Weekend Box Office Results for May 25–28, 2007

Weekend Box Office Results for May 25–28, 2007

To make a long story short, the predictions just seem to have been too aggressive, because the films were off about 15% across the board, yet the aggregate still set the record for the Memorial Day weekend, so it's not really sensible to put a negative spin on the second-highest weekend of all time just because it was expected to be the highest.

Beneath that blanket statement there are some interesting small stories: (1)Wild Hogs, in its 13th week, was somehow rediscovered by moviegoers and roared back into the top ten. It was 241% above last week, despite being in few theaters. I have no explanation. Not even a decent theory. (2) Unlike the other leaders, Waitress was NOT off about 15%. Quite to the contrary, it did 43% better than expected. It crept into the top five in its fourth week. It managed to pass 28 Weeks Later and Georgia Rule, films which have been in theaters a shorter period and are on four times as many screens. Given its obviously excellent word-of-mouth and 90% positive reviews, Waitress is starting to look like the biggest sleeper hit since My Big Fat Greek Wedding. But the thing that distinguishes a real sleeper is its very long legs, so it's far too early to draw any conclusions.