panda” last year. Kid films do tend to have legs, though, and the 3D gimmick will give the film maybe one or two additional weekends, but its easy to see 3D champion Jeffrey Katzenberg a bit upset about these numbers.
Crowing with delight are Lionsgate, who continue to score well with genre efforts. After their dismal ’08, which closed with dual superhero failures “Punisher War Zone” and “The Spirit,” they’ve found their footing in ’09 with “My Bloody Valentine 3D,” “Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail” and now “A Haunting In Connecticut,” which debuted nicely with $23 million. The horror gamble has paid off handsomely in the new year, with “Haunting” and “Valentine” sharing space with fellow genre hits “The Unborn,” “The Last House On The Left,” “The Univited,” “Friday the 13th” and “Confessions of a Shopaholic.” There’s a message here about how much people love watching grotesque, cheap violence onscreen, but we pretty much just said it, didn’t we? Falling to #3 was last week’s #1 “Knowing,” which took a solid 40% drop to gather up $14.7 million, running its total to $46 million… but what happens when the numbers run out???
“I Love You Man” posted the smallest audience drop in the top ten, grossing $12.6 million at #4, creating false hope that a sequel will find Jason Segel and Paul Rudd eventually facing the truth about their forbidden affair. At #5, “Duplicity” brought in $7.6 million in receipts, giving the film a little under $26 million in total. Jeff Wells’ spread a rumor this weekend that the movie set the studio back $80 million, so if that’s true, poor Clive Owen might not be the best stock to invest in if you’re playing the leading man odds in Hollywood. Debuting at #7 with $5.3 million was “Speed” “Die Hard With A Vengeance”“12 Rounds,” yet another nail in the coffin for WWE Films, an outfit probably best suited to direct-to-DVD films right now.
1. Republicans Vs. Immigrants- $58.2 million
2. The Haunting Of Connecticut- $23 million
3. Knowing- $14.7 million
4. I Love You, Man- $12.6 million
5. Duplicity- $7.6 million
6. Race To Witchy Woman- $5.6 million
7. 12 Rounds- $5.3 million
8. Watchmen- $2.8 million
9. Taken- $2.7 million
10. The Last House On The Left- $2.6 million
Nah, these numbers are pretty solid. You can’t really compare it with Kung Fu Panda because that opened in June.
There a lot of reason for optimism here because it’s March Break and the kiddies may go mid-week (or parents/babysitters may take them) and then you have the long Easter Weekend.
I think we’ll have to wait to see if it has staying power. If it does, and I actually think it will, then $60 million will probably be the new benchmark for these types of animated films.
Given its strong opening weekend, I think it’s too soon to consider this disappointing. It’s actually within industry forecasts: $55 to $60 million.
Next weekend will be the true test (and maybe mid-week).
I guess my point was, it did what it had to do.