Daily Box Office for Friday, October 31, 2008

Daily Box Office for Friday, October 31, 2008

I usually say "no surprises," but not this week. There's nothing BUT surprises.

• First there is the matter of High School Musical, which had one of the best October openings in history last week with $42 million, and was expected to clear another 20 or so. It did not even pull in two million on Friday, despite being in 3600 theaters. The record for the largest second-week drop among films in 3000 or more theaters is a mere 72.7%, and this one is on pace for about 85% !!! It could do no better on Friday than a shocking fifth place!
  
• The film that was supposed to finish in second place, Kevin Smith's latest, was supposed to be Kevin's big breakthrough. Some people thought it might reach up toward 70 million or more before leaving the theaters. Although it was in some 2700 theaters, it finished third, with only two million on Friday, barely beating the film with zero percent positive reviews, The Haunting of Molly Hartley.
• The top film was last week's #2, Saw 5. Nobody saw that coming.
• The #2 film was Changeling, the Clint Eastwood project starring Jolie.
  
• Note that results are always crazy when Halloween falls on a Friday, because a very high percentage of the potential movie-goers are otherwise occupied. I think you can expect most films to be about twice as high on Saturday, and that ratio may be even more dramatic for Kevin's film. The last time Halloween fell on Friday was 2003, and the studios chose not to open any new films that week! Scary Movie 3 was the big carry-over, and it took in only $4.4 million, then jumped to $10.2 million on Saturday. In other words, these Friday results may not mean a thing. We'll see tomorrow.