What turned out to be, without a doubt, the dumbest, most worthless and least funny movie this weekend (and this month...possibly this year) went straight to the top. All that's left to do now is brace for the sight of Kevin Sorbo posing with a sword to his crotch followed by words that make me want to move to another country: "Meet The Spartans is the number one movie in America".
For this weekend I predicted Meet The Spartans and Cloverfield to be in each other's place in the top ten. Although I said Cloverfield would probably be back on top with Meet The Spartans bobbling around fourth place, somewhere deep down in my gut I think I knew better. I should have conceded that Spartans would be number one.
It was wishful thinking I guess, but as we know all too well, America loves to watch infantile crap passed off as spoof comedy. Why do we do it? Like our media's bizarre fascination with Britney Spears and our sad addiction to reality television, there's no rational explanation. It just is. Thomas Jefferson would no doubt weep at what we've chosen to do with our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
While Rambo's resurrection had few friends among critics, fans of the franchise turned out to give him a strong send off (at least I hope it's a send off -- surely Stallone doesn't have anymore of those films in him). Rambo took a close second with $18.1 million to Spartans' $18.7 million. There's some chance that those estimate numbers could be replaces with final tallies that put Rambo in the lead, but I'm not holding my breath.
Diane Lane's tech-thriller Untraceable broke into double digits with $11 million. While that's not terrible news, it's not good news either since the film's budget is at the $35 million mark. With a little help from international sales it might break even, but it's not good news for Lane's career as the headliner of thriller films. Her last effort in the genre, The Glass House, came in nearly $10 million under budget at the box office.
How She Move didn't quite break the top ten, missing the list by less than half a million dollars. There Will Be Blood, however, finally made its way in after five weeks of slowly widening releases. It will disappear just as quickly next week, but its nice to see a quality film getting at least a few moments in the box office sun.
For those of you following everyone's favorite indie comedy Juno, you'll be happy to note that it broke the $100 million mark this weekend. With the flurried onslaught of January crap still sleeting its way into theaters next weekend this may be the film's last week in the top ten, but it can't complain. It's had a wonderful financial ride that few films like it get to enjoy.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP TEN
January 25 - 27, 2008 |
LW = Last Week WR = Weeks Released
THTRS = Number of Screens
* Denotes new release.
Click on title to read CB Review |
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| 2. | Rambo * | $18,150,000 - Total: $18,150,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 2751 |
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| 3. | 27 Dresses | $13,600,000 - Total: $45,347,000 | LW: 2 WR: 2 THTRS: 3074 |
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| 4. | Cloverfield | $12,700,000 - Total: $64,294,000 | LW: 1 WR: 2 THTRS: 3411 |
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| 5. | Untraceable * | $11,200,000 - Total: $11,200,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 2368 |
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| 6. | Juno | $10,300,000 - Total: $100,152,000 | LW: 4 WR: 8 THTRS: 2426 |
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| 10. | Mad Money | $4,610,000 - Total: $15,284,000 | LW: 6 WR: 2 THTRS: 2470 |
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January 28th, 2008 at 14:03
On One hand this proves that people will watch any crap (Meet the Spartans) but it also proves that not everyone is stupid enough to be taken in by a lot of overblown hype about nothing (Cloverfield).