“Angels & Demons” barely beats “Star Trek” to top the weekend box office

“Angels & Demons” was number one with $48.00 million, but the second Dan Brown novel-turned-movie made almost $30 million less than “The DaVinci Code” (2006), which opened with $77.07 million.

It didn’t take long for “Star Trek” to crack the $100 million mark… with $147.61 million, its now the biggest earner ever for the franchise… passing the $109.71 million mark held by “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986).

“Monsters vs. Aliens” is still holding strong in its 8th week of release, actually moving up one spot from 8th to 7th as the rest of the field mostly moved down one spot.    Overall, the weekend earnings ($132 million) were down for a second straight weekend… 7% lower… but next weekends’ big openings of action franchiser ”Terminator Salvation” and the family friendly ”Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” should turn that trend around.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Angels & Demons” - $48.00 million (1st week)

2. “Star Trek” – $43.00 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 43%of audience from last week)

3. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” – $14.80 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 44% of audience from last week)

4. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” – $6.86 million
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 33% of audience from last week)

5. “Obsessed”  – $4.55 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 31% of audience from last week)

(more…)

“Star Trek” becomes the biggest opening for a Star Trek movie and is on its way to being the 2nd to crack $100 million

(Updated 5/12/09) With $72.50 million “Star Trek” becomes the biggest opening weekend ever for the franchise and if you add in the $4 million on Thursday, its already the 5th highest grossing movie in the franchise, and easily on track to be just the 2nd to crack the $100 million mark. (See more on the Star Trek franchise at the box office below)

The comedy “Next Day Air” opened in 6th with just $4 million at the box office.

Returns for “The Chaos Experiment”, were limited at just two Grand Rapids area theaters over the weekend with just 225 tickets sold for the R-rated thriller.

Overall, the weekend offerings were actually down 6% at the box office from last weekend’s huge $150 million weekend.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Star Trek” – $76.50 million (includes $4.0 million Thursday) (1st week)

2. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” – $27.00 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 68% of audience from last week)

3. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” – $10.45 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 32% of audience from last week)

4. “Obsessed”  – $6.60 million
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 45% of audience from last week)

5. “17 Again” – $4.41 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 30% from last week)

(more…)

“X-Men” give the box office a heroic boost of 46%

“X-Men Origins Wolverine” was easily number one at the weekend box office with $87 million, but didn’t make as much as expected ($95 million).  The romantic-comedy “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” debuted at 2nd with $15.33 million.  The animated action/adventure “Battle for Terra” was a distant 12th with just $1.06 million.

The weekend offerings gave the box office a 46% increase from last weekend, a big jumpstart to the summer movie season.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” – $87.00 million (1st week)

2. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” – $15.33 million (1st week)

3. “Obsessed”  – $12.20 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 57% of audience from last week)

4. “17 Again” – $6.36 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 45% from last week)

5. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $5.80  million
(6th week, was #5 last week, lost 32% from last week)

(more…)

The thriller “Obsessed” topped last week’s number one “17 Again” by more than $17 million in the last weekend before the summer movie season begins.  The long delayed drama “The Soloist” (originally scheduled to release in November) opened in 4th, while “Fighting” was just behind “17 Again” in 3rd and the DisneyNature documentary “earth” was a close 5th.

The four new movies helped turn around a two week decline at the box office: the top 12 combined for nearly $104 million at the box office, a 3.6% increase from last weekend.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Obsessed”  – $28.5 million (1st week)

2. “17 Again” – $11.67 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 51% of audience from last week)

3. “Fighting” – $11.44 million (1st week)

4. “The Soloist” – $9.72 million (1st week)

5. “Earth” – $8.55 million (1st week)

(more…)

Tweens, teens, and even older groups of moviegoers made Zac Efron and “17 Again” the number one movie by nearly $10 million.     The Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren, Rachael McAdams, Jeff Daniels, Jason Bateman, and Robin Wright Penn political thriller “State of Play” was 2nd with $14 million.   “Hannah Montana: The Movie”’s audience went to “17 Again”, pushing last week’s number one movie down to 4th place.  “Crank: High Voltage” debuted in 6th place with just $6 million.

But the bigger story here is that the box office was down 20% from last weekend, the 4th lowest weekend of the year’s 17 weekends so far.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “17 Again” – $24.06 million (1st week)

2. “State of Play” - $14.10 million (1st week)

3. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $12.90  million
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 41% from last week)

4. “Hannah Montana The Movie” – $12.67 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 61% from last week)

5. “Fast and Furious” – $12.29 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 55% of audience from last week)

(more…)

“Hannah Montana: The Movie” rolled over “Fast and Furious” for number one at the Easter weekend box office with $34 million (the 2nd biggest Easter weekend opening).   In West Michigan, Celebration Cinema reports selling 7,000 tickets in the first four hours of business.

Last week’s number one “Fast and Furious” lost a staggering 59% of its audience from its record-breaking opening weekend.  “Monsters vs. Aliens” held on to third place, staying ahead of new movies “Observe and Report” that earned just $11 million and “Dragonball Evolution” that barely cracked the top 10 with $4.65 million in 8th place.

“Sunshine Cleaning” lost the least of the top 15 movies, down less than 1% from the previous weekend… “Knowing” and “I Love You, Man” are also holding onto their audience, losing just 18% and 17% from last week.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Hannah Montana The Movie” – $34.00 million (1st week)

2. “Fast and Furious” – $28.78 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 59% of audience from last week)

3. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $22.62  million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 31% from last week)

4. “Observe and Report” – $11.14 million (1st week)

5. “Knowing” – $6.67 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 18% from last week)

(more…)

“Fast and Furious” smashes this year’s record for biggest opening weekend, pulling in $72 million, that’s the biggest April opening ever and $14 million more than last weekend’s number one movie “Monsters vs. Aliens”.   Its a 9% increase from last weekend.

In addition to breaking the April record, “Fast and Furious”’s $72.51 million was nearly as much as all of the Top 12 movies combined for the same weekend in 2008 ($80.22 million April 4-6, 2008).

“Adventureland” opened in 6th place, while “Sunshine Cleaning” cracked the top 10 as it opened in West Michigan for the first time.

So much for staying power, “Watchmen” drops out of Top 10 in just its 5th week (from 8th to 13th)… meanwhile “Taken” holds on in its 11th week, losing 41% of its audience from last week, moving just 2 spots (2 new movies) from 9th to 11th.   But “I Love You, Man” lost the least of the top 15 movies, down just 38% from the previous weekend. 

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Fast and Furious” – $72.51 million (1st week)

2. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $33.51 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 44% of audience from last week)

3. “The Haunting in Connecticut” – $9.55 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 59% from last week)

4. “Knowing” – $8.13 million
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 45% from last week)

5. “I Love You, Man” – $7.85 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 38% from last week)

(more…)

Its the biggest opening weekend so far this year…. the animated sci-fi/action movie “Monsters vs. Aliens” hauls in $58 million in a weekend with very little family film competition.   The horror movie “The Haunting in Connecticut” was a distant 2nd and the action thriller “12 Rounds” was an even more distant 7th.

Last week’s number one “Knowing”, number two “I Love You, Man”, and number three “Duplicity” dropped two spots, holding their order from last week, but “I Love You, Man” lost the least from last week, just 29% of its audience while “Knowing” lost 40% of its audience and “Duplicity” lost 46% from last week.

“Sunshine Cleaning”, which opens in Grand Rapids market this Friday, nearly cracked the Top 10 in its 3rd week of limited release, despite playing in just 167 theaters nationwide. 

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $58.20 million (1st week)

2. “The Haunting in Connecticut” – $23.01 million (1st week)

3. “Knowing” – $14.71 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 40% of audience from last week)

4. “I Love You, Man” – $12.60 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 29% from last week)

5. “Duplicity” – $7.56 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 46% from last week)

(more…)

The futuristic thriller “Knowing” leads the pack of three new movies released on Friday, the buddy bromance “I Love You, Man” was second and the Julia Roberts-Clive Owen espionage romance “Duplicity” was third.

“Taken” continues to hold on, now in its 8th week of release, it is losing less than the movies that have been in theaters for fewer weeks, losing 38% of its audience from last week while “Watchmen” lost 62%, “Last House on the Left” lost 58%, and “Race to Witch Mountain” lost 47% of the audience from last week.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Knowing” – $24.81 million (1st week)

2. “I Love You, Man” – $18.00 (1st week)

3. “Duplicity” – $14.40 million (1st week)

4. ”Race to Witch Mountain” – $13.00 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 47% from last week)

5. “Watchmen” - $6.73 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 62% from last week)

(more…)

Updated from post originally published 3/17/09:

New at Theaters (Friday): “Duplicity”, “I Love You, Man”, “Knowing”, “Super Capers” (limited, playing in several theaters in Grand Rapids market)

 Watch the trailer for “Duplicity”

Watch the trailer for “I Love You, Man”

Watch the trailer for “Knowing”

Watch the trailer for “Super Capers”

BEST BET: “I Love You, Man” is a funny R-rated buddy comedy that is a good man-date movie choice and could be a date night movie with wife or girlfriend… “Duplicity” is a crime/thriller with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen that looks pretty good, but have not seen yet …. and “Knowing” is a sci-fi/thriller that is good, but might be a better rental because you could be disappointed after paying full price for your movie ticket and concessions.

 CLICK HERE TO FIND A MOVIE SHOWTIME

New on DVD (Tuesday): “Elegy”, “Punisher: War Zone”, “Twilight” (Saturday 3/21) 

BEST BET: “Twilight” was the big event movie for fans of the book, it won’t be available to rent/buy until Saturday, while “Elegy” had some early Oscar buzz for the acting performances of Penelope Cruz and Ben Kingsley, if you like superhero movies and waited to see “Punisher: War Zone”… and you’ve seen everything else (10 new movies on DVD last week), now may be the time to see it.

MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT: 

(more…)