Haha Beyonce gets back-ended.

I don't think it was lack of interest that hurt Terminator, I think it was the reviews. Plus it doesn't help that it was up against a family-friendly movie. Salvation might've faired better if it was released in late July…

Makes you feel better I had T4 at a $102.9 million (Only $60.1 million off.) but then again this is why quality movies are important. It would have at least hit $55 million had reviews and word of mouth been decent. Oh well I can be happy knowing that T4 and NOTM 2 will both face deep declines when Up ($67 million) and Drag Me To Hell ($28 million) open and you know deliver the goods.

Don't worry man, the guys from boxofficemojo's derby got it worse than you :)

And do you ever update your blog man?

The Blogspot one? Rarely. Unfortunately I have so much writing per week that's on a deadline, I rarely get to write personal items.

Terminator kinda bombed. T3 did more than that! Ouch!
I'm pretty sure it'll turn profitable when counting the overseas market. Not THAT profitable, but probably will pay the movie, at least.
Maybe people weren't willing to see a Terminator movie without Ah-Nold?

Well, Terminator suffered from just a general sense of "So What?". I like Christian Bale but I get the feeling people saw this and said "I know this story already". Saw it, thought it was okay, could have been massively improved by keeping the original ending.

For next weekend, "Up" is gonna win HUGE. I'm saying it does 77 Mill. I have "Museum" sticking at 2 with 34 Mill, then "Drag Me to Hell" with 26 mill, followed by "Salvation" with 21 mill (word of mouth will murder it) and finally "Star Trek" to round out the five with 18 mill.

The only problems I had w/ Star Trek was the casting of Wynona Ryder and Tyler Perry, other than that one of the best i have seen in my life!

I wonder if James Cameron saw Terminator:Salvation.

Anyway, I was expecting a huge weekend given that most prognosticators/analysts were calling for both TS and NatM2 to easily cross 80mil and end up close to 100mil over the long weekend (Fri-Mon). I think besides the negative reviews and so-so word of mouth, the bigger factor is that both films are simply not the "It" franchises of recent years that has etched itself in the pop culture landscape, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Spiderman, X-Men, and the like. Neither film raises the needle to the point that it excites people to the same degree as the other 1st rate Franchises.

Even though it wont be first, I got a good feeling about DMtH (should the M be a capital?).

It's PG-13, it's Sam Raimi whose developed a nice following over the years with Evil Dead and Spiderman and it's the first (arguably) good horror movie of the year.

I can see it beating Museum and coming a solid second next week.

- Salvation's IMDb's rating is a 7.6 with over 9,000 ratings… i don't know if word of mouth will be too awful for it.
- also, what about Drag Me to Hell looks good? Seriously, It looks like a total cheesefest of a horror movie.

@JAB Sam Raimi's first non Spider-man film in nine years and a return to his horror movie roots. Need I say more?

Most people have not even heard the name "Sam Raimi".

@Steve: Fair enough, I'll be the first to admit that I'm a giant Evil Dead fan and I want to see Raimi make up for SM3. Now that he's seen Nolan get away with making a passion project in between batman movies this means that we won't be totally indifferent towards making SM4 as well.
Now getting back on topic with the Evil Dead fans boys and the last horror film being released in March (No Ghosts of Girlfriends Past doesn't count.) I think this is a good time to release a horror film and if early reviews are a sign of strong word of mouth, I could see it easily hitting $100 million.

I'm just sad that Terminator is not making much. It's not great but certainly not as bad as the critics have made it out to be.

Both "Up" and "Drag Me to Hell" will do well. Advance reviews are overwhelmingly positive for both, and with the dearth of direct competition in June, they should hold really well.

$65 million or more for "Up"
$30 million for "Drag Me to Hell"
$27 million for NATM2
$19 million for T4

Yay, a shoutout! Anyway, as a Pixar loonie I cannot wait any longer to watch Up, but I'm not sure it will get to WALL-E's opening. But it should be pretty close.

Up: $58M (just short of MvA but should make much more in the long run)
DGTH: $31M (I smell massive sleeper)
NATM: $29M (-46%)
T4: $17M (-60%)
ST: $13M (-40%)

I gotta think word of mouth for T4 will be a lot better then the reviews it got, seems most reveiws says its terrible but people I talk to seem to either really like the movie or atleast enjoy it.
Maybe its not the greatest as far as terminator movies go, but up against a lot of the stuff being released in theatres these days id say its better then most.

My early predictions for next week:

1. Up: There's no way this is making less than 60mil. 72mil overall(23.5mil Fri, 28.5mil Sat, 20mil Sun). From what I read, it's opening in more 3D screens than even MvA at over 2000+
2. NatM2: 28mil
3. Drag me to Hell: 25mil
4.Terminator Salvation: 18.5mil
5.Star Trek: 12.5mil

Having seen "UP," it is far more kid-friendly than the exemplary Wall-E. There still lies mature themes, but this movie definitely has it all for the young and old. I won't be surprised if it makes a serious run at 80mil. 60 mil at the least is pretty much in the bag. In the end, I think it ends up at 70mil for the weekend. Looking ahead to the most of June, it's smooth sailing and will finish north of 200mil. Marketing for UP has been strong, way stronger than for Wall-E and any recent Pixar fare. Heck, it was more visible than NatM2 which opened this week.

Drag me to hell should find it's niche, and open to around 25mil, and make a good run at 100-110mil at best.

Drag Me To Hell? 28M!!! Its second weekend? 12M!!

1. Up – 83M (Yeah, I'm calling unexpected)
2. NatM – 33M
3. DMtH – 28M
4. T4 – 24M (Laremy, you need to be a bit kind. Its Bale…BALE!!!)
5. Star Trek – 15M
6. A&D – 13M

Next weekend:

1. Up – 73.5M (Ratatouille made 47M, Wall-E made 63M, both had spectacular ratings. Up should have no problem topping 70M)
2. NatM – 30M (-45%, Up is gonna crush it)
3. DMtH – 27M (if Unborn opened at 20 mil, this should easily top 25 mil)
4. T4 – 21M
5. Star Trek – 14M

how could spider-man 3 leave anybody anxious for it's director's follow up? You're all really overestimating the chances of Drag Me to Hell?

Oh come on. terminator salvation was a great movie. Night at the museum 2 sucks though. People saw night at the museum more because they saw how terminator salvation was panned when it didnt deserved to be panned. guess what was worse than terminator salvation. you guessed right. natm2. terminator is awsym Its not boring at all. now if something gets panned it will mostly be good. Wolverine got panned and it was good, angels and demons got panned(havent seen it yet, im gonna though). star trek got awesome ratings and it was awesome. when i get a blu ray, im gonna buy wolverine, terminator, angels and demons, and star trek. see ya, read my reviews 4 natm2, t4, & a&d(angels and demons review coming out next wek) in the review newspage.

I'm feeling the consensus for predictions here. I think "Up" will either match or best "Monsters vs. Aliens"' $59 million opening; more likely it'll open a bit higher at around $63 million. It'll have excellent legs, seeing as it has the family audience locked down until "Ice Age" over a month later (no one's really counting "Imagine That" are they?).

"Drag Me To Hell", much like Gophers Attack! is saying, has excellent break out potential. Horror films this year have overperformed- "The Unborn" nearly made $20 million, "Friday the 13th", the ultimate one-weekend wonder made twice that, and even "Haunting in Connecticut" made nearly $24 million on a busy weekend. So for a horror film that actually looks GOOD, and has a good amount of hype from the internet and from normal moviegoers, it'll do well (at least for one weekend). I'm calling for $28 million opening weekend, just because horror films without immediate brand recognition (like "Friday" or "Nightmare on Elm Street") rarely break the $30 million OW barrier (see: "The Stangers", which opened on this exact weekend a year ago). Hey, if this does well, maybe Raimi will skip Spider Man 4 and just go on to making that Evil Dead 4 that he'd been referring to for years now…

I think that Up will open to a larger location average than Monsters Vs. Aliens; the only question is, will it garner enough theaters to match its opening? If you put Up at a $16,000 location average, it still only makes $59.2 million from the 3,700 theaters it is reportedly going to play at. I don't think the movie will pull in Incredibles or Finding Nemo big bucks, but it will still be a hit. Also, it should have very long legs, seeing that there is no mainstream kids release for over a month.

i think Drag Me To Hell will make about 28 mill but it can reach more than 30 if the word of mouth is good enough…

I think based on the Memorial Weekend grosses which were much much lower than expected from the new releases, either people were busy with other holiday plans, not excited about NatM2 and TS, or that many families held out and are waiting for Up next weekend.

Up will get no.1 easily: 65mil. It's final actual theater count should be around 3,900 or so.
Drag me to Hell will get 24mil tops.