Tagged: Associated Press

For the second week in a row  Will Ferrell is the top box-office draw as Blades of Glory remained the highest-grossing picture of the holiday weekend, according to the Associated Press.  The film took in $23 million, followed by Disney’s animated Meet the Robinsons with $17 million.  Ice Cube’s Are We Done Yet was third, with $15 million.

Grindhouse, the hilarious send-up of B-movies made by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, earned $11.6 million, according to early estimates.  This is considered to be a disappointing showing, as it was expected to top the box office with grosses in the $27 million range. 

"With these two filmmakers’ pedigree and the overall cool factor that this film had going for it, you would have figured it would have done a lot more business," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.  However, with a three-hour-plus length, the movie could be shown only half as often as the other films.

Grindhouse played to big crowds on the East and West coasts but failed to click with audiences in the Midwest and South, Weinstein said.

With theatrical receipts, overseas sales, television and home-video revenues, Grindhouse"will turn a profit on its $53 million budget, Weinstein said. The company hoped that word of mouth from those who did see it would sustain it at theaters in coming weeks, he said.