Not a strong weekend of predictions for me this weekend. Don’t worry, I’ll get over it. Mind you, I don’t know if Eddie Murphy will get over the fact that his big comeback film Tower Heist wound up losing out to one of his Shrek co-characters. Here’s what happened at the box office.
For the second weekend in a row, Puss In Boots was the number one film at the box office, bringing in $33 million and only dropping an amazing 3% week to week. Believe me, that hardly ever happens with big budget films. Clearly, Puss in Boots is appealing to families and finding an audience. What looked like an underachiever in its first week looks on pace to be a success. It certainly did far better than my second place showing and $20 million prediction.
Debuting in second place with $25 million was the Eddie Murphy/Ben Stiller film Tower Heist (I had predicted the same gross but a first place result). While not a horrible showing, at the end of the day, with the amount of publicity Murphy has been doing for the film, I think its fair to say that Tower Heist didn’t live up to expectations. It will be interesting to see what happens next weekend and if Tower Heist will be able to post a decent hold or sink like a stone.
Debuting at number three with $13 million is A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas (I had predicted a third place showing but a gross of $15 million). This is another dissapointment, as the last Harold and Kumar film (Escape from Guantanamo Bay) had a stronger opening with $14 million, and that was without the more expensive 3D tickets. Even though these films find their audience on DVD and VOD, I wouldn’t expect to see these two light up the big screen again.
As for the rest of the top five, Paranormal Activity 3 managed to stay within those ranks, landing at number four with $8.5 million (I didn’t make a prediction on that one), while Justin Timberlake’s In Time Irounded out the top five with $7.7 million, one spot off and $.3 million less than I predicted. Footloose wound up at number six with $4.5 million, $.5 off from my prediction.
So, to recap, here were our predictions:
1) Tower Heist – $25 million
2) Puss In Boots – $20 million
3) A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas – $15 million
4) In Time – $8 million
5) Footloose – $5 million
And here’s how the weekend turned out:
1) Puss In Boots – $33 million
2) Tower Heist – $25 million
3) A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas – $13 million
4) Paranormal Activity – $8.5 million
5) In Time – $7.7 million
Next week sees the release of J.Edgar, Immortals with Mickey Rourke and the latest from Adam Sandler, Jack and Jill. Check back on Friday to see our predictions.
