Weekend Finals (08/03/08)

The List

As I occasionally do, I thought it best to wait till the finals were released as there were a few issues still in contention (such as, I dunno, which movie would end up number 01?).

Anyway, The Dark Knight pulled a rare three-peat with $42.6 million. This puts it second on the list of best third-weekends (behind Spider-Man, which made $45 million against the $80 million opening weekend of Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones). It fell a mere 43% and its total is now a whopping $394 million (global total - $596 million). It'll cross the $400 million mark either today or tomorrow. At this point, barring some unknown variable (thank goodness, Morgan Freeman is alive and doing ok), The Dark Knight has no chance of catching Titanic and will have to settle for a mere $530 million and the title of second-highest grosser of all-time in the United States. Interestingly enough, every weekend it creeps farther ahead, percentage-wise, of Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest. It's now 22% ahead after starting 17% ahead of Sparrow's opening weekend. Still, it would have to gross 148% of what Pirates 2 ended up with to catch that $605 million.

The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor pulled in a slightly disappointing $40 million for second place. The word of mouth for this allegedly terrible film has already started to spread, and Universal is now depending on foreign grosses to recoup its $145 million budget. Me thinks that Universal took some of the expenses for Wanted and stuck it with Mummy 3, explaining the mere $75 million tag for the Jolie/Freeman action craptacular. Still, even if it has already done 40% of its business as of yesterday, Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor will still cross $90 million in the US.

Plus, don't discount the effect of the complete saturation of Mummy ads that will be seen during the Summer Olympics on NBC (expect higher ratings than usual due to this being the first Summer Games that many people can watch in HD). Regardless, Mummy 3 has already taken in $60 million overseas, leading to a $100 million global opening weekend. It may not be the mega-hit that the first two were, but it should make decent coin before DVD/BluRay. Oh, and congratulations on Brendan Fraser having two $90 million+ grossers in a single month. Journey To The Center Of The Earth now has $72 million and is still going strong. Wouldn't it be incredible if Mummy 3 really crashes and Journey To The Center Of The Earth out grosses it?

Swing Vote crashed and burned, making a mere $6.2 million. Still, it's a shame that so many journalists seem to be criticizing Kevin Costner for (allegedly) putting up $20 million of his own money for fund this little comedy. It's the kind of thing that stars should do more often and he shouldn't be mocked for putting his money where his mouth is.

Midnight Meat Train - $35,000. $335 per screen. Game over until DVD.

Frozen River - $70,000. $10,000 per screen. Not very impressive, but we'll see if the Oscar heat can sustain this one for a little while.

X-Files: I Want To Believe - $3.3 million. Down 66%. New total - $17 million. It will be bested by Space Chimps (new total - $20 million). For what it's worth, here's a nice article defending the character-driven and theamatically rich but still boring and lifeless sequel.

Scott Mendelson