WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: In Your Face, Jonas Brothers!

Last year around this time, a certain teen queen unleashed her “Best of Both Worlds” concert to theatres in 3D. Having been billed as an exclusive one-week engagement, little girls everywhere came out in droves to catch Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus do her split personality thing up on screen to the tune of over $30 million. A year has passed and the smart folks at Disney decided to get another teen sensation back on the screen in 3D, only to find that audiences would opt to watch a man in grandma drag go to jail instead.


No, THE JONAS BROTHERS: 3D CONCERT EXPERIENCE could not topple TYLER PERRY’S MADEA GOES TO JAIL at the box office this weekend. This is even after Perry’s most successful film to date suffered a 60% drop over last week. Worse yet, the young Jonas siblings opened on almost twice the screens as Montana/Cyrus did and made less than half the cash. There was no urgency to catch the show opening weekend with some looming empty threat that the film would only be playing for a week, mind you. (It should be noted that as soon as Montana brought in the green last year, the one-week engagement was extended indefinitely.) It was a solid showing but it seems to me that there must have been a lot of little girls who just decided to stay home. Besides, the Jonas Brothers that big and in your face, 3D styles, would be pretty frightening, I think. For a boy band, they’re really not that cute … or profitable apparently.


Last week’s winner of 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, saw its already impressive gross improve another 45% this week. Albeit not my pick for Best Picture of the year, this is clearly the people’s favorite. In its 16th week in theatres, it shows no signs of stopping. It is Fox Searchlight’s first Best Picture winner and it is now their widest release to date. The Danny Boyle film has plenty more market internationally to conquer, home video sales still ahead and it will certainly surpass THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON to become the highest grossing Best Picture nominee from this year.


A couple of other big Oscar winners saw serious gains this week too. Both added hundreds of screens to capitalize on their Oscar visibility and both saw promising results well into their domestic runs. Audience favorite, Kate Winslet, took home the Best Actress Oscar for THE READER and the Weinstein Company sleeper hit saw its grosses increase 10% over last week for a grand total of just over $27 million. Not bad for a movie that seemed doomed to fall away into obscurity until it garnered five surprise Oscar nods. Focus Features’ MILK earned Oscars for Best Original Screenplay (Dustin Lance Black) and Best Actor (Sean Penn) did even better, increasing 37% over last week and bringing its cume over $30 million 14 weeks into its domestic run. Both other Best Picture nominees, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON and FROST/NIXON saw its returns dwindle this week as neither garnered any serious screen time during the telecast.


You don’t have to be an Oscar winner to perform well in limited release though. Foreign Language Oscar losers, THE CLASS and WALTZ WITH BASHIR continued to see their grosses grow despite missing out on the crown. And in completely non-Oscar related news, Joaquin Phoenix’s supposedly last film, TWO LOVERS, tacked on about 60 screens and soared over 500% and critical darling, GOMORRA, improved over 140% over last week with an average that would rival any title in the Top 10. You don’t want to mess with the GORMORRA boys.

NEXT WEEK: Everyone will be watching to see if THE WATCHMEN is worth all of this overblown hype as it opens on over 3500 screens. Given that there are no other wide releases expected next weekend, I guess people think it’s going to be big. The question now is how big but my question is rather why anyone cares at all.

Source: Box Office Mojo

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Paul Blart, Box Office King

Ah, January – the only time of year where a movie about an overweight mall cop can pull in over $30 million in its opening weekend and a film about a dog hotel can open, period.

PAUL BLART: MALL COP, the Kevin James vehicle, surpassed all expectations this weekend to debut atop the chart. Of course, that last statement implies that people had expectations to begin with. James even managed to take down Clint Eastwood, pulling in $10 million more than GRAN TORINO did in its second weekend of wide release. Neither actor has anything to complain about, mind you. James has proven in one single weekend that he can open a major film release and Eastwood has proven that the man is still one of the most impressive box office draws in Hollywood, at least when he is front of the camera and flaunting a shotgun.


The rest of the Top 5 continues to impress as four out of the five earned north of $20 million. The Martin Luther King holiday weekend saw a 31% increase over last year and that is only for the three-day regular weekend period. MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D led the pack, charging right off the screen and into third place. The film’s average was slightly less than last week’s horror entry, THE UNBORN but still played solidly. Mind you, THE UNBORN dropped off 50% this weekend so I’m not sure MY BLOODY VALENTINE will still be around come Valentine’s Day. The Top 10 saw one other entry this week, the wide expansion of the Daniel Craig starring, DEFIANCE. The film earned a stable but unimpressive average of just over $5K for an eighth place finish. The awards contender has seen little support and is not expected to be an Oscar surprise.


Pulling in the highest per screen average of any film in release this weekend was NOTORIOUS, the life and death story of the Notorious B.I.G. This was only one of many reasons for the Fox people to celebrate this weekend. Last week’s Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture (drama), SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, narrowly surpassed fellow competitor, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, to sneak back into the Top 10 with a resurged five figure average. The film is a lock for a bunch of Oscar nominations so Slumdog’s millions will continue to roll in for weeks to come. Also, Fox Searchlight’s THE WRESTLER, fresh from winning two Golden Globes including Best Actor (drama) for Mickey Rourke, continued its slow expansion with an addition of 84 screens and saw another surge of over 100%.


In other Golden Globe news, Kate Winslet’s double win helped REVOLUTIONARY ROAD continue to expand solidly, increasing 22% over last week. Her Supporting Actress win for THE READER did not fare as well though. The film continues to perform decently but lost 90 screens this week and saw its returns fall off 9%. Awards season still has another month to go so some of the contenders need to pick it up. The Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign Language Film , WALTZ WITH BASHIR, fought the film’s controversy to increase 18% over last week. And the Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture (comedy), Woody Allen’s VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, tacked on another 50 screens and surged 112% despite its home video release being just a couple of weeks away.


NEXT WEEK: We shall see how this Thursday’s Oscar nominees shape the contender grosses, if at all. This is especially true for REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, THE WRESTLER, FROST/NIXON and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, as all four jump into aggressive expansions in hopes that their film will be receiving many a nod this week. Even THE DARK KNIGHT returns for awards season, reappearing on over 200 screens and ensuring that it will cross the $1 billion mark internationally. As for brand new wide releases, look for Brandon Fraser in INKHEART, which seems awful close in premise to JOURNEY AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH to me, and the latest installment in the now Kate Beckinsale-less franchise, UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS. Or don’t look for them; they don’t sound worth looking for to me.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Who Says Dogs Don't Make For Great Gifts?

Traditionally, I usually follow my Christmas morning with family with a movie. My Christmas movie this year was THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON but, while this was certainly also the choice of many others, it was not the choice of the majority. I looked up at the listings to see what was playing while I waited in line and this is when I saw it. All eight showings of MARLEY & ME were flashing to signify that the shows were nearly sold out. Clearly, Christmas is a time to be spent with loved ones and their dogs.


Both MARLEY & ME and THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON set records this Christmas. The latter’s one-day tally of $12 million would become the second biggest Christmas day opening of all time. That said, the one with the dog made $14.7 million that same day and you know what that means. It means that people like Jennifer Aniston better than they like Brad Pitt. No, that’s dumb. It doesn’t mean that at all. What it likely means is that people like fun, simple fare with dogs on Christmas day more so that long, epic romances. MARLEY & ME went on to win the weekend, surpassing all expectations with a $51 million total gross over the four days. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON also performed very strongly and could have placed even higher if it weren’t for its 2 ½ hour running time.


One film came in between Brad & Jen and that would be the Adam Sandler family comedy, BEDTIME STORIES. Originally, this film was expected to take the weekend as it had the strongest family appeal. MARLEY & ME came running from behind like a dog after a moving car to reach past its built-in couple audience to snag a good chunk of the families as well. As a result, BEDTIME STORIES had to settle for second place and only the third biggest Christmas day opening ever. Opening in fourth, was a solid placement for the To Cruise vehicle, VALKYRIE. The Bryan Singer WWII thriller performed consistently throughout the four days of its release and ever averaged higher than BEDTIME STORIES.


The Top 10 saw two other debuts and both would be considered disappointing. The fifth wide release of the weekend was not even a consideration apparently. Frank Miller’s first formal directorial effort, THE SPIRIT, opened in ninth place, with a pathetic average of just over $2500 bucks. It could pick up next weekend when teenagers will returning to the multiplexes on their own after their parents held them hostage this past weekend. And DOUBT went wide this holiday frame and though its weekend take shot up over 700%, its average plummeted to a decent but not amazing $4500. Still, awards season is only just beginning so I don’t doubt it will continue to perform as long as the accolades continue to come in.


Platform releases love the month of December. In the weeks ahead, adults will finally find some time on their hands and will flock to see a great number of the Oscar contenders as they continue to widen their screen count. This weekend, the last major Best Picture contender, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, starring the reunited Kate Winslet and Leonard DiCaprio, opened on just three screens in all of North America but pulled in one of the biggest averages of the year with $64K per screen. The picture goes wide January 9. Averaging lower but still solidly were the Oscar contenders, LAST CHANCE HARVEY and WALTZ WITH BASHIR. The former is hoping for recognition for Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson as lead actors but the competition is tight this year and the former is Israel’s official submission for the Foreign Language Oscar. Each earned per screen averages of $16K and $10K, respectively.

NEXT WEEK: Nothing. There are no new wide releases next week. Apparently, New Year’s is a time for leftovers in Hollywood.