Other Crap

Weekend Box Office Results, February 17-19, 2006

• There was only one major surprise in this group. Every film performed exactly as expected except Freedomland. Nobody expected that to be a blockbuster, but nobody anticipated the extent to which it would bomb.
• The minor surprise was the continued ability of The Pink Panther to exceed expectations. The studio heads are now lookin' like geniuses for holding it back so long.
• Note the rather sad state of choices for grown-up entertainment. There are only three films on the list with more good reviews than bad, and they are all kids' films - Eight Below, Nanny McPhee, and Curious George. After that group, Final Destination 3 is the next highest on the rating scale, and that's a genre pic primarily aimed at the teen audience. Beyond that, there's a whole bunch of movies between 7% and 25%. Gee, I wonder why the industry revenues are stagnating.