TheChez.net

by ssjrem

After the huge opening of Harry Potter last weekend, we knew we weren’t going to have a movie anywhere near those heights this weekend. Instead of a movie about a boy wizard, we got this weird movie about talking gerbils or hamsters or something like that. Or are they guinea pigs? Maybe that’s it.

G-Force

I have no idea what this movie is even supposed to be. I have no idea why it was even made. Most of all, I have no idea why the hell it is the number movie in America. It made 31.7 million this weekend, which exceeded expectations by a good margin. I only pegged this to make something in the lower to mid 20s. So, yeah, this is just another shining example of how an absolutely horrible idea can make lots and lots of money. Based on that opening and the fact this is a movie geared toward kids and those usually have pretty good legs, I’d say this could easily get above 100 million by the end of its run. A lot of people, myself included, expected Harry Potter to top the charts this weekend, but talking whatever the hell they are took down good old Harry. The wizard has to settle for the silver medal.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Given how front-loaded this was last weekend, it’s not terribly surprising that Potter has quite a sizable drop. It fell 62% to 29.5 million. That brings the grand total up to 221.3 million. At the same point, the previous installment, Order of the Phoenix, had made 207.9 million. So, while it’s good that Half-Blood Prince is seemingly going along at a faster pace, the truth is that the lead it has is pretty much entirely due to its first two days, especially those insane midnight showings. OOTP made 32.5 million in its second weekend, so that shows us that HBP is depreciating as a faster rate. The twenty million dollar lead that HPB had last weekend has shrunk down to 14 million now. If this trend continues, it’s entirely possible that HPB could gross less than its predecessor. Still, it should get up to the 290 million range and is raking in a huge amount of money overseas, so I doubt Warner Bros. is the least bit worried.

3. The Ugly Truth, like G-Force also exceeds expectations. Given the surprise success of comedies like The Hangover and The Proposal, I’m kind of surprised that this one made as much as it did. But I guess the two likable stars helped this. I just can’t think of Gerard Butler as anything other than King Leonidas, though. Anyway, The Ugly Truth pulled in a solid 27.6 million. Getting to 100 million all depends on the legs. The reviews have not been kind to this, but the general public really doesn’t care about those half the time. Word of mouth is everything.

4. Ugh. Orphan makes 12.9 million this weekend, which is actually fairly respectable. Every time I saw the trailer for this, I just kept thinking to myself, “This looks like the worst movie ever.” The whole stupid devil child has been done to death. How could you possibly put a new spin on it? I didn’t give two shits about this movie, so I decided to just read a plot synopsis because a couple reviews said that it has a crazy twist. And, yeah, the twist is actually pretty good. But, other than that, I’m sure the movie is terrible. Then again, I probably shouldn’t be so quick to judge.

5. Ice Age takes a hit in light of G-Force, falling 52% to 8.4 million. That brings the grand total up to 171.5 million. I don’t think that it’ll be able to hit 200 million, but it should get mighty close.

6. Transformers holds decently, falling 41% to 8.1 million. With 379 million in the bank already, it should be able to claw its way to 400 million, but it won’t get very far over that. Like I’ve been saying, I cannot imagine any movie this year that will get up to those heights. Avatar is just too much of a wild card, but judging by some of the stuff I read about the footage from Avatar shown at Comic-Con, it really is going to be something else. But will it be amazing enough to hit 400 million? I doubt it, but I won’t rule anything out.

7. Another 6.4 million and a 21% decrease shows that The Hangover just will not be stopped. The legs on this thing are insane. It’s at 247 million right now, making 260 a definite possibility. The way it looks, The Hangover has a fantastic shot at actually surpassing Star Trek. That’s extremely impressive given the fact that Star Trek opened with 30 million more and it too had good legs. I thought this movie was really funny and everything, but I never saw this kind of success coming. Among R-rated movies, this is the third highest grossing ever, behind only The Matrix Reloaded and The Passion of the Christ. That really is something else.

8. The Proposal and The Hangover have been side by side ever since The Proposal opened, but this is the first weekend that the Hangover has managed to outgross it. Granted, The Hangover had already had two full weekends by the time The Proposal opened. Anyway, with 6.4 million more, The Proposal now stands at 140 million with 150 a virtual guarantee.

9. Public Enemies continues to just not do that well. It hasn’t had any huge drops, but then again, it hasn’t held well either. 4.4 million this weekend brings the total up to 88 million and I’d say this will finish just shy of 100 million. I really was expecting a lot more from this movie, but I guess this kind of thing happens every now and then.

10. Rounding out the top ten, we have Bruno, which once again gets clobbered. It falls 66% and makes 2.8 million. How a movie can go from 30 million to just 2.8 million in two short weeks just amazes me. It’s only made 56 million so far, a far cry from Borat’s 128 million. It’ll probably end up with 58 to 60 million in the end.

So, we have some movie about some kind of rodents that can talk and are spies or ninjas or something and they top the box office with a pretty solid debut. Potter falls hard and other than that, nothing too terribly interesting. I did horrible in the Derby this week and my accuracy for the weekend was only like 77% or something like that. I severely under guessed both G-Force and The Ugly Truth. As we movie into August, next weekend brings us some retarded movie about aliens in the attic of some kids’ house and another comedy in Funny People. I really hope that Aliens in the Attic doesn’t open on top, but I really wouldn’t be surprised if it did. I guess that’s all. Peace out.