Weekend box-office
Friday's earnings and projections: Pirates 2 beat 'em all again, pulling down $10,084,000 Friday and a projected weekend take north of $30 million. (What is that, a grand total of $320 million?) Monster House is #2 with $7,470,000 million earned Friday and $22,268,000 expected by Sunday night for a grand tally of $320 million or thereabouts. Lady in the Water managed a #3 slot despited the media buzz -- $6,713,000 yesterday and $18,436,000 projected for the weekend. You, Me and Dupree was #4 with $3,965,000 Friday and a bit more than $13 million predicted for the weekend. Little Man did $3,210,000 Friday with a projected $10,427,000 by Sunday night. Kevin Smith's Clerks 2 was sixth with a disappointing $3,097,000 on 21590 screens, and a projected weekend total of $10,100,000. My Super Ex-Girlfriend tanked with a seventh-place finish -- $2,698,000 Friday, $7,300,000 predicted for Sunday night. Superman Returns is finished -- earning a lousy $1,964,000 on Friday with a weekend total of about $7,102,000 expected. The Devil Wears Prada, a much smaller film aimed mainly at women, took in $2,181,000 Friday and will be at the $97 million mark by Sunday night -- it'll definitely top $100 million.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 22, 2006 at 2:48 PM
comment #1
fg says ...
It's impossible to know who to believe. Your numbers are generally off Box Office Mojo and Box Office Guru, but especially considering the scale, they're way off wrt Clerks, at over $800,000 and $1 million, respectively. (Not to mention the order of magnitude in screens.)
Posted by fg at July 22, 2006 3:50 PM
comment #2
Zac Bertschy says ...
I'm curious why they opened Clerks II this weekend when most of Kevin Smith's built-in audience is busy getting drunk and buying comics in San Diego.
Posted by Zac Bertschy at July 22, 2006 4:35 PM
comment #3
Daniel Zelter says ...
Clerks 2 was actually pretty cheap to produce, but it's disappointing for the number of theaters it was given. I don't see why Harvey thought it was worth playing in 2,000 venues.
Posted by Daniel Zelter at July 22, 2006 5:01 PM
comment #4
Anonymous says ...
Movie City News is reporting that Clerks 2 beat out You, Me and Dupree by .1 million. I sure hope so, because Clerks 2 undoubtedly deserves whatever love it can get. Even if it can manage to sneak onto fourth, at the very least that makes it the #1 comedy in America.
And for those who haven't seen it yet, it's surprisingly endearing and heartfelt (far moreso than anything that Jersey Girl accomplished). While Randall still gets on my nerves something fierce, the ending alone makes this one of the most sincere feel-good movies I've seen this year.
Posted by Anonymous at July 22, 2006 5:09 PM
comment #5
travis b. says ...
based on the numbers above with clerks making 10 million + for the weekend, it still is making a profit for the weinstein company. wasn't the budget at 5 million? judging from that, every dollar made after today is all profit. most studios would love to have that after the first weekend.
Posted by travis b. at July 22, 2006 5:18 PM
comment #6
Daniel Zelter says ...
travis: It's not really profitable if you have to pay back the theaters. Five hundred would have been enough for the film.
Posted by Daniel Zelter at July 22, 2006 5:33 PM
comment #7
Frank says ...
I agree with Travis B. 10 million would mean it has doubled it's budget already. After seeing the film, I really do think it wil lbe a word-of-mouth thing too.
Posted by Frank at July 22, 2006 5:54 PM
comment #8
Sinda Star says ...
I'm happy with Clerks 2 box office debut.For a movie with a 5 million budget,its box office is OK for business.
Unfortunately,the truly atrocious Dead man's chest will manage to be on top another week.I just don't get it.It's overlong,boring with too much banter,a bland performance from Orlando Bloom who has far too many scenes.Johnny Depp is great but he's wasted(it's almost a supporting role) and Keira knightley 's Elizabeth is criminally underused.HOrrible,horrible,horrible!
People have no taste whatsoever if this is the kind of crap they see.
Posted by Sinda Star at July 22, 2006 5:57 PM
comment #9
travis b. says ...
zelter: i'm not really following on what you're saying, but i also do not know very much about how film distribution works in regards to the theatres. but, even if they did have to pay back some money, the movie will probably make somewhere in the 25 - 30 million range (unless there's some major word of mouth) and the DVD will be a guarantee sell (all of Smith's view askew films seem to do better once they're on video). so anyway you look at it, there's profit coming in.
on a sidenote: i read somewhere today that Pirates may be the first film to have the top box office spot three weekends in a row since American Pie 2. i'm not a fan of either films, but i felt that little tidbit was pretty amazing considering all of the films that have come between the two. guess, the business is really all about the first weekend these days.
Posted by travis b. at July 22, 2006 6:11 PM
comment #10
jse says ...
That sidenote is wrong. Harry Potter 4 was number 1 for 3 weeks straight last year.
Posted by jse at July 22, 2006 6:18 PM
comment #11
Daniel Zelter says ...
travis: " the movie will probably make somewhere in the 25 - 30 million range"
I give it 15 million, tops. There are people who are fans who are divided over it.
"and the DVD will be a guarantee sell (all of Smith's view askew films seem to do better once they're on video)."
But just because it makes money on home video doesn't make it a hit.
Posted by Daniel Zelter at July 22, 2006 6:52 PM
comment #12
travis b. says ...
thanks jse. i read it offhand in the local paper today. sorry for the confusion.
and zelter: it's going to pass 10 million this weekend. so you think it'll only make 5 million more for however long it'll be out?
Posted by travis b. at July 22, 2006 6:54 PM
comment #13
j says ...
Ok, consider the CLERKS 2 profit margin as this.
Movie makes 30 (which is a bit generous I think, but we'll see).
Half of that is payable back to the theatres, leaving us at 15.
Prints and Advertising (P&A) is another 10 million (at the least, again I'm being generous).
So we're down to five. Not so much of a profit. And that's IF it makes 30 million and IF it only cost 10 million for the P&A. And if there aren't back-end deals for Smith and his producer.
So, yeah, the money's in DVD. Hopefully.
Anyone else notice that Poland's blog is down? Did a ViewAskew fan crash it?
Posted by j at July 22, 2006 7:40 PM
comment #14
Fielding says ...
Good to see Clerks 2 doing poorly. Kevin Smith films do not deserve that wide a release; actually, they don't deserve to be funded in the first place.
Posted by Fielding at July 22, 2006 7:54 PM
comment #15
Dixon Steele says ...
Based on the opening weekend of $10m, the picture will probably do $20 million.
Posted by Dixon Steele at July 22, 2006 8:15 PM
comment #16
Dixon Steele says ...
I disagree, Fielding.
If there's room for Woody Allen, there's room for Kevin Smith.
Posted by Dixon Steele at July 22, 2006 8:16 PM
comment #17
Anonymous says ...
'If there's room for Woody Allen, there's room for Kevin Smith.'
Ok, thats just dumb as fuck. Love him or hate him, Woody's done work that will be remembered...Kevin Smith is just an extremely lucky guy to have made any movie at all. 'Match Point' by itself is better than all of Kevin Smiths movies put together.
Posted by Anonymous at July 22, 2006 9:15 PM
comment #18
Daniel Zelter says ...
I don't think it's really fair to compare Smith and Allen, since they're from different generations, and they have different approaches and aesthetiques to filmmaking. A better comparison would be made between Smith and his more critically and financially-successful predecessor, Richard Linklater.
Posted by Daniel Zelter at July 23, 2006 12:06 AM
comment #19
P. K. Dick says ...
And I don't think it's really fair to compare Linklater and Smith, because I've actually seen most of Linklater's movies and to compare them in this context would, like, totally lose my interest.
Posted by P. K. Dick at July 23, 2006 4:00 AM
comment #20
Angel says ...
Clerks 2 was boring, it doesnt work for anyone other than Kevin Smith fans, it would be better if Smith moved to stage and off movie screens. How can you compare Clerks 2 with Woody's work or anyones work, Kevin SMith had 10 years to improve his skills and show it with Clerks 2, all he did was show us he can shoot a color picture.. How is the ending feel good, it was tacked on bullshit, lets try to pretend like we give a shit about Ranndal or if we actually believed that Jay and SBob made enough money from selling weed to little teenagers, let alone willing to give the money to Randall, who they hated in part one. Lets not forgot how fucking stupid the whole go cart scene was.
Posted by Angel at July 23, 2006 5:31 AM
comment #21
Colin says ...
I don't see how the Clerks II gross can be seen as disappointing. Smith's previous biggest opener was Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which opened on 2,765 screens for about $11m. I see the budget for that reported as $22m (not sure how accurate that is).
Clerks II opens on 2,150 screens, with a budget of $5m, to about the same number, depending on Saturday and Sunday business.
As for the movie, I thought that it was a lot of fun, with some strong emotional stuff coming from revisting the characters 12 years later. It kind of reminded me of the director who inspired Smith, Linklater, coming back to show us his Before Sunrise characters in Before Sunset.
Posted by Colin at July 23, 2006 6:17 AM
comment #22
Craig says ...
Well with overseas rights sold for over the $5 mil budget, and the large DVD sales that Kevin Smith films get, clerks 2 will be highly profitable even if the domestic BO stalls after the first weekend (highly unlikely)
Posted by Craig at July 23, 2006 6:53 AM
comment #23
zevonfan says ...
I liked 'Match Point' better when it was called 'Crimes and Misdemeanors'.
Posted by zevonfan at July 23, 2006 7:02 AM
comment #24
Frank says ...
For the record, I'm pretty sure Jay and Bob got the money from their royalties for Bluntman and Chronic.
Posted by Frank at July 23, 2006 1:51 PM
comment #25
Fielding says ...
Dixon, that's a ridiculous statement and you know it.
Posted by Fielding at July 23, 2006 7:46 PM