Drab ‘Earth’ Remake Nabs OK $31 Million
Klaatu returned to earth and audiences came to see him to the tune of $31 million in weekend estimates from Box Office Mojo. The Day the Earth Stood Still was estimated to do as high as $36 million but the mostly negative reviews no doubt caused 20th Century-Fox to revise those estimates. While good for first place, it still proved unexciting which does not bode well in coming weeks.
The other new release this week, Nothing Like the Holidays, was marked return to sender with just $3.5 million in box office receipts. Limited releases Gran Torino, with Clint Eastwood, and The Reader, with Kate Winslet, each had excellent per screen averages but the true test is when they go wide over the next few weeks.
The remaining top five releases saw Four Christmases continue to pack them in, grabbing an addition $13,270,000 for a three week total of $87,972,000. Third place went to Twilight which topped the $150 million total as tweens can’t get enough of the vampire romance. Bolt thrilled families, good for fourth place, and $7.5 million for the weekend. The romantic drama Australia took fifth place, with $4,285,000 but its steady decline, down 39.2%, means the $130 million film may prove a disappointment for Fox.
Other films trending down already, in a saturated market that will get fuller between now and New Year’s Day are Quantum of Solace, which has failed to captivate in the same way Casino Royale did. The movie is performing better overseas where 69.4% of its global take of $515,588,687 has originated. Cadillac Records is also looking soft with just $5,924,000 to show after two weeks.
There have been clear hits, too, with Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa making DreamWorks and Paramount very happy with its total haul of $170 million after the weekend. Slumdog Millionaire, which continues to roll out slowly across the country, has been earning accolades and awards, seeing its audiences grow. The $5 million film is likely to prove most profitable. Frost/Nixon and Milk both should see similar growth over the next month.
Golden Globes nominees did not see substantively increased audiences in the days following the announcement. Studios are hopeful people will flock to check out the winners come January.
Now that critics and audiences declared Punisher: War Zone DOA, it saw a 67.7% decline after one week and took in a mere $1.3 million.