'Speed Racer' Comes Up Short, but Still Gonna Beat 'Vegas' to the Finish Line

The numbers ain't too pretty

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Saturday, May 10th 2008 at 12:13 PM

For so long I was hearing Speed Racer was tracking around $35 million. Not a bad number. That would definitely beat What Happens in Vegas and it would obviously fall shy of Iron Man's second weekend. Then ComingSoon.net's box-office report shaved that total a bit to $33.7 million and our very own Laremy Legel took it even lower and projected $26.1. Guess who was right.

Yup, Laremy will come quite close as Speed brought in $6.5 million on Friday and is expected to end somewhere around$23 million. Not good numbers for a summer blockbuster, but it just isn't good enough to warrant anymore than that.

Iron Man will definitely finish first once again with an estimated $14.75 on Friday and an expected 3-day total of $49 million.

It makes me sad to see What Happens in Vegas will make an estimated $17.31 million for the weekend because that just tells me how many people dislike themselves.

Rounding out the top five is a pair of chick flicks as Made of Honor will pull in at fourth with $2.61m on Friday, followed by Baby Mama with $1.98m.

The only other new release worth talking about is Tarsem's The Fall, which is actually a pretty good film and I hope to have my review up soon. It was only in one theater and managed $18,927 on Friday and is expected to hit $67k for the weekend.

Below is Fantasy Moguls' complete Friday estimates, come back on Sunday for the recap of the weekend.

1. Iron Man (Paramount) – $14.75 million
2. Speed Racer (Warner Bros) – $6.5 million
3. What Happens in Vegas (Fox) – $6.25 million
4. Made of Honor (Sony) – $2.61 million
5. Baby Mama (Universal) – $1.98 million
6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Universal) – $1.32 million
7. Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo (Warner Bros) – $1.23 million
8. The Forbidden Kingdom (Lionsgate) – $525,000
9. Prom Night (Sony) – $490,000
10. Redbelt (Sony Classics) – $320,000