'Monsters' Dominate Box-Office While 'Haunting' Manages a Strong Start

'Knowing' has also held on well...

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Saturday, March 28th 2009 at 1:14 PM

I'm a little late with today's Friday box-office numbers, but I guess we can look on the bright side of things and be happy I am presenting more accurate numbers than the early estimates I report most often as Monsters vs. Aliens is the clear front-runner after pulling in $16.7 million on Friday. Such a number will certainly get a bump from weekend family viewing and I would assume could end up anywhere from $56-65 million once things are said and done generating a nice opening weekend for the DreamWorks Animation feature. I would be more inclined to think it will end close to that $56 million mark, but should it top $60 million it would be aiming to best last year's DreamWorks success Kung Fu Panda, which pulled in $60.2 million on opening weekend. It will certainly become the largest 3-D opening ever, besting Spy Kids 3-D by over $20 million as that 2003 release pulled in $33.4 million.

Looking at the #2 slot things aren't much worse all things considered as Lionsgate's The Haunting in Connecticut pulled in big numbers with $9.5 million on Friday. Based on that number it is hard to predict where the film will end up as a horror film is far more likely to pull in Friday night viewers than weekend moviegoers by comparison. Steve Mason at Big Hollywood is predicting it will end at $22.9 million, which bests Laremy's Box-Office Oracle prediction by $7.6 million. Don't look at that as a miscalculation as much as it is a satisfying surprise and a good bit of counter-programming and excellent marketing. I am sure regular visitors saw ads for it all over this site for the past three weeks, and most likely all the other movie sites you visit. Word was out and many went.

Another mild surprise, is the continuing success of Summit's Knowing, which last week I wondered if it would be able to continue its success into a second weekend amidst rather negative reviews as well as a few extremely positive ones. Well, the Nic Cage starrer must have generated some good word-of-mouth as it pulled in $4.6 million on Friday and is expected to finish somewhere around $14-16 million for the weekend. This means we are looking at about a 40-49% drop. Not bad for a film that received some rather vitriolic reviews from several corners.

The other new release for the weekend was the Jon Cena starrer 12 Rounds, which Fox hid from critics and apparently hid from viewers as well since it only generated $1.75 million on Friday, which should equate to only $5-6 million for the weekend. I guess pro wrestler action features in which the trailer gives away the entire movie aren't of major interest to most moviegoers.

The only other film I personally have any interest in is Tony Gilroy's Duplicity, which many are going to now point at Julia Roberts as an actress that no longer puts asses in seats as it only managed $2.3 million in its second weekend and will look to hit $7-8 million for the weekend. It is only a small drop for the feature and will raise its tally to $25 million, but it means this film doesn't really have any kind of serious legs. It's a good film, but not a great one and will probably serve Universal well at the DVD rental counter, but I don't think that's what they were looking for.

Featured below are the top ten box-office estimates via Box-Office Mojo. Laremy will be here Sunday with the complete weekend recap.

1. Monsters vs. Aliens (DreamWorks Animation) – $16.7 million
2. The Haunting in Connecticut (Lionsgate) – $9.58 million
3. Knowing (Summit) – $4.6 million
4. I Love You, Man (Paramount Pictures) – $3.97 million
5. Duplicity (Universal) – $2.3 million
6. 12 Rounds (Fox) – $1.75 million
7. Race to Witch Mountain (Disney) – $1.5 million
8. The Last House On the Left (Rogue) – $878,000
9. Taken (Fox) – $820,000
10. Watchmen (Warner Bros) – $750,000