| Title | Weekend | Per Screen | Total | |
| 1 | The Dark Knight | $155,340,000 | $35,579 | $155,340,000 |
| 2 | Mamma Mia! | $27,605,000 | $9,275 | $27,605,000 |
| 3 | Hancock | $14,000,000 (-56.4%) | $3,707 | $191,504,000 |
| 4 | Journey to the Center of the Earth | $11,910,000 (-43.3%) | $4,208 | $43,074,000 |
| 5 | Hellboy II: The Golden Army | $10,038,000 (-70.9%) | $3,125 | $56,447,000 |
| 6 | Wall-E | $9,813,000 (-47.8%) | $2,964 | $182,476,000 |
| 7 | Space Chimps | $7,350,000 | $2,927 | $7,350,000 |
| 8 | Wanted | $5,097,000 (-57.5%) | $2,094 | $123,347,000 |
| 9 | Get Smart | $4,085,000 (-43.3%) | $1,913 | $119,569,000 |
| 10 | Kung Fu Panda | $1,750,000 (-60.3%) | $1,162 | $206,506,000 |
This just in: The yellow Nissan Ultima was missing license plates, but did have a bumper sticker reading “I’d rather be fucking.”
Break out the champagne, Brothers of Warner, the opening weekend record is no longer held by Spider-Man 3, it’s currently held by the number one film on IMDb, The Dark Knight. Warners was trying to play it cool not so long ago, but this is an opening for the record books, in that it now holds the record for biggest opening weekend. Funny how those record books work. They record things that make records. But not like Foreigner or Gary Glitter, it’s a different kind of record, and doesn’t involve a recorder, in the sense of a woodwind instrument.
Basically, The Dark Knight made a shitload of cash. The only perceivable negative is that the Saturday-Sunday numbers were off the spectacular Friday $67-ish Million, but when you consider that at least $18 of that was from midnight shows, the fall off was nearly nothing (67 – 18 = 49). So anyone who tries to bemoan the drop off just has some whiner juice in their beer. And it’s likely that if this number gets moved in one direction or another, I might would favor it going up (the only caveat is that it did not have the biggest Saturday ever, but again we’re splitting infinitives if that’s a big deal). Anyone who was expecting the film to come anywhere near $200 million were not that smart, so if your expectations were reasonable enough this number is legend. That record’s gonna have to wait for Batman Three to get busted. Or The Hobbit. Or Avatar. Or Terminator: The Rise of the Terminator.
Hellboy’s audience must have known this was coming, as they sure as poops went opening weekend and had better things to do (read: The Dark Knight) starting Friday. Such explains how shorty got so low. Since the first film topped out around $60, it’s fair to say that HB2 will top that, but the vacuum TDK created may cause it to – at best – only double its opening weekend. With Del Toro moving on to The Hobbit, we may very well be done with the franchise, unless DVD sales are robust. Which they may be.
Mamma Mia! opened strong in terms of being counter-programming. And, because it’s not playing by the normal rules, that means it may have a longer shelf life (Personal note: I refuse to use the term multiplier. It strikes me as bullshit, but that’s just me). So, basically, getting to nine-digits is not out of the question at all. It will just require some stretching. But the weekday numbers this week should be good, and it probably won’t take too much of a hit next weekend.
Hancock will get over $200, but it’s-a petering. Considering many found this film to be Smith’s worst since Wild Wild West, that’s nothing to sneer at. And it should get somewhere closer to the $220 range. Journey to the Center of the Earth held better than one might expect, perhaps because of the RealD factor. It supposedly cost $60, and that’s likely where it’ll end up. Expect it to get decimated when Brendan Frasier’s other film opens in two weeks.
Wall-E‘s going to have to make due with around $200, and may yet not make the coin of Kung Fu Panda. I have no idea what happened. Perhaps the Pixar brand is so trusted that some families just skip the theatrical and go straight for the DVD, especially when money is tighter than normal. Since they’ll be waiting for Christmas, they can even kill two birds with one Stone IPA. International is likely going to be pretty kick-ass, and so will the toy sales and home video stuff. But still, who thought it would be lagging behind Panda at this point? Space Chimps died as you might expect, but it isn’t the travesty of Meet Dave (which is now out of the top ten). Jesus, that was last week, Space Chimps is this week, and the new X-Files movie is Friday. That’s three back-to-back underperformers for Fox. They must have a lot of faith or coin tied up in Avatar. Or something.
I was going to do some more research about elements of this release, but Box Office Mojo is crashing. Likely because the fanbase is overwhelming their servers to look at the numbers. It’s funny how enthusiasm is both a good and a bad thing. I’m enthusiastic that Eddie Deezen will be at the New Beverly tonight for the 7:30 showing of Midnight Madness. So how different am I from the guy who dresses up like The Joker? The line is thin.