Weekend Box Office: Funny People Tops Not So Funny Guinea Pigs

By Scott Gwin: 2009-08-02 21:45:35

The last time someone handed Judd Apatow a budget to direct a movie it was for the amount of $30 million. For that he managed a cast which included one not-quite-a-name-yet actor Seth Rogen and a Grey's-Anatomy-problem-child Katherine Heigl. This time around someone gave Apatow a hefty $75 million and told him to go out and get some names. Apatow landed the now big-name Rogen and the usually bankable Adam Sandler but in return got a lukewarm reception at the box office.

Apatow's Funny People was the top film over the weekend, but with only $23 million it's not quite a victory yet. The movie has another $50 million to bank to get out of the red, a sum that might be rough given the film's R rating and stiff competition over the next couple of weekends from other movies playing to Funny People's target audience.

But Apatow should consider himself lucky. Aliens in the Attic director John Schultz is in a much hotter seat as his $45 million film only banked $7 million for a weak fifth place opening. This is the second miserable flop in a row for Schultz whose 2005 debacle The Honeymooners only earned $13 million total against its paltry $25 million budget.

Horror venture The Collector opened this weekend as well, but missed the top ten by a cool million. In eleventh place it lost out to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which dropped sharply from sixth place last week to tenth place this week. That action sequel remains the top movie of the year so far with $388 million. Don't look for anything else this summer to top it, but with the purportedly revolutionary Avatar looming at the end of the year there's some buzz it could steal the title away from the robots in disguise.

Check out the full top ten chart below.