Other Crap

The Virgin holds off the new releases to top the weekend box office again.

• I don't see any major surprises in the chart below. The Penguin results are not as bad as they appear. The large negative number results from an aggressive prediction. The Warrior predicted only a 5% week-to-week decline for that film, and it dropped 30%. A thirty percent decline is still not so bad at all. It was the third best retention rate of the week, trailing only the two popular comedies (Virgin and Crashers).
• There was a third wide release this week, a gal-pal movie called Undiscovered, starring Ashlee Simpson. It bombed completely and apparently will remain permanently undiscovered. It grossed less than $700,000, despite being on 1300 screens. The $529 per screen average, assuming three showings per screen per day, works out to a per-screening average of $59. That represents about six or seven people.
• On the other hand, Undiscovered seemed like the next Titanic compared to Supercross, which dropped 72% and averaged $231 per screen (about three people per screening), while tying up 1600 screens which could have been used for good instead of evil.
• The Top 12 declined 2.5% from last year.