Other Crap

Weekend Box Office Results, January 27-29, 2006

• There are some suprises, but they are not so surprising if you follow this every week. Comedies almost always do better than predicted, sometimes much better. That seems to affect every type of comedy at every level of success.
• Big Momma's House 2 was expected to lead the box office, but was not expected to come so close to $30 million. It exceeded expectations by nearly 50%. It did so well that it was very close to the all-time best January opening for a first-release film. It seems to be in second place, but could still end up in the top spot when the final numbers some in. The current Momma estimate is $28 million. The record, held by Blackhawk Down, is $28.6 million.
• Nanny McPhee was supposed to be an also-ran, but ended up a powerful #2 with almost twice as much per screen as last week's champ Underworld: Evolution
• The Matador had been off the experts' radar, but put up some great numbers in limited distribution and finished tenth.
• In the non-comedy division, Brokeback Mountain added 450 more screens and held steady.
• Underworld dropped nearly 60%
• According to this report, Syriana was expanded to 1700 screens. That represented an addition of 1200 screens in its tenth week. Is this a misprint???? If it isnt a misprint, the guy who came up with this idea must wish it was. Although the movie had previously been a modest success, this maneuver seems to have tanked completely. It averaged $712 per screen - by far the lowest among the top 30. It grossed less per screen than Cheaper by the Dozen 2
• Oddly enough, even though the films below performed far better than expectations (16%, thirteen million dollars), the weekend was still below last year (5%, five million dollars). If they had come in as predicted, the weekend would have been down about 20%. I don't know if that is indicative of poor predictions, extreme market volatility, or a combination of both.