You can't count on Will Ferrell movies to be funny, but you can almost always bank on them to be number one at the box office. There are the rare occasions where his movies open at number two, but they only do worse than that when they're actually worth watching. For example: Blades of Glory mysteriously earns the top spot opening weekend but Stranger Than Fiction only rolled in at number four.
The strange obsessions with Ferrell's ability to involve himself in stupid sports movie continued this weekend, followed right behind by America's strange obsession with paying money to see them. Semi-Pro didn't make a ton of money, but $15 milion was enough to steal the number one spot. That's right, another week where we have to watch our nation humiliated by having ads run declaring the movie is the #1 movie in America. Isn't it bad enough much of the rest of the world hates us for being rich snobs? Do we really have to flaunt our awful taste in comedy? Our neighbors across the pond have a word or two to say about it. Check out CB's Stuart Wood as he clearly lays out why Ferrell has worn out his welcome [Read the article here].
With that kind of money the movie might not be able to bank back its payroll, much less its budget. While costs on the film haven't been released, it couldn't have been cheap to get Ferrell, Woody Harrelson and Andre 3000 (the artist now calling himself Andre Benjamin) on board. If it does lose money, count it a blessing. Since Ferrell clearly doesn't have the good sense to stop making this kind of crap, making low cash returns will bring studios to their senses.
The other new releases this weekend scattered themselves around the top ten. The latest attempt to make King Henry VIII sexy couldn't even clear the $10 million mark. At $8.3 million, I couldn't be happier. I don't mind Hollywood taking a few liberties with history, but casting Eric Bana as Henry VIII? Has no one in Hollywood ever seen portraits of the guy? Penelope, Christina Ricci's swing from Black Snake Moan's over-sexed beauty to pig-nosed beauty didn't fare well at all, just breaking $4 million and pretty much guaranteeing itself a quick disappearance from theaters.
In the wake of its Oscar Best Picture win, No Country For Old Men got a shot in the arm with a widened release that nearly doubled the number of theaters where it was showing. Though it's neck-and-neck with but just below Penelope, there's a good chance that when finalized box office numbers roll out tomorrow, Old Men will jump to eighth place, up two spots from last weekend. Already at $69 million in domestic sales and more than $100 million when you roll in international numbers, it not only won a ton of awards, it brought home a decent paycheck as well.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP TEN
February 29 - March 2, 2008 |
LW = Last Week WR = Weeks Released
THTRS = Number of Screens
* Denotes new release.
Click on title to read CB Review |
| 1. | Semi-Pro * | $15,200,000 - Total: $15,200,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 3121 |
|
| 2. | Vantage Point | $13,000,000 - Total: $41,005,000 | LW: 1 WR: 2 THTRS: 3150 |
|
| 3. | The Spiderwick Chronicles | $8,752,000 - Total: $55,081,000 | LW: 2 WR: 3 THTRS: 3654 |
|
| 4. | The Other Boleyn Girl * | $8,300,000 - Total: $8,300,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 1166 |
|
| 5. | Jumper | $7,600,000 - Total: $66,823,000 | LW: 3 WR: 3 THTRS: 3128 |
|
| 6. | Step Up 2 the Streets | $5,714,000 - Total: $48,593,000 | LW: 4 WR: 3 THTRS: 2528 |
|
| 7. | Fool's Gold | $4,690,000 - Total: $59,073,000 | LW: 5 WR: 4 THTRS: 2845 |
|
| 8. | Penelope * | $4,006,000 - Total: $4,006,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 1196 |
|
| 9. | No Country for Old Men | $4,005,000 - Total: $69,570,000 | LW: 12 WR: 17 THTRS: 2037 |
|
| 10. | Juno | $3,350,000 - Total: $135,135,000 | LW: 8 WR: 13 THTRS: 1631 |
|
|
