COENS, PERRY TOP BOX OFFICE

By Sarah Sluis

After weeks with nothing to see, America turned out in force to catch four new wide releases, placing them #1-#4 at the box office.

Burn After Reading claimed the top spot with $19.4 million, creating an opening weekend record for the duo.  True, many of their films have opened in limited release and racked up the millions more slowly, but this nevertheless represents a victory for the Coens, who were able to roll over the critical success they achieved with No Country for Old Men into box office dollars for their current film.

Not far behind, Tyler Perry's The Family that Preys finished at #2 with $18 million.  Perry's continued success�$250 million in box office on his past six films, with five of the six films opening at #1 or #2, and 11 million DVD sales�has made more people stand up and take notice.  By not screening his films for critics in advance, and targeting mainly African-American viewers, Perry's films have made it big at the box office without a similar splash in the media.  Expect more stories about Perry, as a $250 million track record is hard to hide.

Righteous Kill (#3, $16.5 million) and The Women (#4, $10 million) were both star-studded mediocre releases.  Neither was particularly well-reviewed, although I imagine they will both find their way into many people's Netflix queues.

The House Bunny surpassed Tropic Thunder this week ($4.3 million to Tropic's $4.1 million), actually adding 27 theatres to its run.  Female-oriented films are known for opening small but lasting for several weeks as they gain word-of-mouth, and this film definitely speaks to that point.

Lastly, that incendiary film Towelhead had the highest per-screen average for the week, earning $13,250 per screen (with only four locations playing the film).  In terms of per-screen averages, Tyler Perry's The Family that Preys trailed at second with $8,705 per screen.  Choosing a wide but selective release of 2,070 locations was undoubtedly a smart move and certainly reflects the niche-to-mainstream position of Perry's films in the marketplace.

Worst Weekend Box Office in Eight Years

By Sarah Sluis

With stale and meager offerings, America pretty much stopped going to the movies last weekend. They made the right decision. No film broke $10 million, making this the worst domestic box office in eight years. The one new release, Thai remake Bangkok Dangerous, barely beat the existing offerings, and came in at number one just ahead of Tropic Thunder. This star-studded comedy has shown surprising legs, and is approaching the $100 million mark�if only that wasn't also the production budget. No doubt word-of-mouth has helped extend its run. The Tom Cruise cameo as a studio exec apparently is worth checking out, and the trailer always got a smattering of chuckles from the audience when I saw it in theatres earlier this summer.

Bangkok Dangerous belongs to a subset of English-language remakes of South/East Asian action film.   With a B-list budget and effort, the underwhelming $7.8 million take only prompted a disappointed shrug from execs. I don't think the lackluster performance of this film speaks to a softening of the remake market, but rather that with the success of films like Oscar-winner The Departed (a remake of Infernal Affairs), and the spate of Japanese horror films, producers have gotten less picky in choosing what films to remake.

Overseas, Mamma Mia! came in number one at the box office, speaking to the transcontinental appeal of European group ABBA. While ABBA might have sold tickets, along with familiar music comes gorgeous visuals: a saturated-blue Mediterranean sea and perhaps the most cinematic use of fabric in recent memory, surely inspired by some Bollywood viewings. I heartily endorse this film's success, and am willing to ignore the awkwardness of the unchoreographed moments in the film. 

Next week finally brings some box-office draws: The Coen brother's Burn After Reading, and the remake of The Women. Look for more information Friday as I delve deep into next week's box-office outlook.