Box Office Report

Dwayne Johnson and Madison Pettis celebrate in THE GAME PLAN(2007).
© Walt Disney

GAME PLAN Celebrates Another Victory

By: Jarrod Sarafin, News Editor
Date: Sunday, October 07, 2007

Last week, it was family demographics leading Disney’s Game Plan to victory. This week, it’s the very same for the studio. Perhaps, it’s the football related story so close to the NFL season launching that has this film scoring a box office touchdown two weeks in a row. Whatever the case, not many films this year have won back to back weekends in a year where so many choices have been given for audiences. The Game Plan grabbed 16.2 million this weekend only dropping 29% from its debut numbers. It averaged a respectable $5,237 in its 3,105 theaters and has grossed 42.8 million in 10 days of release.

Following close behind in 2^nd place is the debut of The Heartbreak Kid from Paramount and Dreamworks. The Ben Stiller starring film took in 14.0 million in 3,229 theaters averaging $4,345 per showing. Even if the film didn’t debut in 1^st place as the studios wanted, the numbers are respectable for an early October release.

Next in line is Universal’s The Kingdom which pulled in 9.3 million in box office receipts for the last 3 days. It has a theater release of 2,802 prints and averaged $3,335 per showing in each of them. The war related thriller has taken in 31.3 million in 2 weeks of its wide release.

Entering its third week of release, Screen Gem’s Resident Evil: Extinction tallied up only 4.3 million in 4^th place dropping 46% from its previous weekend numbers. The third zombie flick in the franchise has grossed 43.4 million domestically. Also, it has begun its foreign distribution pulling in 19.1 million so far. The total worldwide take is now up 62.6 million.

Now, it’s time to talk about a flop readers. Fox gave The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising a very respectable theater debut releasing it in 3,141 theaters this weekend. Still, the fantasy only took in 3.7 million debuting in 5^th place over the last 3 days. It fared no better then Stardust, another fantasy released in August. Perhaps, these studios didn’t market the film as well as they could or audiences just didn’t feel like seeing the fantasy. Whatever the case, these are not good numbers for Fox for such a widely released film.

Landing in 6^th place is the romantic comedy Good Luck Chuck for Dane Cook and Jessica Alba. The film from Lionsgate entered its third week of release pulling in 3.5 million in receipts in 2,476 theater prints across the nation. In 17 days of release, the Rated-R comedy has pulled in 29.0 million in domestic receipts.

While this last debut for the weekend, Feel the Noise, is in 7^th place, it still performed better bang for its buck for the studio. Noise was only released in 1,015 theaters for its debut yet grabbed 3.4 million making a respectable average of $3,349 per showing. When you consider The Seeker was released in nearly 2,000 more theaters yet pulled in only 300,000 more then Feel the Noise, it’s easy to see at least one positive note for the studio.

Next up in this weekend’s report is the western remake 3:10 to Yuma for Lionsgate which pulled in 3.0 million in 8^th place. The film starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale has a budget of 55 million but has pulled in 48.5 million in 5 weeks of release. It has another 3.2 mil from oversea numbers making a worldwide total of 51.7 mil.

Landing in the final spots for this report is The Brave One in 9^th place and Mr. Woodcock in 10^th place. Neither of these films has performed very well for their studios, Warner Bros and New Line respectively, over the course of their first 4 weeks of release. The Brave One took in another 2.2 million while being pulled out of 479 theaters. It didn’t even average a thousand a showing instead taking in a very low $958 per showing. It has a domestic gross of 34.3 mil in 4 weeks. Following behind is Billy Bob Thornton’s Mr. Woodcock for New Line taking in 2.0 million this weekend. It averaged only $1,038 per showing and has taken in only 22.3 million domestically in 4 weeks of release.

Rank

Movie

Weekend $

Theaters

Average

Total $

Week #

The Gam