Box Office Report

Posted by bob in Films, News on August 18th, 2008

The Dark Knight surpassed Star Wars twice this weekend.  First, it firmly grabbed second place on the All Time Box Office charts with a total now estimated at $471,493,000.  It’s weekend take of $16,790,000 also surpassed the debut of the CGI-animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars which managed a so-so $15,505,000.  The film received mixed reviews and little in the way of anticipatory buzz so its performance over the next week or two will be telling.

20th-Century Fox, which has had a miserable summer, finally got some good news when Mirrors opened with $11,125,000, exceeding studio estimates by 10%.

Older horror offerings such as Universal’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor continues to wrap up bucks for the pyramids. The film brought in $8,609,00 so its total now stands at $86,649,000.  While it will likely crack $100 million, this is not what the studio had expected.

Showing surprising stamina is New Line’s Journey to the Center of the Earth with another $3,455,000 found beneath the surface. The 3-D film has proven the 3D fad may be here to stay and its total of   $88,110,000 may be a harbinger of things to come as 2009 boasts over half-a-dozen 3D projects on the schedule.

Older films are running out the string starting with Disney’s Wall*E, totaling $214,134,000 and no doubt gearing up for a holiday season DVD release. Similarly, Sony’s Hancock grabbed $1.8 million this weekend but is slowing down and has an impressive haul of $225,102,000.

The only horror film to show signs of life is Transsiberian which continues to gently roll out to more screens and has a 43.6% increase over last week and a total of just $337,000 but its $3000+ per screen  average remains impressive.