Two hits, one bomb among the major openers this weekend. The Pursuit of Happyness is #1 with a projected $27,165,000 tally, or roughly $9525 per print, and Eragon, believe it or not, is #2 with an expected Sunday-night cume of $23,929,000, or $7923 a print. Charlotte’s Web is the shortfaller — $13,145,000 projected at $3695 a print spells weak and sputtering.
Happy Feet will be #4 at $8,910,000 for the weekend…off 31%. The Holiday is #5 at $8,143,000, off 36%…decent hold. Mel Gibson‘s Apocalypto is sixth at $7,629,000, off 49%. Blood Diamond, off 39%, will hit $6,045,000 for the #7 slot. Casino Royale will bring in $6,045,000 for an eighth-place finish. The Nativity Story will be #9 with $5,398,000, and Unaccompanied Minors is tenth with $4,781,000.
The limited hard-ticket debut of Dreamgirls is looking at $279,000 for the weekend, or about $93,000 a print. Theyr’e doing pretty well but crowds are not breaking down the doors. They’re doing about 50% of capacity,although business will bump today. The problem is that it’s angled at a mainly-older crowd. — 35 to 40 and up — and the 10:30 pm show is too late for this group. Young people have no problem with late-evening shows, but under 20s wouldn’t be caught dead seeing Dreamgirls. (My 17 year-old son Dylan, in Manhatan for the weekend, said as much.)
Steven Soderbegh‘s The Good German opened in 5 theatres and will do about 79,000, or 15,737 a print. Irwin Winkler‘s Home of the Brave, also playing limited, died. The weekend projection is for about $22,000 or $7000 a print…Winkler strikes again. It was pretty obvious this film was doomed from the get-go short of ecstatic reviews, which haven’t manifested.