Blood bath
Prom Night, the horror fest loosely based on the 1980 film by the same name, cashed in on the impending high-school formal season with $20.8 million and a victory at the box office. The scarier scene came from the overall box-office picture, however, as the industry suffered a fourth consecutive down weekend when compared with the same period last year.
The up side
Since Prom Night was really the only film to open all that well, let's heap a little more praise on it (even though the critics certainly haven't). In addition to winning the weekend, it also had the highest per-screen average of any film in the top 40. And at a cost of just $20 million, everything from here on out is gravy.
Bomb Squad
Strangely, despite another down weekend there really isn't one film to pick on. Sure, you can always further ridicule Leatherheads -- already a Squad member. You could mention that it hasn't even made back half of its $58 million price tag. Or that it suffered the second most precipitous fall of any film in the top 10, bested only by that gem The Ruins. But that would just be piling on.
Swami Sez
Sometimes, the Swami must stand in awe of his own brilliance.
Prediction: Prom Night easily takes the top spot with $21 million.
Result: If we round up, we're right on the nose.
Prediction: Street Kings finishes second with $12 million.
Result: Swami will elect to round down from $12.5 million in this instance.
An age-old question
It'll be tough to top last weekend's successful predicting, but let's try anyway. This weekend shapes up as a two-film battle between the R-rated Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the PG-13 The Forbidden Kingdom. Now, if you've been reading this space regularly, you know that the bet here is nearly always on the PG-13 film, figuring that a larger potential audience will equal more cash.
Prediction: No reason to change now. Forbidden Kingdom eeks out a win with $22 million.
Edged out by a nose
Don't worry about Sarah Marshall, though. Its extensive viral marketing campaign should pay dividends, especially if theater owners look the other way when the high-school set tries to buy a ticket.
Prediction: Forgetting Sarah Marshall finishes second with $21 million.
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Comments
Posted by Kip Mooney @ 8:48 AM Thu, Apr 17, 2008
This week's box office hurts my head. While The Ruins ain't no Psycho, it's still a zillion times better than the recent batch of PG-13 "scarers." And when Clooney gets bested by a bunch of kids 2 weeks in a row...wow, what a sad state we're in.