Filed under: Box-Office News

Box-Office Oracle: Mar. 27 – Mar. 29, 2009

Easy winner at the top this weekend. Monsters vs. Aliens will dominate.

#1 movie predicted correctly: 0 Weeks in a Row
The top ten at the box-office will fly past $100m again, after four weeks in a row of at or under that mark. Much of the money is going to come from Monsters vs. Aliens — a film getting over 4100 theaters. I've got it at $11,500 per theater, that's Madagascar money if you're scoring at home. It's not Kung Fu Panda money though, I don't think this one is on that level in terms of marketing.
Estimate: $47.2 million
It's in a nice position. Quite a lot of marketing behind it, and Last House on the Left has already been out three weekends. The only annoying aspect is the "based on a true story." It's simply not needed.
Estimate: $15.3 million
This is the one title I'm clueless on. I'm knocking it 53% but I wouldn't be surprised by any number. It might only drop 45%. It could hit 57%. It's really a wild card.
Estimate: $11.6 million
John Cena doesn't have much of a track record, but this isn't a hard number to hit. The trailers for this are fairly terrible though.
Estimate: $10.5 million
No other comedies are coming out, so that's helpful. But I'm going chalk city here, calling for a 50% drop from last weekend.
Estimate: $9.2 million
It will hold its own against Monsters vs. Aliens. Or rather it will get the parents who don't want to sit in a full theater.
Estimate: $7.2 million
I haven't seen a production budget released, so it's impossible to read the tea leaves on profitability. Welcome to Hollywood folks, the last bastion of publicly traded companies without any financial transparency whatsoever.
Estimate: $7.0 million
I was asked why this failed financially. The questioner blamed the marketing. Yeah, it was some of that. They set it up as an intensely moody action film. And it definitely wasn't that. But on the other hand it wasn't accessible to the general public. The proof is in the result in this case. Not that it matters overall, if you liked it you probably don't care too much how it did with everyone else.
Estimate: $2.8 million
They just sent me the original unrated version. Should I give that one a whirl?
Estimate: $2.4 million
10. Taken
The best part of this weekend? Slumdog Millionaire is OFF the board. I'm not hating on that film, I quite liked it, I'm just glad I don't have to think up any more to say about it.
Estimate: $2.1 million

What you got next weekend? It's gotta be Fast and Furious. It could make anywhere from $23m to $40m, and that should be enough to knock off the 3-D flick, right? I don't think Adventureland will make much of a push, but I'm open to your thoughts on that front too.


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MY PREDICTIONS

1. MONSTERS VS. ALIENS – $58.6 million
I was at the theater this past Friday, buying a ticket for "I Love You, Man" (awesome movie by the way) and I hear a group behind me, discussing the marquee. It sounded like two sets of parents and their kids. They kept on saying "Dude, there are NO movies out at all for children to see. Look at this list – everything is either rated PG-13 or R. And I hear Coraline is way too scary for kids too. Why aren't their any kids movies out? At all?". So I'd say MVSA will probably wipe out everything this weekend. Not just because of that – high demand for new kids flicks – but also because of the obvious too – DreamWorks films, it's 3-D, it's got a lotta hype, looks like tons of fun for all ages. It is of course a clear winner this weekend, but a HUGE clear winner.

2. THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT – $15.3 million
This one actually looks pretty darn freaky. Who knew? Like someone said, you cannot underestimate a horror flick this year, and this one actually looks like it has huge freakish scares… on top of that, not EVERYONE is gonna wanna watch a cartoon, sooooo…

3. I LOVE YOU, MAN – $14.7 million
It's been getting reeeeeeeally great word of mouth, and audiences will realize that this is the one they should've seen last weekend instead of KNOWING. I'm tempted to put this at the #2 spot though. Very, very tempted. Maybe my mind will change come Thursday. I can already imagine the big box office stories having B.O.B. and Paul Rudd as the featured picture, and how strongly ILYM held up.

4. DUPLICITY – $9.6 million
Word of mouth on this one is good too, and I believe Edward said it himself that the audience for this doesn't usually rush out opening weekend. So how about this weekend when word of mouth is officially good?

5. KNOWING – $9 million
I think this is gonna drop BIIIIIIGGGGG. Word of mouth has spread (through social events, twitter, facebooks) and this is the one to dodge this weekend.

6. 12 ROUNDS – $8.4 million
There's ALWAYS an audience for this, and to be honest, come on… the trailers DO look pretty awesome. And I doubt the first thing people say after watching a cool trailer is "I bet they're hiding how bad the acting is". After being screwed over by KNOWING, I'm guessing this is the auditorium the action fans will flock to this weekend.

My choice this weekend? Umm… I'm probably gonna see I LOVE YOU, MAN again a few days after the weekend ends (strong movie!). As for MONSTERS VS. ALIENS.. I'm undecided if I should really see it. I usually only rush out to see the PIXAR flicks and wait until I hear good word of mouth on the DW flicks. Don't get me wrong, there are DreamWorks flicks that I LOVE (OVER THE HEDGE!!!) but even that one, I waited until I heard great word of mouth.

Have a good weekend!
=]!

- Chuck Bartowski
( March 26th, 2009 | 5:43 pm )
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note: i just copied and pasted my box-office predictions from the ComingSoon.net column, which is why there's a mention of an "Edward" in there. sorry 'bout that.. forgot to edit it out.

'knowing' and 'race to witch mountain' are being avoided like the bubonic plague. there really is terrible word of mouth floatin' around. i doubt '12 rounds' could reach as high as 10 mill (looks too much like 'Eagle Eye' and Cena's last movie), and finally, 'Duplicity' should stay somewhat solid as more of it's audience catches it this weekend.

- Chuck Bartowski
( March 26th, 2009 | 5:48 pm )
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Our predictions are pretty similar, though I have 12 Rounds around 6 million. Aside from two TV spots and an interview on ESPN2, I haven't seen any marketing; no posters, nothing.

Next week I'm thinking F&F goes for about 38-40 and Adventureland hits around 12.

- Chris C.
( March 26th, 2009 | 6:56 pm )
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The original Last House is way sicker than the remake, if you can believe it. You've been warned.

- Eric Hernandez
( March 26th, 2009 | 7:13 pm )
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Watchmen will make a good 10 million.

- joker47
( March 26th, 2009 | 8:57 pm )
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One TV channel here in KC has shown the "12 rounds" commercial non-stop for three weeks and now my 14 year old wants to see it. It was not screened for local critics so I am hoping to hear something positive, anything!

- Steve
( March 26th, 2009 | 9:21 pm )
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See the original "Last House On The Left." It has to be a million times better than the 2009 version. I've seen the original and it's probably the best horror film I've ever seen, and I've seen a ton of both new and old horror movies…

- Seiko
( March 26th, 2009 | 10:39 pm )
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I saw "Adventureland" tonight–advance screening at my college. It's adequate, but not as good as "Superbad." Expect it to do about $15 million OW.

- JM
( March 27th, 2009 | 1:32 am )
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the new LHOTL is unneeded, the original (bar the stupid music) is far more effective. glad to see Monsters Vs Aliens coming out tops though! Knowing will drop 48% imo

- benji
( March 27th, 2009 | 3:36 am )
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Yeah, we saw that 12 Rounds trailer a billion times during the opening weekend of the tournament. So the action movie demo is covered.

- Laremy
( March 27th, 2009 | 10:03 am )
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