Weekend Box Office Results for March 14–16, 2008

Weekend Box Office Results for March 14–16, 2008

The weekend eked out a narrow edge over last year, thus ending the string of double-digit deficits. There were four reasons for this: (1) Horton Hears a Who, while pulling in a bit less than expected, did well (45 million dollars) and took in far more than all three of last year's new releases added together. (2) Never Back Down, a mixed martial arts film derided by critics as "The Karate Kid for MySpace cadets," and "Teen Fight Club," took in a lot more than expected. In fact, it doubled KJ's estimate. (3)The Bank Job found its audience. Apparently profiting from some good word of mouth, it dropped only 17% from last week. (4) Last year's "week ten" was an exceptionally poor week, so the increase was more a matter of weak competition than anything else. Last year's weeks 9-10-11 went $139m-102-125, and this week's comp was the weak one in the middle. In other words, next week's films will have to do much better to avoid resuming the double-digit drops.