| Film | Weekend Gross | Per screen | B.O. Total | |
| 1 | Blades of Glory | $23,000,000 (-30.3%) | $6,744 | $68,383,000 |
| 2 | Meet the Robinsons | $17,004,000 (-32.3%) | $3,435 | $52,235,000 |
| 3 | Are We Done Yet? | $15,000,000 (-New) | $2,877 | $19,063,000 |
| 4 | Grindhouse | $11,591,000 (-New) | $4,417 | $11,591,000 |
| 5 | The Reaping | $10,080,000 (-New) | $3,872 | $12,010,000 |
| 6 |
300 | $8,825,000 (-22.8%) | $3,300 | $193,880,000 |
| 7 | Wild Hogs | $6,838,000 (-21.1%) | $2,420 | $145,453,000 |
| 8 | Shooter | $5,800,000 (-30.7%) | $2,464 | $36,656,000 |
| 9 | TMNT | $4,935,000 (-46.5%) | $1,755 | $46,722,000 |
| 10 | Firehouse Dog | $4,000,000 (-New) | $1,398 | $5,257,000 |
Oh Shit.
Let me repeat that.
Oh. Shit.
As I mentioned on Friday, I knew that Grindhouse was a tough sell, but I thought all the kids in America who want to make movies and work on their screenplays and dream of being the next Tarantino would turn out for this. And maybe they did. And maybe that’s Kevin Smith business.
Whether the film cost $50 million or $80 million, it’s not going to crack $40 million. It may not crack $30 million. This is the first time in Quentin Tarantino’s career that he’s had an out-and-out belly flop, so it’ll be interesting to see how he takes it. It’s not as if he can’t weather the storm, but the last two to three movies (depending on how you count Kill Bill) were indulgences, so maybe this sends him in a new direction. As Mr. Beaks pointed out yesterday, this does not bode well for the Brothers Weinstein – they’ve had a "scissorfingers off" policy with Tarantino, and since they are unable to deliver Oscars or Box Office, perhaps Miramax 2.0 won’t be around for QT’s next project, depending on when he’s next going to get off his duff. QT without the Weinsteins might be bad for us all. Perhaps Cannes will restore some luster, though I’m guessing fans will get their backsides drilled by the DVD releases.
The good-ish news is that Blades of Glory held strong and only took a 30% hit. What looked to be something that wouldn’t crack a hundred will surely join the century club thanks to such weak competition. Same could be said of Meet the Robinsons, which bested Ice Cube’s Are We Done Yet? and strangled the life out of Firehose Dog like it had some Soul Vengeance in its pants. Robinsons may play into Shrek 3, so perhaps it will also cross the $100 million mark, but I wouldn’t bet on it. The Reaping did ten and hit twelve. Which means it’ll likely do less business than The Messengers. That’s about right.
So, my estimates were painfully, horribly wrong. I take solace in the fact that everyone else was as well, that I saw Hot Fuzz last night, and that I own a copy of Soul Vengeance.
It looks like 300 will crack $200 million by the end of next weekend, and Wild Hogs will top out around $160 million. April 13th offers Disturbia, Perfect Stranger, Pathfinder, Slow Burn, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force to wide release, which means Shooter and TMNT will lose most of their screens, and the multiplexes will clear themselves of the lingering Premonitions, and Reign Over Mes, and probably shed some Wild Hogs at that. Most of next week’s films are April dumps, and will play for two or three weeks until the big summer dogs kick them off screen. You can feel it in the air that we’re heading into one of the craziest blockbuster summers ever. Until then, we’re going to see a lot of films that suck, and also one of 2007’s best films, Hot Fuzz.