It was the quietest new release weekend of the year, with a welcome breather before the remaining big movies of the year open in the run up to Christmas.
This all played to the advantage of Disney’s ENCHANTED which really did hit a winner with it’s scheduling as it’s gone unopposed this weekend and grossed another $17 million, lifting it’s total after ten days to $70.6 million. I know the general consensus is that movie is pretty damn good but seriously, how did this movie make so much and the sophisticated and high enjoyable STARDUST make so little?
The weekend’s biggest release was the Hayden Christensen/Jessica Alba thriller AWAKE, which did nothing but confirm that these two young thesps are not bankable. STAR WARS and FANTASTIC FOUR weren’t big money makers because their name was attached and I really worry over how much MGM offered them to star in their picture.
AWAKE (going against nothing new remember) opened to a $6 million 4th place opening.
Things are quickly turning sour for BEOWULF. It was expected the movie would win back some of the audience it lost in last weeks huge drop but that hasn’t been the case at all. A soft $7.8 million has moved the domestic total of the fantasy flick to $68.6 million and it will be the worldwide total that will save it’s blushes in the end. The movie is now at $117 million worldwide.
Lesson of the day. Don’t cast Christensen and Alba. Box office down 11% from this time last year (which similarly had no new releases)…
| 1 | Enchanted (2007) | $17M | $70.6M | |
| 2 | This Christmas (2007) | $8.4M | $36.9M | |
| 3 | Beowulf (2007) | $7.88M | $68.6M | |
| 4 | Awake (2007) | $6.01M | $6.01M | |
| 5 | Hitman (2007) | $5.8M | $30.2M | |
| 6 | Fred Claus (2007) | $5.55M | $59.8M | |
| 7 | August Rush (2007) | $5.15M | $20.4M | |
| 8 | No Country for Old Men (2007) | $4.5M | $23M | |
| 9 | Bee Movie (2007) | $4.47M | $118M | |
| 10 | American Gangster (2007) | $4.28M | $122M |
source - imdb, coming soon
One Comment
Actually with Awake it was an indie picture to start off with so Alba and Christensen would not have got their usual fee. I read that the film only cost about $8 million so it should recoup its money. On Alba and Christensen’s future careers I would agree with you if both the Eye and Jumper tank then they are in trouble.