Weekend Box Office: 'Hellboy' has 'Scooby' and Rock running, not 'Walking'

[The Clown Prince]

Four new movies this weekend, and all opened in the top 5! Landing in number one after a crowded weekend for debuts was the new comic book film Hellboy which brought in $23.5 million. The movie has received mixed to positive reviews. It's the first non-Marvel comic property to come a long in a while, and is quite different than what we've seen from the comic book genre as of late. This one came from the company of Dark Horse Comics. How it will do to compare with Marvel's comic book movies, well, we'll just have to wait. Especially in two weeks when Marvel has another comic book movie of their own opening up.

Meanwhile, The Rock's new movie Walking Tall opened in second place with $15.3 million. The guy is determined to be an action star and so far he's started off on the right foot. He has what it takes, but can he bring in non-wrestling fans to his movies in the future?

Last weekend's number one movie Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed fell to third place this weekend making $15 million and having a total of $50 million. The first movie's opening weekend made more money that part 2 has in two weekends. Not looking good for a part 3 perhaps?

Disney's newest and last (for a while at least) traditionally animated movie Home on the Range opened in fourth place with $14 million. Not very good when you consider it's a Disney film. And this only fuels Michael Eisner's claims that CGI films are the way to go for a while. Which is what Disney has lined up for the next few years. Home on the Range, much like The Emperor's New Groove had a troubled production and was once a completely different movie with a different title. Home on the Range was once called Sweating Bullets and was more of an action adventure/comedy than what we got here with 'Range.' While Disney isn't completely abandoning traditionally animated films, don't except a fully traditional animated one for a while. Disney, I believe will be combining traditional animation with CGI on some of it's films. Though I don't know which ones for sure. Anyone with a little more knowledge about it want to help me out?

Julia Stiles new movie The Prince and Me opened in fifth place with $10 million. Not bad for a fairy tale type movie aimed at the young girl teenage crowd. Hell, where I live there was a sold out 7:00 showing Friday night. Couldn't believe it.

The Passion of the Christ fell to sixth place with $9.8 million and now has $330.1 million total. It also jumped The Lion King and Forrest Gump on the all-time list and now sits at number 10. $9 million more to go and it can move into ninth place and booting Finding Nemo. $11 million more and it can boot The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and sit in eighth place.

OK, next weekend we've got another CROWDED weekend for new movies.

First up, opening this Wednesday is the new Cedric the Entertainer starring movie, Johnson Family Vacation.

Then on Friday we have The Alamo starring Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton, and Jason Patrick. The Alamo has had quite the troubled production, once with Ron Howard as the director (not anymore) and a bigger name cast. It was never the intent to go near $100 million to make this thing, and now it's gone way past that. All eyes are on Disney to see if this thing bombs.

Next we have Ella Enchanted with The Princess Diaries' Anne Hathaway. It's a fairy tale story aimed at the younger crowd.

For the grown up teen audience we have The Girl Next Door starring Elisha Cuthbert who if you watch TV's 24, you know who she is.

And finally we have The Whole Ten Yards. The sequel to The Whole Nine Yards. This thing has been bumped around from new release date to new release date. And now it's stuck amongst a crowded box office. Not only up against new films, but current ones in theaters.

So, will Hellboy and Walking Tall survive next weekend? It's gonna be a big one.

Here are your numbers...


1) Hellboy- $23,500,000 ($23,500,000) NEW!!!
2) Walking Tall- $15,300,000 ($15,300,000) NEW!!!
3) Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed- $15,085,000 ($50,043,000)
4) Home on the Range- $14,000,000 ($14,000,000) NEW!!!
5) The Prince & Me- $10,000,000 ($10,000,000) NEW!!!
6) The Passion of The Christ- $9,879,264 ($330,131,129)
7) The Ladykillers- $7,008,000 ($23,401,000)
8) Jersey Girl- $5,128,023 ($15,832,802)
9) Dawn of the Dead- $4,372,000 ($51,548,000)
10) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- $3,562,000 ($22,037,000)
11) Taking Lives- $3,505,000 ($27,483,000)
12) Starsky & Hutch- $3,200,000 ($81,887,000)

The Clown Prince

[Tobias]

All 4 new movies next weekend will at least make the top ten.

Next Sunday being Easter, that should give The Passion a small boost to keep in the running, but after that, it'll pretty much be done.

Ella Enchanted looked kind of funny from the trailer, so that'll take out the Prince & Me rather easily, but probably won't cause too much trouble for the other movies.

The Whole 10 Yards will barely make a dent, mainly because it's a sequel, and sequels seem to be doing rather badly ever since Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle dropped like a stone last summer.

The Alamo will pull a Pearl Harbor. It'll come out strong, but mixed reviews and bad word of mouth will kill it.

The Girl Next Door will have to deal with a crippling R rating and a nearly no name cast. It'll do good business to recoup it's budget, but not enough to survive in the crowded market.

Scooby Doo will continue to drop, but I don't think WB will give it up just yet. 2 will make a killing on DVD, and that'll get part 3 greenlit.

[Chris Wood]

I don't care what the reviews are like for Alamo, historical epics kick butt by definition in my book. It's prospects at the box office are certainly much better now than when it was originally due to be released opposite major competition in the fall.

Looks like Disney blew it with Home on the Range. Not too surprising really. It's visually and conceptually very bland and it stars Rosie ODonnell. Yech. Say what you want about Atlantis and Treasure Planet, at least they were ambitious.

Hellboy really got hammered by the intense competition, and Walking Tall got flattened. This bodes ill for the upcoming Kill Bill/Punisher shootout. The studios really ought to plan their release dates better.

[Discloner]

Disney, I believe will be combining traditional animation with CGI on some of it's films. Though I don't know which ones for sure. Anyone with a little more knowledge about it want to help me out?


I think they're leaning towards etirely CGI movies now, like the upcoming 'Chicken Little' and the inpending 'Toy Story 3' :rolleyes:

Disney's Florida Animation Studio, aka Feature Animation, was working on a project that had a blend of 2d and 3D characters which had many titled. Most people know more about the title 'A few Good Ghosts' or something along those lines, but that studio was shut down late last year and that project won't likely happen.

[The Clown Prince]

I don't care what the reviews are like for Alamo, historical epics kick butt by definition in my book. It's prospects at the box office are certainly much better now than when it was originally due to be released opposite major competition in the fall.

Looks like Disney blew it with Home on the Range. Not too surprising really. It's visually and conceptually very bland and it stars Rosie ODonnell. Yech. Say what you want about Atlantis and Treasure Planet, at least they were ambitious.

Hellboy really got hammered by the intense competition, and Walking Tall got flattened. This bodes ill for the upcoming Kill Bill/Punisher shootout. The studios really ought to plan their release dates better.One of the things with this 'new' The Alamo that is different than what it would have been in December when it was originally supposed to come out is it's running time. The old running time had it come in at almost or just over 3 hours. The new cut that is coming out next weekend is a lot shorter. From what I've read, what got cut was a lot of character developement of the main characters. A lot of talking scenes were chopped to make this historical action flick seem more 'action' like. Whether or not we'll see a lot of this cut material on DVD remains to be seen.

As for Home on the Range, it's not Rosie O' Donnel but Roseanne Barr. Still....;)

And I hear ya about studios better planning their release dates. I think the reason we have these movies this month, is that none of the studios wanted to put them up against the 'big' summer films. Hellboy and Walking Tall coming out together was a bad idea. One of the studios should have caved and released their prospective movie in March instead.

With Punisher and Kill Bill Vol. 2, both are gonna suffer at the box office because of their same release date.

I'm glad New Line caved and held off on Blade: Trinity and not have it go up against Alien vs. Predator later this summer. Both have the potential to do very well, but two big movies like that have no business going up against each other on an opening weekend. It's just not smart. But Fox was stupid and changed their release date to Blade's after originally having an August 6th opening. Fox was playing chicken and New Line caved. But it'll be good for both parties.

April now has become the month that studios want to release their semi big movies that they wouldn't want to release May through August.

This months Jennifer Garner comedy 13 Going on 30 was originally supposed to open up the last weekend in May, the same weekend as The Day After Tomorrow, but Columbia got smart and decided to move it up a month.

The Clown Prince

[EinBebop]

historical epics kick butt by definition in my book.I hate when people use the word 'historical' to describe movies like this, unless it is promptly followed by the word 'fiction'.

[The Clown Prince]

I think they're leaning towards etirely CGI movies now, like the upcoming 'Chicken Little' and the inpending 'Toy Story 3' :rolleyes: I know Chicken Little is gonna be CGI, and quite possibly Toy Story 3. If that ever happens, it'll be years away. Pixar may not own their movies, but they own the technology and the programs and codes used to create their movies. Disney CAN'T use that and there for they have to go back and re-write and create their own programs and codes for a Toy Story 3 or any other sequel to Pixar's movies. It seems like an awful lot of time and money to invest in something that they have no clue will be a success without Pixar's backing. But children are none the wiser when it comes to stuff like that. They won't care.

When I mentioned traditional animation mixed with CGI, I was referring to Disney's upcoming take on Rapunzel. I can't for the life of me be sure if that's they way they were going. It seems like that's what I read a while ago, but I can't remember now.

The Clown Prince

[Chris Wood]

This months Jennifer Garner comedy 13 Going on 30 was originally supposed to open up the last weekend in May, the same weekend as The Day After Tomorrow, but Columbia got smart and decided to move it up a month.

The Clown Prince
That seems like reasonable counter-programming to me. The audiences for those two films are clearly different (though there could be some overlap). I don't think Day is going to hit as big as Independence Day or Armaggedon. The novelty of big budget disaster films has worn off some. Look at what happened to The Core.

[The Penguin]

It's official, Hellboy (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=107156) puts Walking Tall (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=107197) down for the three-count. Rock's movies had a #1 track record that's over now. What I always found funny is both were blitzing WWE programming, only there were no interview features with Ron Pearlman.

I guess Doo 2 (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=106381) isn't going to quite measure up, but I agree with Tobias, it should do well on DVD.

I may not be the target audience, but I still think Prince (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=107206) looks like a sweet little movie. Julia Styles is quite popular and 10 million isn't too bad for a movie like this one.

Johnson Family Vacation looks like it good be fun, but that's pretty much the only one I care much about. The Alamo was supposed to be a Christmas release so my faith in it being moved to April is not high.

[Chris Wood]

The Alamo was supposed to be a Christmas release so my faith in it being moved to April is not high.
They would have been crazy to release it in December.

[Caffeine King]

Johnson Family Vacation looks good, hopefully it'll do good...but it's only in 1000+ theaters or something. (I think)

No surprise to see Hellboy #1

[The Penguin]

They would have been crazy to release it in December.Point taken. The edits touched on in this thread concern me though. If the characters aren't properly developed it will mean a lot less when they all start dying.

[JLApe]

One of the things with this 'new' The Alamo that is different than what it would have been in December when it was originally supposed to come out is it's running time. The old running time had it come in at almost or just over 3 hours. The new cut that is coming out next weekend is a lot shorter. From what I've read, what got cut was a lot of character developement of the main characters. A lot of talking scenes were chopped to make this historical action flick seem more 'action' like. Whether or not we'll see a lot of this cut material on DVD remains to be seen.
Regarding the comment about "historical epics kick butt", I have three words: Gods & Generals. That movie bored the hell out of everybody. Sounds like The Alamo is going in that direction.

[GL2k2]

I agree "The Passion" will rise again next weekend, it may not be number one, but it will more than likely take one of the top three spots. The Passion and Hellboy are bound to go head to head. But I won't be back to the movies until the Punisher and Kill Bill vol 2 come out.

[wrenchien]

3) Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed- $15,085,000 ($50,043,000)


make that $50,043,007. i pitched in seven bucks seeing it tonight. and i hope you all do too. :eek:

[GL2k2]

make that $50,043,007. i pitched in seven bucks seeing it tonight. and i hope you all do too. :eek:
:rolleyes: Uhhhhhhhh, yeah, we'll all get right on that.;)

[wrenchien]

:rolleyes: Uhhhhhhhh, yeah, we'll all get right on that.;)

yeah, you'd better. especially on easter day. and be sure to buy the egg-flavored scooby snax for your dog, as they might make him wise.

[David Lucas]

Quite possibly the corniest placement of movie title's in the topic thread's title ever.

[The Clown Prince]

Quite possibly the corniest placement of movie title's in the topic thread's title ever.
:D Hey, sometimes I don't do them because they're too corny ("insert movie title BIGGER than Jesus" for example) , and other times they just beg to be done. I was having a hard time coming up with one this weekend though, and then it hit me. :) It's corny for sure but not the corniest I don't think, but creative enough.

It's just as bad as when the news broadcasts make the worst puns introducing their stories.

The Clown Prince

[Eidan]

When the actuals come in, I expect the Passion to break the 10m barrier and possibly overtake Prince & Me for the #5 position.

Easter weekend is going to be very interesting.

[Elf]

I too, can't wait to see what happens during Easter.

[The Clown Prince]

When the actuals come in, I expect the Passion to break the 10m barrier and possibly overtake Prince & Me for the #5 position.

Easter weekend is going to be very interesting.Hey good prediction there Eidan! Actuals are in and they are...

5) The Passion of the Christ- $10,605,106 ($330,856,971)
6) The Prince and Me- $9,406,378 ($9,406,378)

The numbers for 'Passion' ended up being bigger than it's prediction while 'Prince' ended up with a lower number than it's prediction.

The Clown Prince

[NinjaJack]

Hey good prediction there Eidan! Actuals are in and they are...

5) The Passion of the Christ- $10,605,106 ($330,856,971)
6) The Prince and Me- $9,406,378 ($9,406,378)

The numbers for 'Passion' ended up being bigger than it's prediction while 'Prince' ended up with a lower number than it's prediction.

The Clown PrinceDo you think all that major promotion at Best Buy helped Hellboy secure the #1 spot at the box office?

[Discloner]

Do you think all that major promotion at Best Buy helped Hellboy secure the #1 spot at the box office?From my stand point it seems like Hellboy's overall aggresive advertising campaign was what help secure the movie it's #1 spot. I've been sing commercials for the movie for months now...

Now that I think about it...the movies that are coming out all are advertising WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY ahead of time now too. Shrek 2, Garlield, even The Sponge Bob movie have all be advertised and they don't come out for months (about half a year for Sponge Bob).

I'm sure Hellboy's ads combined with its comic following, and the appeal of it being a sci/fi action flick all contributed to getting it to number 1.

[wrenchien]

Quite possibly the corniest placement of movie title's in the topic thread's title ever.

i'll agree with you on that, sir. i've certainly yet to see... cornier.

i hope my seven dollars did make a difference, though... that i gave scooby doo and his lovable mystery, inc gang.

[Chris Wood]

Regarding the comment about "historical epics kick butt", I have three words: Gods & Generals. That movie bored the hell out of everybody. .
No, no, no. That doesn't count. It's just a cut-rate Ted Turner vanity project. I'm talking Braveheart, Private Ryan, Gladiator, Master and Commander, etc.

[Eidan]

Thanks, Clown Prince.

Now with Gump and Simba behind Him, Jesus turns His blood soaked eye on Nemo and Gollum. Depending on how large Easter weekend is, we'll have a good idea on whether the Passion will be passing Return of the King, or maybe even Spider-man.