Box Office Results: 29 - 31 May 2009
Up won. Big surprise. The bite it took out of every other film is the surprising part. Full results after the jump:
1. Up (debut): $68.2 million; 98% Rotten Tomatoes; 89 Metacritic; 9.2 IMDB
2. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2nd Week): $25.5 million ($105.3 million gross); 45% Rotten Tomatoes; 41 Metacritic; 6.1 IMDB; down 53%
3. Drag Me To Hell (debut): $16.6 million; 94% Rotten Tomatoes; 83 Metacritic; 8.2 IMDB
4. Terminator Salvation (second week): $16.1 million ($90.7 million gross); 34% Rotten Tomatoes; 51 Metacritic; 7.3 IMDB; down 62%
5. Star Trek (fourth week): $12.8 million ($209.5 million gross); 95% Rotten Tomatoes; 83 Metacritic; 8.4 IMDB; down 44%
Last week's number one and number two films fell more than 50% when faced with Up. Even the steady performing Star Trek lost some significant steam against Pixar. What I would love to see is a breakdown of how many tickets were sold for 3-D showings and how many for regular. At least in my area, theaters charge $1-2 fees for seeing a film in 3-D, and those are normally packed screenings compared to non-3-D showings.
Up should have staying power. The next big kids film is Imagine That in two weeks, and I have a feeling that might under-perform.
Drag Me To Hell is pretty safe as well. The next thriller is The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, and I can't even find another wide release horror film on the horizon.
The big picture to watch for is the next Transformers film. I personally hope it bombs miserably at the box office. I doubt that will happen on June 24.
Poor $9.99, a stop-motion feature targeted at adults, isn't even going to go wide.