Yesterday, powered by audience superstition regarding its 6/6/6 release date, The Omen raked in $12,633,666 in ticket sales and recorded the biggest Tuesday opening in movie history. Alright that 666 at the end sounds a little suspicious, but that’s the number officially sent to us by the studio. There’s a better than average chance that they might have fudged that last part just a little bit.
How much is this record really worth? Surprisingly a lot. The Omen beats out such moneymaking heavyweights as Meet the Fockers, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Spider-Man 2, and Cast Away for all time highest Tuesday grosses. Meet the Fockers is Omen’s closest competitor with a $12.629 million opening, but The Omen had a much higher per screen average, since it was only released on 2600 screens as opposed to Fockers’ 3500..
Pixar’s next movie Cars opens this weekend, should they be concerned? Probably not. Odds are this is a one day surge for The Omen, powered by the coincidence of its release date rather than any massive and unexpected audience interest in it. Yet even if The Omen does give way to the powerhouse of Pixar’s Cars, it looks like Damien’s movie is well on the way to making quite a dent in this summer’s box office. The next few days will tell if this kind of performance continues, but for now you’ve all made Satan very happy.
