It took a three time Academy Award nominated director and two Academy Award winning actors to break the Fall $40 million mark, breaking the post-summer doldrums and announcing that the winter holiday hits are on their way. American Gangster hauled in a generous $46 million to take the number one spot on the weekend. Of course, the real gamble here wasn't whether or not this movie would turn a tidy profit (though that might be a struggle with all those powerhouse salaries) but whether or not anyone involved might get another Oscar nom out of it.
Meanwhile, Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie, which weighed in with a hefty budget of $150 million (just $10 million shy of animated budget record holder Shrek The Third), splattered itself all over the box office windshield at second place with an unexciting $39 million. DreamWorks was probably hoping for a slightly stronger opening as the movie is likely to die fast in the wake of all those holiday films that begin rolling out next week.
New Line, who hasn't had much success with hit movies this year, struck out again with the sweet but sloppy Martian Child. The film rolled into seventh place overall, right behind The Game Plan, an awful movie that has somehow kept itself in the box office ten for six weeks now.
For the full weekend totals check out the chart below.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP TEN November 2 - 4, 2007
LW = Last Week WR = Weeks Released THTRS = Number of Screens * Denotes new release. Click on title to read CB Review
Comment on “Weekend Box Office - American Gangster”
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With the little comment about AG's biggest question always being whether or not anyone involved will get an Oscar nomination, it appears you folks at this site are a tad bitter. After all the reviewers here actually gave better reviews to lame ducks such as Rendition, We Own the Night and Dan In Real Life (Five stars? Really?) But rest assured American Gangster will not only keep piling up the dough much to your dismay, it will get a slew of Oscar nominations. You see the Academy will definitely not overlook what will likely be the highest grossing serious drama of the fall season. Particularly one that got mostly good reviews and has distinguished folks both in front and behind the camera. Multiple acting nominations are definite to happen but nominations for script, movie and director have a more than 50% chance of happening even if there are more worthy candidates. But maybe if you guys get lucky perhaps someone in the Academy will agree with your assessent of Dan In Real Life and nominate it for, um, something.
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November 5th, 2007 at 13:48
It is an excellent movie, I think that Mr. Washington should get an award for this role, he played it true to life.