Miami Vice did $8.8 million yesterday (Friday,7.28) with a projected $26.5 million by Sunday evening. Universal is probably going to end up with a gross of roughly $75 or $80 million at the end of the domestic run, which they’ll keep about 50% of which probably won’t cover their p & a (prints and ads) outlay. There’s foreign and video, of course, but there’s no way this Michael Mann pic, which cost over $135 million to make, isn’t a disappointer. A shame, too, for a film as rich and pleasurable as this one is — a rare instance of a sensual and sophisticated adult popcorn movie.
Pirates 2 was #2 with a $5,828,000 Friday and a projected weekend tally of $20,369,000. (Total domestic gross so far is $358 million.) John Tucker Must Die, a total stinker with the critics, came in third with $5,530,000 and a projected Sunday night tally of $14,106,000. Monster House was fourth with $3,589,000 and a projected weekend cume of $20,786, 000…off 46% from last weekend. The fifth-place The Ant Bully didn’t open (another black mark for WB marketing): $2,623,000 Friday, and a projected $7,774,000 by Sunday night.
WB’s Lady in the Water dropped 61% from last Friday, earning $2,230,000 yesterday for a projected $7,101,000 by Sunday night. Not only is M. Night Shyamalan’s drama not going to make $50 million, but it’s looking like it may be a push to hit $40 million. Add up Lady‘s failure, the weak Ant bully opening, the Poseidon mega-flop and the underperforming of Superman Returns (which is at $184 million but is losing screens big-time and is basically out of business) and we may be looking at an upper-level management situation with some rolling of heads down the road.
Another significant opening was the limited (seven theatres in N.Y. and L.A.) bow of Fox Searchlight’s Little Miss Sunshine. I’ve got $103,000 for Friday and a projected $359,000 by Sunday night with a per-print average of $51,000. (It opened on Wednesday, 7.26.) That’s very good. Definitely a hit so far.