State Property Belly I Got the Hook Up State Property II
1 Saw IV $32,110,000 $10,087 $32,110,000
2 Dan in Still Life with Fruit Basket
 $12,081,000 $6,288 $12,081,000
3 30 Days of Night $6,700,000 (-58.0%) $2,343 $27,318,000
4 The Game Plan $6,257,000 (-23.5%) $1,872 $77,067,000
5 Tyler Perry’s License to Print Money $5,740,000 (-52.9%) $3,025 $47,300,000
6 Michael Clayton $5,030,000 (-24.7%) $1,945 $28,774,000
7 Gone Baby Gone $3,900,000 (-29.1%) $2,276 $11,310,000
8 The Comebacks $3,450,000 (-37.9%) $1,226 $10,004,000
9 We Own a Nacho Machine $3,400,000 (-37.3%) $1,415 $25,070,000
10 The Nightmare Before Christmas (in 3-D) $3,347,000 (-37.2%) $5,934 $10,002,000

Wow, those Saw films still make money. Nikki Finke referred to its audience as sickos. But she’s a very interesting human being, and should be forgiven her eccentricities – and distaste for things she doesn’t understand – like your not-as-loveable racist grandfather. Does the film get near $80 million, as its brethren did? Probably not – likely, it gets in the $70’s, but since these films are done for the very cheap, it’s cash register for Lionsgate, and they’ll keep making ’em as long as they’re turning a very very large profit. Which they are. Expect Saw V next Halloween, and Saw VI in 2009. And remember that the Nightmare films also came at a pretty quick clip, as did the Friday the 13th films.

Dan in Real Life did better than expected. The question now is: will it play long? Since the director reads the site, I’ll wish him well, even if we’re not the target demo. Then again, since so many 30 and under male types who love the internet might be afraid of women and all that, maybe this film is for our TD. 30 Days is 30 done. SNAP! It should settle out around $45, which is not great, especially cause it’ll get smoked by Saw. What went wrong? A lot of people didn’t like the film, but just as many did. I always blame advertising.

What is working? The Game Plan, which is still going strong and only taking slight dips. Bee Movie should take it down a notch, but if Disney plays it right, they could get it to at least $90, though that stretch to nine digits seems a little out of reach. But Disney’s also got that rather successful reissue of Nightmare to crow about. Tyler Perry is also a cash machine, moving and grooving it. As bad a summer as Lionsgate had, as long as they have the Saw and the Perry, they should be all right.

Clayton is playing well considering it was initially tagged as a flop. Now it’s more of a minor player. Will it get Academy attention? Maybe small nods. Nothing that could go all the way, though.

I saw Gone Baby Gone this weekend, and it made me hate Ben Affleck for making a fucking great movie his first time out. This is the year of Casey Affleck. Box office wise? Not so much. But I love the film, and if you have a chance, it’s totally worth seeing (as Jeremy and Russ said before me). The Comebacks is doing barely better than the Nightmare Before Christmas reissue. That’s something. While We Own the Night has made money for Sony, who grabbed it for cheap. And Rendition is out of the top ten. Man, could New Line’s year get any worse? Dot. Dot dot.