They say in show business to be wary of working with children and animals. It's just bad news. Take Vin Diesel for example. His last big project was The Pacifier in which he worked with (or I should say, was horribly upstaged by) children and animals and his career hasn't seemed the same since. Anyway, the old saying proved itself right yet again this weekend when a movie chock full of animals in pairs took to the screen and took the top spot but still landed flat on its face.
Evan Almighty did the earn the right to call itself the #1 movie in America this weekend, but it was a small consolation since it was also set up to be one of the biggest financial flops of the year. You see, thanks to the wonder that is the ever decreasing American attention span, most movies have only their opening weekend to make the bulk of their money back. The $32 million that Evan raked in might seem like a good sum of money, but it's only a fraction of the $175 million budget spent to bring every animal by twos to an ark on screen. At this rate, unless international sales can step in to save the day, Evan will be lucky to break the $100 million mark, much less recover its costs.
The big question is whether or not Evan deserved to do any better. Critics have been less than enthusiastic in their response to the movie and it looks like most theater goers aren't too thrilled either. I imagine there might be an element of movie fatigue in there as well. After all, this has been the summer of a thousand huge blockbuster sequels and audiences might have been looking forward to staying in for the weekend and spending some quality time with the television (or, in the case of a few, actually getting outdoors and doing something in the fresh air).
Thriller film 1408 only took in $20 million to land in the number two spot, but it's producers are a much happier crowd. With a simple $25 million budget that will be easily earned back by the end of the week, and with much higher praise from critics it's the real winner this weekend. Angelin Jolie's much debated A Mighty Heart was also a favorite with reviewers but failed to capture audience's attention. It barely made the top ten this week with $4 million. For the full weekend box office top ten see the chart below.
Next weekend John McClane will go head to head with Pixar. Unfortunately for John, Pixar's Ratatouille has a really cute mouse and his Live Free or Die Hard has a PG-13 rating. It will be a tough call for who will end up on top, but expect the family friendly mouse to beat out the family friendly McClane. For those interested in a calmer movie with an amazingly all star cast, check your listings. Evening will fall in a limited 900 theaters.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP TEN June 22 - 24, 2007
LW = Last Week WR = Weeks Released THTRS = Number of Screens * Denotes new release. Click on title to read CB Review
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