WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Fast Hannah, Furious Diesel

The first time I was ever asked to write a box office report was around this same time last year. I had to report how Miley Cyrus and her alter ego, Hannah Montana, had broken new ground for 3D pictures and concert flicks alike when the BEST OF BOTH WORLDS concert took in over $31 million in what was supposed to be a limited engagement. Taking advantage of the Easter weekend, Disney has unleashed the Cyrus’s first big screen adventure, HANNAH MONTANA THE MOVIE, and proved that you don’t need to lie about limited runs to get people out on opening weekend.


Box office prognosticators debated all week whether HANNAH MONTANA THE MOVIE would be able to topple last week’s unexpected juggernaut, FAST AND FURIOUS. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker may appeal to the ladies out there but the ladies are no match for tween girls. FAST AND FURIOUS managed an almost respectable 60% drop this weekend but its fate was officially sealed when HANNAH MONTANA debuted to $17 million, the biggest opening day ever for a G-rated non-animated film. That one day accounted for 50% of the final weekend gross and allowed America’s newest underage sweetheart to easily slide past F&F’s $28 million. In other holdover news, MONSTERS VS. ALIENS performed strongly in its third week, thanks surely to many kids having Friday off.


Audiences and critics were essentially split on whether OBSERVE AND REPORT was horrifically offensive or hilarious. Either way, this latest Seth Rogen vehicle is his weakest opening besides last fall’s disappointment, ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO. The bad press on this one will likely ring louder than those who actually enjoyed it given the gravity of how offensive it has the potential to be so a quick decline is to be expected. Even though it did debut higher than ZACK AND MIRI, I would expect OBSERVE AND REPORT to gross less in the long run. The week’s only other Top 10 debut belonged to DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION. None too surprisingly, the film fizzled but it had already made over $25 million internationally prior to this domestic release so all is not lost.


The week’s best per screen average belonged to ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL. This well received rockumentary tells the story of two Canadian buddies who made a promise to rock out forever together and have never gone back on that promise. Playing on three screens in all of North America, the film pulled in a decent $11K average. Meanwhile, quirky indie, LYMELIFE, starring Alec Baldwin and Rory Culkin, pulled in an average of over $7K on four screens.

NEXT WEEK: CRANK:HIGH VOLTAGE (2200 screens) will try to make as much as money as possible before its heart explodes; and even though STATE OF PLAY (2700 screens) boasts a cast including Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Helen Mirren, I’m pretty sure none of them have as much appeal these days Mr. High School Musical himself, Zac Efron, whose first major starring vehicle, 17 AGAIN debuts on over 3000 screens. Screaming girls everywhere will flock to see him; I may join them.

Source: Box Office Mojo

It isn’t exactly foreign, or alien if you will, to see an animated feature come out on top of the chart with massive numbers. This specific debut though certainly packed a particularly monstrous wallop. Dreanworks’ MONSTERS VS. ALIENS is Dreamworks’ second biggest opening for an animated film after last summer’s KUNG-FU PANDA. It is the third best March opening after Zach Snyder’s 300 and the second installment in the ICE AGE series. More importantly though, MONSTERS VS. ALIENS establishes the viability and profitability of the budding 3D market. Representing just 28% of the entire theatre count, 3D screens amassed 58% of the final weekend gross and will inevitably get all of Hollywood talking about the future of the cinema.


The box office saw two other Top 10 debuts this week. The first is yet another horror film, THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT. Despite its certainly impressive debut, it will likely sink down the same route as the countless other horror films that open strong and die off faster than the first disposable victim in, well, all these equally disposable horror flicks. The week’s other debut goes to 12 ROUNDS, the latest Renny Harlin action film. The film was not heavily promoted and stars B-list action star, John Cena. This would most likely explain for the paltry $5 million it took in for a seventh place finish.


Continuing its squeaky clean expansion, SUNSHINE CLEANING just missed out on the Top 10, finishing in 11th place. The film officially goes art-house wide next week when it reaches 500 screens but at 167 screens this weekend, its gross improved 100% over last week and the Amy Adams/Emily Blunt vehicle maintained a per screen average of over $8K. A handful of other very limited runs saw impressive averages this weekend. Debuting this week on three and four screens respectively, Independent Spirit nominated, GOODBYE SOLO brought in $13.5K per screen and French export, SHALL WE KISS? secured an average of nearly $8K. Just like last week though, the highest per screen average belongs to VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPORER. The film added one screen this week for a whopping total of two screens and nailed down an average of $15K for a 38% increase over last week.


slumAnd the Top 10 says goodbye this week to one its longest mainstays. After a total of 12 non-consecutive weeks in the Top 10, Best Picture winner, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE suffered a great descent this week. With its impending DVD release coming on Tuesday, the little movie that not only could but did, saw a drop of nearly 60% and a loss of over 1200 theatres. Still, at a total domestic gross of nearly $140K and a total of eight Oscars, I’d say the Danny Boyle picture definitely fared better than it would have had it been released straight to video, as it was originally intended.

NEXT WEEK: Sundance hit and directorial follow-up to SUPERBAD, ADVENTURELAND lands ion1800 screens. More importantly though, its time to reboot and revisit FAST AND FURIOUS with the entire original cast and two less usages of the word, “the”, on over 3400 screens.