'Taken' scores on Super Bowl weekend box office

By Sarah Sluis

As I mentioned on Friday, studios have avoided releasing male-oriented films on Super Bowl Weekend,

wary of the inevitable spike downward on Sunday, when people everywhere huddle around the television to eat guacamole and chicken wings, and/or watch the game. Fox chanced that kidnapping thriller Taken would be able to grab enough viewers Friday and Saturday to make up for a precipitous drop on Sunday. They were right. Taken dropped 69% on Sunday, but still managed to make $24.6 million and finish the weekend at number one.

To put the numbers in perspective, most films drop 25-40% on Sunday (a number in the mid-30's is about average). What Fox must have noticed, though, is that even non-male oriented titles drop on Super Bowl Sunday. New in Town, for example, a female-skewing romantic comedy, dropped 61% on Sunday--only eight percent less than Taken. Clearly, the Super Bowl is not the provenance of males alone, but inspires households to watch together, male and female alike.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop, like Taken, exceeded the studio's box office expectations. The surprise success continued to rally above-average audiences. The film came in at number two again, earning $14 million. Its three-week total of $83 million assures that it will cross the $100 million mark in a few more weeks.

Horror flick The Uninvited debuted at number three to $10.5 million, exceeding the results of fellow wide release opener New in Town, a romantic comedy that posed a challenge to marketers over at Lionsgate, and received a mention in a recent New Yorker article on film marketing. Making a slim $6.7 million, it apparently came in according to the studio's (low) expectations.

Oscar shut-out Gran Torino has received a different kind of award: box-office success. The film has already passed the $100 million mark, and pulled in another $8.6 million this week. Eastwood was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg award fourteen years ago--and, like many of those honored, has continued an outpouring of solid, high-quality work.

Slumdog Millionaire, still buzzing twelve weeks after it opened, expanded its release yet again, earning $7.6 million and bringing its cumulative to $67.2 million. Director Danny Boyle won the DGA award this weekend. The award almost always results in a win for Best Director at the Oscars, so Slumdog, while garnering far fewer nominations than Ben Button, has a stronger chance of winning its categories.

Next week brings deliciously creepy stop-motion Coraline, romcom He's Just Not That Into You, Pink Panther 2, and Push. Summit's Push stars Dakota Fanning, meaning the young actress, who also voices the titular role in Coraline, will have two films debut the same week.

Full studio estimates here.

Mall Cop holds down #1 spot; Oscar nominees see lift

By Sarah Sluis

Paul Blart: Mall Cop earned $21.5 million this weekend, bringing its two-week total to $64.5 million. Any reservations I had about the film's appeal were halted when I visited a mall this weekend, and was treated to the sight of a mall cop, on a Segway, ordering a meal at Dunkin Donuts. There's just something incredibly pompous about being mounted on a Segway, even without the addition of a coffee/doughnuts stereotype. If I were a teen moviegoer eager to thumb authority, I would definitely go see this movie in my mall's multiplex. With just a 32% drop from last week, the movie most likely had good word-of-mouth among fans of Kevin James.

Right behind Paul Blart, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans debuted at $20.7 million, while the badly reviewed Inkheart earned just $7.7 million and the number seven spot. Guess they won't be making any of the two already-scripted sequels.

With the Oscar nominees announced on Thursday, many films angling for nominations planned on expanding their runs in hopes of picking up extra business. The snubbed Gran Torino, which widened its

run last week, continued to make the biggest impact on the box office, dropping just one spot to number three. With so much momentum, it stands a chance at overtaking the gross of big-budget, most-nominated film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which staged its wide release over Christmas. Gran Torino's take, $97 million, is just slightly under Button's $111 million (to date) gross.

With so many Oscar contenders in the running amidst the January comedies and thrillers, over twenty

films grossed more than $1 million this weekend. All the nominated films saw boosts in business, especially when combined with expanded runs. Slumdog Millionaire, which moved into national release, saw an 80% increase in business, earning $10.5 million and the number five spot. Benjamin Button also made the top ten, but, already saturated in every market, saw only a 7% rise in business, earning $6 million and the number nine spot.

Despite receiving a mere three Oscar nominations, Revolutionary Road saw an almost 200% increase in business, and a per-screen average of $4,979, making the film more efficient than expansions of Best Picture nominees Frost/Nixon and The Reader. On the strength of Mickey Rourke's Oscar nomination, The Wrestler earned $6,537 per screen while showing on a modest 566 screens.

Next weekend thrillers The Uninvited and Taken will compete for attention, along with Renee Zellwegger starrer New in Town, mixing in with the awards contenders and, of course, the mall cop.

Full studio estimates viewable here.

'Bride Wars' battles 'The Unborn'

By Sarah Sluis

It's Friday premiere time at the box office, and the biggest release is Bride Wars (3,226 theatres), a film



sure to water down the flames surrounding Anne Hathaway's Rachel Getting Married "Best Actress" nomination, and extinguish the embers of Kate Hudson's rom-com career run. Four out of five Kate Hudson movies are rom-coms, and the only distinguishing one of the pack was Almost Famous, more a comedy-drama (and a supporting role!) than the unlucky-in-love pieces she, or her agent, insist on making. All this makes me wonder--can Kate Hudson actually act? Besides Almost Famous, I did enjoy her in twist-ending The Skeleton Key, but How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days? Or this weekend's Bride Wars? Save me. Thankfully, it appears Hudson has received the message: her next projects include two dramatic, historical romances (departure!), and a supporting role in prestige picture Nine (stage adaptation; Weinstein project).

Next on the list is The Unborn (2,356 theatres), another addition to the wave of Holocaust/Nazi movies that have been raining on audiences. This time, though, a woman is possessed by a deceased demonic twin, which has its root in Nazi spirits and can only be ousted by a Holocaust survivor. It sounds a bit exploitative and disrespectful to me, but I'm sure the film manages to handle this deftly. Especially because one of their frights involves a dream of a dog wearing a human mask. Go see it if this idea creeps you out in a good way.

Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino expands to 2,808 theatres this week, ensuring audiences will see this well-reviewed film that has especially resonated with older viewers. The Reader will also expand to 507 theatres, surpassing the release of Kate Winslet's other picture, Revolutionary Road, which is still at 135 theatres.

Not Easily Broken, about a couple struggling to maintain their marriage, sounds like the black version of Fireproof, the Christian-themed film that quietly made over $30 million this fall by marketing towards church groups and highly targeting its distribution. Since Not Easily Broken is releasing on just 724 screens, demographic targeting will be extremely important to the film's success.

My advice? Stick to seeing the event/awards films, but, if you must, know that the fluffy releases smell a bit like a dog left in the rain.