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Perry's Best Debut with MADEA
While the Dark Knight hits the billion mark! By
Jarrod Sarafin
February 22, 2009
DARK KNIGHT Oscar slideshow
© Mania
While there’s no new genre films to talk about in this weekend’s report, a few items of interest happened over the last three days. Tyler Perry gained some of his box office mojo back by having his best opening grossing film to date with Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail. The Dark Knight’s re-release pushed the blockbuster over the $1 billion mark worldwide and last weekend’s champion, Friday the 13th, found itself dropping all the way down to 6th place in the span of a week.
Tyler Perry found his best opening to date with Madea Goes to Jail earning an estimated $41.1 million in sales on its first three days of release and has the 1st place as a result. The performance has it set up to become his top earning production, which is currently held by another Madea film. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion hit theaters in 2006 with an opening tally of $30.0 million. It would go on to gross $63.2 million domestically.
Fox continued rolling with their latest successful thriller Taken landing in 2nd place. The film’s been out four weeks and has been in the top three spots for each of the reports, with it moving up a spot this weekend by grabbing another $11.4 million. With the latest numbers, the film has a domestic gross of $95.1 million. If you include the $69.3 mil the film has pulled in from foreign markets, the Liam Neeson-led vehicle has a worldwide gross of $164.5 million.
Focus Features is also enjoying steady numbers with their animated 3-D experience Coraline, which follows in 3rd place with another $11.0 mil in sales. While no budget has been listed, the Henry Selick-directed feature has pulled in $53.3 million domestically since debuting in theaters three weekends ago.
Warner Bros. follows in 4th place with their romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You adding another $8.5 million to its tally. Taking advantage of the couples demographic in February, the film is likewise another success for the studio. No budget has been revealed but the film has grabbed $70.0 million in domestic receipts thus far.
Fox Searchlight expanded their critical and box office success Slumdog Millionaire into 610 more theaters over the weekend. As a result of the expansion, the film moved up four spots to 5th place with the film taking in another $8.0 million on 2,244 theaters. After fifteen weekends of limited and expanded release the film is also set to hit the $100 million mark within the next few days. It has $98.0 million at the moment. With the film’s foreign numbers at $61.2 million, the Danny Boyle-directed film has a worldwide gross of $159.2 million.
And now we come to Friday the 13th. While the film’s low budget guarantees that this latest Jason installment is already a success story for Warner Bros. and New Line, the performance of its second weekend was downright miserable with the film dropping a whopping 80.7% in the span of a week. The film grabbed another $7.8 million on 3,105 theaters across the nation, which comes up to $2,520 per showing with audiences. Again, even with the second weekend’s weak performance, the film is a success for New Line and parent company Warner Bros. Produced against a budget of only $19 million, it has a domestic tally of $55.0 million in its first ten days of release.
Disney dropped down to 7th place with their comedy Confession of a Shopaholic taking another $7.0 million in its second weekend of release. While no budget has been listed, the film has a respectable $27.6 million in its first ten days.
Sony added more green to their hit Paul Blart: Mall Cop. The film rolled into the 8th place spot with $7.0 mil in sales over the last three days. With this weekend’s numbers, the film has a domestic gross of $121.3 million. Very good numbers for a film costing only $26 mil to produce.
Sony Screen Gems takes the 9th place spot with their debuting film Fired Up pulling in an estimated $6.0 mil in its first three days. While this debut is nothing to shout home about, Screen Gems always has a sound business strategy by keeping their budgets low. With this latest vehicle costing only $20 mil to produce, it’s first three days set it up to be another success for the distributor.
The same can’t be said for Sony’s thriller The International. The film debuted last weekend in 7th place and found itself dropping to 10th in this report with an estimated $4.4 mil in sales. With the film showing in 2,364 theaters, the film had an average of only $1,882 per showing. It has $17.0 million domestically. Not good numbers for a film costing $50 million to produce.
| Rank | Movie | Weekend | Theaters | Average | Total | Budget |
| 1 | Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail | $41.1 mil | 2,032 | $20,236 | $41.1 mil | ---- |
| 2 | Taken | $11.4 mil | 3,102 | $3,675 | $95.1 mil | ---- |
| 3 | Coraline | $11.0 mil | 2,155 | $5,119 | $53.3 mil | ---- |
| 4 | He’s Just Not That Into You | $8.5 mil | 3,050 | $2,800 | $70.0 mil | ---- |
| 5 | Slumdog Millionaire | $8.0 mil | 2,244 | $3,587 | $98.0 mil | $15 |
| 6 | Friday the 13th | $7.8 mil | 3,105 | $2,520 | $55.0 mil | $19 |
| 7 | Confessions of a Shopaholic | $7.0 mil | 2,507 | $2,800 | $27.6 mil | ---- |
| 8 | Paul Blart: Mall Cop | $7.0 mil | 2,835 | $2,469 | $121.3 mil | $26 |
| 9 | Fired Up | $6.0 mil | 1,810 | $3,315 | $6.0 mil | $20 |
| 10 | The International | $4.4 mil | 2,364 | $1,882 | $17.0 mil | $50 |
As said above, Warner Bros. found themselves in the Billion Dollar Club with their blockbuster The Dark Knight in re-release. The film hit the mark on Friday and currently has a worldwide gross of $1,001,082,160. The latest Bats adventure earned the coveted billion mark by pulling $533.0 million domestically and $467.9 million in foreign territories.
It also joins some notable company in the club alongside Titantic ($1.8 bil), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.1 bil), and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($1.0 bil).
If you include the adjusted for inflation films of previous eras, it also joins Gone with the Wind ($1.4 bil), Star Wars ($1.2 bil), The Sound of Music ($1.0 bil), and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial ($1.0 bil).
Next weekend will be another non-genre affair for audiences because studios don’t want to release any of their hopefuls a week before Warner Bros. launches Watchmen. Fox is releasing Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li next weekend but with it listed as coming in only 1,000 theaters at the moment, it seems to be a film they’re just dumping on the market.
Friday February 27, 2009 Releases:
Wide
Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (1,175+ theaters)
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (1,000 theaters)
Limited
Assassination of a High School President
An American Affair
Crossing Over
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Wait to go TDK, that is just awesome. I saw Madea this weekend with my wife, it is great. Tyler Perry is hilarious and as always the story has a great message. I still haven't seen Blart or Taken, but I have heard they are both really good. Getting pretty pumped for Watchmen now and can't wait for Star Trek. You know with Blart's numbers you know they are going to make a sequel and I am not surprised at all that Friday the 13th had the drop that it did, but hey once again it made enough money to merit a sequel already considering it made more than twice what it cost to produce, plus once you count DVD sales they will make their money. Which means we will be subjected to more crappy horror movies, of course I don't care for them so there goes my bias.