Six new movies in wide release and only one manages to make any money worth getting excited about. 30 Days Of Night, no doubt cashing in on the Halloween holiday just around the corner, took in $16 million over the weekend. Of course it was wisely dumped a weekend early as it would stand no chance against the inexplicably successful cult favorite Saw franchise, which next weekend releases a movie for the fourth Halloween in a row.
Another seasonal favorite returned this weekend. Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas was re-released in Disney Digital 3-D for a second year in a row. For those of you wondering, Disney Digital 3-D is pretty much the same as regular 3-D as far as you're concerned, but Disney used a special process to create it and they'll use any excuse to get their name out there.
Last Halloween Nightmare took home a big bag of candy, making $3.2 million in just 168 theaters (a whopping $19,500 per theater). This year Disney was a little bit bolder, sending the 3-D claymation adventure into 564 theaters and earning $5.1 million (a diminished but still impressive $9,100 per theater). I'm not a huge fan of paying to go to the theater to see the same stuff over and over, but if the money Disney is making on this keeps them away from making crappy animated sequels, I'm all for it.
You can see how the other new releases fared by checking the chart below, but there's one you won't find. Things We Lost In The Fire only scraped together $1.6 million, coming in 15th place. Not exactly where I like to see Benicio Del Toro end up, but perhaps the best that can be expected given that he's teamed with Halle Berry.
Next weekend only two new movies hit wide release. Steve Carrell treads into the realm of drama in Dan In Real Life with no hope of being number one. Why? Because Saw IV will defy the laws of reason to take top dollar.
October 19 - 21, 2007
THTRS = Number of Screens
* Denotes new release.
Click on title to read CB Review
| 1. | 30 Days of Night * | $16,000,000 - Total: $16,000,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 2855 |
| 2. | Tyler Perry's WhyDid I Get Married | $12,100,000 - Total: $38,865,000 | LW: 1 WR: 2 THTRS: 2034 |
| 3. | The Game Plan | $8,122,000 - Total: $69,150,000 | LW: 2 WR: 4 THTRS: 3301 |
| 4. | Michael Clayton | $7,100,000 - Total: $21,986,000 | LW: 4 WR: 3 THTRS: 2585 |
| 5. | Gone Baby Gone * | $6,000,000 - Total: $6,000,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 1713 |
| 6. | The Comebacks * | $5,850,000 - Total: $5,850,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 2812 |
| 7. | We Own the Night | $5,500,000 - Total: $19,784,000 | LW: 3 WR: 2 THTRS: 2362 |
| 8. | Tim Burton's The NightmareBefore Christmasin Disney Digital 3-D(2007 re-issue) * | $5,145,000 - Total: $5,145,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 564 |
| 9. | Rendition * | $4,175,000 - Total: $4,175,000 | LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 2250 |
| 10. | The Heartbreak Kid | $3,900,000 - Total: $32,111,000 | LW: 5 WR: 3 THTRS: 2782 |
