Other Crap

Weekend Box Office Results for December 14–16, 2007

Box Office in distress? Will Smith and Alvin to the rescue. The two big releases alone took in about as much as last year's entire box office, leading the week to a staggering 36% increase over last year. Between them they took in more than $120 million, about doubling expectations! Unfortunately, they left little for the other kids. Every other film on the list below tumbled dramatically, especially The Golden Compass, which plummeted 65% from last week

Two other films got to share a bit of the wealth. Atonement and Juno snuck into the bottom of the top twelve, despite being in only 117 and 40 theaters, respectively. Juno took in more in those 40 theaters than Beowulf did in 1600!

Juno, an offbeat coming-of-age story, is rated 8.6 at IMDb, and received 94% positive reviews, which makes you wonder why it's only on 40 screens. It was directed by the son of the guy who directed Stripes and Ghostbusters.

Atonement is the period piece with Keira Knightley. It scores 8.2 at IMDb and received 85% positive reviews. Like Juno, it was nominated for multiple Golden Globes.

The studios and distributors will be looking for ways to expand those two films, but it will not be easy to get them in more than 200 theaters. Next week is crowded with prestige releases. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is slated for 2500 theaters, Charlie Wilson's War for 2500, and Sweeney Todd for 1000, and all of those films are currently running above 90% at RT. In addition, PS I Love You hits 2200 screens, and National Treasure 2 is slated for a blockbuster-hopeful 3500 screens. There seems to be no room for Atonement and Juno.