Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) has a score to settle in THE BRAVE ONE(2007).
© Warner Bros.
THE BRAVE ONE Takes Revenge to Top Spot
By: Jarrod Sarafin, News EditorDate: Sunday, September 16, 2007
Another lackluster weekend at the box office, a weekend where the first and only movie to hit the $10.0 million mark is the winner. Those studio executives with profits on their minds are wishing we could do a time jump, which would make Doc Brown proud, straight to the fall holiday season. The winner this week is a Jodie Foster leading vigilante tale, The Brave One, landing in 1st place with $14.0 million in 2,755 theaters across the country. The action-revenge story averaged $5, 087 per showing. Warner Bros hasn’t released the budget for the film but they get some satisfaction by being on top with their feature film.
Following behind in second place is last weekend’s winner, 3:10 to Yuma, starring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe. The Lionsgate remake of the classic western tale pulled in another $9.1 million over the last three days dropping only 34.8% from its debut totals. The film has pulled in $28.5 million in 7 days with a budget listed at $55 million.
Another debuting film this weekend, Mr. Woodcock, has the 3rd place spot grabbing $9.1 million in box office receipts. The New Line comedy starring a coach with a nasty sense of humor grabbed the debut total in only 2,231 theater houses making an average of $4,078 per showing.
The last debut for the weekend grabs 4th place by Freestyle Releasing, the nod to Toho Godzilla movies, Dragon Wars. The monster mash movie opened in a respectable 2,275 theaters this weekend taking the fourth spot with $5.3 million in receipts. Much like the 2 of the other 3 top spots, there is no budget listed so we can’t gauge how of a success or failure this kind of opening is...
We do know, however, the 5th place film for this box office report is a success. The latest Judd Apatow produced film, Superbad, for New Line pulled in another $5.2 million for this weekend adding to its very successful $111.3 million domestic total. When you take into account that this film’s budget is only $20 mil, Sony and Apatow have scored a clear winner for the slow moving August-September season. Apatow’s producing resume of hits continue to improve.
One of the biggest surprising notes of interest in this box office report is the drop off level of Rob Zombie’s Halloween. The MGM (Weinstein) release has gone from 2nd place to 6th place in the space of 6 days. Sure, there were three new openers this week but this horror is still being shown in 3,051 theater houses, more then any of the other films above it. The remake/re-imagining of the Carpenter classic has pulled in $51.2 million in three weeks of release. It’s said that the budget for this film was around $15 million mark so this was still a moderate success for the Weinsteins and Dimension.
Continuing to stand steady is the Universal action based installment of Jason Bourne. The third and final installment of the former hitman/spy, Bourne Ultimatum, took another $4.1 million sliding into 7th place this weekend. Bourne, with a budget of 110 mil, has been out in release for seven weeks now and grabbed $216.1 million domestically over that time period. The action film has also taken in another 101.5 million from overseas numbers making a respectable late summer total of $317.7 million.
Rogue Pictures follows behind in 8th place with their sports comedy, Balls of Fury. The film dropped 40.9% & 2 spots from last weekend taking in 3.3 million in box office receipts. Over the course of 3 weeks, Christopher Walken’s latest off-ball comedy has slapped 28.8 million in total sales for Rogue.
New Line continued performing just “average” with Rush Hour 3, the latest installment starring Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan, pulling in $3.3 million in 9th place. The film whose budget is 140 million has taken in 133.1 million in domestic receipts over the course of the last 6 weeks. With an overseas take of $62.5 mil, it’s clear they’ve crossed the budget line but not by much. Most studios don’t consider a film a success unless their domestic totals beat their budget costs. With this film struggling to get to its cost, it’s clear this hasn’t performed up to what New Line would have desired out of it.
Taking up the final place for this box office report is the Universal based foreign success, Mr. Bean’s Holiday. The latest installment of Mr. Bean took another $2.6 million over the weekend making a domestic total of $28.4 million over a four week span here in the states. It’s pulled in an eyebrow raising $189.6 million from overseas sales though making this a clear hit for Rowan Atkinson’s offbeat character.
Something to Note: The straight up action film, Shoot ‘Em Up, didn’t even place in its second week of release. The film, starring Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti & Monica Belucci, grabbed only $2.5 million in sales landing in 11th place for the weekend. It has a domestic total of only $10.3 million in 7 days of release.
| Rank | Movie | Weekend $ | Theaters | Average | Total $ | Week # |
| 1 | The Brave One | 14.0 mil | 2,755 | $5,087 | 14.0 mil | 1 |
| 2 | 3:10 to Yuma | 9.15 mil | 2,667 | $3,430 | 28.5 mil | 2 |
| 3 | Mr. Woodcock | 9.10 mil | 2,231 | $4,078 | 9.1 mil | 1 |
| 4 | Dragon Wars | 5.3 mil | 2,275 | $2,363 | 5.3 mil | 1 |
| 5 | Superbad | 5.2 mil | 2,910 | $1,786 | 111.3 mil | 5 |
| 6 | Halloween | 5.0 mil | 3,051 | $1,642 | 51.2 mil | 3 |
| 7 | The Bourne Ultimatum | 4.1 mil | 2,611 | $1,589 | 216.1 mil | 7 |
| 8 | Balls of Fury | 3.34 mil | 2,758 | $1,211 | 28.8 mil | 3 |
| 9 | Rush Hour 3 | 3.32 mil | 2,208 | $1,505 | 133.1 mil | 6 |
| 10 | Mr. Bean’s Holiday | 2.6 mil | 1,770 | $1,500 | 28.4 mil | 4 |
I’ll keep the same question up as last week to see if anyone else wants to guess which movie wins for the month of October. It was surprising the lack of faith into Steve Nile’s upcoming 30 Days of Night. I would have thought we would have more votes for that one seeing how it’s a vampire movie leading into the Halloween break.
Which of these October releases do you think will be the most successful at the box office?
- Feel the Noise (Oct 5)
- The Heartbreak Kid (Oct 5)
- The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising (Oct 5)
- Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Oct 12)
- Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? (Oct 12)
- The Final Season (Oct 12)
- We Own the Night (Oct 12)
- 30 Days of Night (Oct 19)
- Gone Baby Gone (Oct 19)
- The Comebacks (Oct 19)
- Rendition (Oct 19)
- Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D (Oct 19)
- Saw IV (Oct 26)
- Run, Fat Boy, Run (Oct 26)
- Dan in Real Life (Oct 26)
- Things We Lost in the Fire (Oct 26)
Note: Addressing some questions here from last week. Snally, not sure why but they’ve moved back Trick ‘R Treat again to 2008. They first moved it back to next year and then moved it back to an October release. Now, apparently, it’s back to 2008 again. The reasoning behind moving a Halloween based movie that’s already been reviewed positively by some horror sites to a 2008 release seems silly…As for not listing Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney, there is some confusion as to how wide a release it will be. First, it was listed as a limited release and now, it’s listed as an “expansion” based wide release. That could mean it may only be hitting 800-1,500 theaters depending on the studio decision. It’s up in the air on Michael Clayton so I kept it off the list for now.
Friday September 21, 2007 Releases:
Wide Releases
Resident Evil: Extinction (2,700 Theaters)
Good Luck Chuck (2,500 Theaters)
Sydney White (1,900+ Theaters)
Limited Releases
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Into the Wild
The Jane Austen Book Club
The Last Winter
Transformers on IMAX
Looking at the list of October Releases, I think it will be a September release that steals the most money in the month of October: Resident Evil Extinction. But If I had to select from that list, I'll say Saw IV brings home about 65 million over its release.