Climbing toward history
Stop me if you've heard this one before: The Dark Knight collected $26 million last weekend to finish first, this time holding off the stoner comedy Pineapple Express by $3 million. Along the way, it advanced to the No. 3 spot on the all-time domestic box-office chart with $441.5 million, about $20 million short of second place Star Wars.
The up side
Dark Knight's weekend victory marked its fourth consecutive week atop the charts, a truly rare feat. The last time a movie had that kind of staying power was late 2003-early 2004, when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took up residence at the top. It was toppled the next week by Along Came Polly starring Ben Stiller, who may also play the spoiler for Batman.
Bomb Squad
Hell Ride opened pretty small - just 82 screens. That was probably a wise choice, as not many people attended even those showings. Still, you would think that a movie with some name talent -- Dennis Hopper, Michael Madsen, David Carradine - could manage more than $100,164. They probably spent that much on gas for the motorcycles in the movie.
Swami Sez
Swami should've known that a couple of potheads couldn't take down Batman.
Prediction: Pineapple Express earns $27 million and the No. 1 spot.
Result: It made $41 million including Wednesday and Thursday, but this prediction was only for the weekend.
Prediction: The Dark Knight is finally unseated, earning $21 million.
Result: About $5 million off on the total.
Going tropical
Tropic Thunder is the perfect foil for The Dark Knight. It's as silly as Knight is brooding, and after all this darkness, audiences could probably use a little pick me up.
Prediction: Tropic Thunder earns $45 million in its first five days.
Look out below!
Is it possible that Dark Knight could drop not one but two spots this weekend? No doubt the fanboys have been propping it up with multiple viewings, but on Friday another of their favorites returns to big screens.
Prediction: Star Wars: The Clone Wars earns $21 million and the No. 2 spot.
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Comments
Posted by Houston's Smarter @ 2:14 PM Fri, Aug 15, 2008
Why do you bother to predict? You will be wrong.
Finishing order for this weekend.
1. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
2. Batman
3. Tropic Thunder
Posted by stephen becker @ 9:27 AM Mon, Aug 18, 2008
Hmm...When I picked up my paper this morning, I couldn't help but notice that Tropic Thunder, as I predicted, was the No. 1 movie of the weekend. So I think if it's OK with the city of Houston, I'll keep on predicting.