Filed under: Box-Office News

Box-Office Oracle: Mar. 20 – Mar. 22, 2009

It's going to be tight at the top spot - but overall a pretty weak weekend.

#1 movie predicted correctly: 2 Weeks in a Row
This weekend is a nightmare to predict. Partly because it will be a very weak box-office weekend. And partly because there isn't really a film to champion. I'm taking I Love You, Man because I feel like awareness of Rudd and Segel is rising, whereas awareness of Nic Cage is high… and also dismissive.
Estimate: $18.3 million
Clive Owen! Julia Roberts! It's actually a decent film too. But it's only got 2400 theaters and I can only bequeath it $6,500 per theater. Still, I wouldn't be upset if date night carried the weekend.
Estimate: $15.6 million
This looks like a combination of Next and Push. And neither of those films made any money. Nic Cage is on what we call the "downslope" of his box-office career.
Estimate: $15.0 million
I'm only dropping it 43.5% because no other kiddie fare is being released. Dwayne Johnson is on the "upslope" of his career, for the record.
Estimate: $13.8 million
The sort-of good news is that this one will only slip 55% this weekend. After the Watchpocalypse of last weekend I'm sure Warner Bros. is relieved.
Estimate: $7.5 million
The history of horror films dictates a 63% drop. It's not me, it's destiny.
Estimate: $5.2 million
Regardless of what you think of it, it's been a financial bonanza. It's probably the best planning of 2008-2009. It will make the top ten next weekend too – the slate of new movies is pretty disastrous after Monsters vs. Aliens.
Estimate: $4.7 million
The next Tyler Perry movie is due in September. So we're looking at two a year from here on out, $80 million box-office per, for our main man T-Perr.
Estimate: $3.2 million
Well, it won't hit $300m (unless China really delivers) but I'd say Danny Boyle is in line for a big ol' budget going forward. Here's the tough question though: does he need it?
Estimate: $3.1 million
$138m domestically. $1m internationally. But it's still opening in quite a few international markets left, so it should make a tidy $20m overseas too.
Estimate: $2.1 million

Wanna get in an early prediction for next weekend? Monsters vs. Aliens should take it easily, but you can throw in a prediction for 12 Rounds or Haunting in Connecticut if you like.


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Post #1
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My predics:

1. I Love You Man- $20.1 million
2. Knowing- $18.4 million
3. Duplicity- $16.1 million
4. Race To Witch Mountain- $13.7 million
5. Watchmen- $7.9 million
6. Taken- $5.5 million
7. The Last House To The Left- $4.8 million (I'm predicting that I Love You Man will take the older teenager and adult demographics)
8. Madea Goes To Jail- $3.0 million
9. Slumdog Millionaire- $2.7 million
10. Paul Blart: Mall Cop- $2.1 million

- Bustray
( March 19th, 2009 | 5:23 pm )
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Post #2
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I think "Witch Mountain" will hold up better than you think- it's still the only family film out there right now (for a whole week!) and everyone that I've talked to liked it (the core audience of families and soccer mom, etc) so word of mouth is good (much like that "Chihuahua" movie last year).

Um…Yeah I think "Duplicity" will underperform by a bit, just because Julia Roberts isn't as big a star as she used to be, and considering the track record of "crime romantic comedy films" (hint: its not a very good track record), it'll disappoint (prob. $30-35 mil total, 12 million opening)

Next weekend…"12 Rounds" looks like someone saw "The Marine" and "Die Hard with a Vengance" and went "Hey, let's mash these two together for no damn reason". So prob. 12 million total is the best case scenario with a lucrative DVD release I'm sure.

I still dunno what's going on w/ Haunting in Connecticut, but I think people are on horror overload now, so it might perform about as well as "Last house" did last weekend.

We'll talk "Monsters vs. Aliens" next week since I'm rambling on yet again.

- Vince
( March 19th, 2009 | 10:29 pm )
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Post #3
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I think that 'Knowing' will do better than u think. OW 25-35mil$.

- Saky
( March 20th, 2009 | 7:28 am )
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If you look up in the dictionary (remember those) “downslope", it says Tom Sizemore in "Super Capers".

- Steve
( March 20th, 2009 | 8:05 am )
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Post #5
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Slumdog Millionaire and Taken will still be in the Top 10? Coming after Juno last year, I think we can safely say one thing: Fox may be awful at producing movies, but they're sure effing good at marketing the things!

Maybe Fox should just pluck up movies that have already been made and do their splendid marketing work, and that way we won't hear any more disaster stories from the Fox movies sets about the studio executives screwing the directors over and interfering with their visions.

The platform release, a la "Slumdog Millionaire," Juno," and "Little Miss Sunshine," seems to be their magic speciality.

- JM
( March 20th, 2009 | 3:33 pm )
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