America was more depressed this weekend than I could have guessed. Only the haze of post-holiday blues could have driven audiences to see what the first, and quite possibly worst, movie of 2008. How bad was the movie? One Missed Call has achieved a distinguished honor on the esteemed Rotten Tomatometer at 0% with over 30 reviewers contributing their revulsion. That's a distinction of awfulness no movie managed in 2007.
Despite the fact that the movie looked completely disappointing from the first moment trailers hit the internet, audiences turned out to hand it an unbelievable $13.5 million on its opening weekend, putting it in the number five spot. That wasn't enough to unseat the December powerhouses National Treasure: Book of Secrets, I Am Legend and Alvin and the Chipmunks, which nabbed first, second and fourth places respectively. Check out the chart below for the full weekend totals.
Book of Secrets was number one for the third week making it one of only two films of 2007 to manage the feat (Disturbia mysteriously pulled it off as well back in April).
Juno performed admirably in its wide release debut. Doubling to nearly 2000 screens this weekend, the quirky comedy raked in $16.2 million to sneak its way into the number three spot, just outing Alvin, Simon and Theodore. But the furry little guys don't have any room to complain: they're well on their way to topping $200 million and securing a spot in the top ten movies of 2007.
On a note of personal satisfaction for most of us at Cinema Blend, Alien vs. Predator - Requiem disappeared from the top ten after only one week on the chart. At number eleven for the weekend the movie has pulled in less that $60 million internationally. Unless an unforeseen group of international AvP fanatics crops up, the film is doomed to financial failure where the box office is concerned. We can only hope that means no future butchering of the franchises anytime soon.
Because movies released late in the year don't wrap up their earnings until well into January, it's hard to guarantee who's where in the year-end box office top ten, especially when latecomers like I Am Legend and National Treasure 2 are still making enough cash to move things around in the chart. Be sure to check in a few weeks when we declare the box office winners of 2007.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP TEN
January 4 - 6, 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. | I Am Legend | $16,300,000 - Total: $228,638,000 | LW: 3 WR: 4 THTRS: 3648 |
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| 3. | Juno | $16,225,000 - Total: $52,032,000 | LW: 5 WR: 5 THTRS: 1925 |
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| 10. | Atonement | $5,124,000 - Total: $19,216,000 | LW: 14 WR: 5 THTRS: 583 |
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