Weekend Box Office: 'Gangster' stings 'Bee'

[The Clown Prince]

Star power times three with Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington and director Ridely Scott brought in a lot of people this weekend as the pretty good reviewed (78% at RottenTomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/american_gangster/)) American Gangster earned $46.3 million!

The R rated film opened in 874 theaters less (3,054) than the debut of the second place film....

Bee Movie. Jerry Seinfeld's first feature length film (54% at RottenTomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bee_movie/)) opened in 3,928 theaters with $39.1 million. Nothing to sneeze at all, but when you look at what American Gangster did, that's pretty good.

Last weeks champ Saw IV dropped to third place with $11 million and a $51 million total.

In fourth place is Dan in Real Life with $8.1 million and a $22.9 million total.

And rounding out the top 5 is 30 Days of Night with $4 million and a $34.2 million total. That total takes it past it's $30 million budget.

Also opening this weekend was Martian Child which came in seventh place with $3.6 million in 2,020 theaters.

Out of the top 12 this weekend is We Own the Night (13th), Rendition 20th), and The Heartbreak Kid (22nd).

Opening next weekend are three new movies. First up is Fred Clause (http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=15852) (rated PG) starring Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins, Rachel Weisz, Kathy Bates, and Kevin Spacey.

Next up is Lions for Lambs (http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=18953) (rated R). Directed by Robert Redford it stars Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Michael Pena, Derek Luke, Andrew Garfield, and Peter Berg.

Finally we have P2 (http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=36435) (rated R) with Rachel Nichols, Wes Bentley, Simon Reynolds, Grace Lynn Kung, and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee.

Here are your numbers....


1) American Gangster- $46,344,000 ($46,344,000) NEW!
2) Bee Movie- $39,100,000 ($39,100,000) NEW!
3) Saw IV- $11,010,000 ($51,060,000)
4) Dan in Real Life- $8,125,000 ($22,950,000)
5) 30 Days of Night- $4,000,000 ($34,229,000)
6) The Game Plan- $3,853,000 ($81,957,000)
7) Martian Child- $3,650,000 ($3,650,000) NEW!
8) Michael Clayton- $2,900,000 ($33,198,000)
9) Why Did I Get Married- $2,730,000 ($51,185,000)
10) Gone Baby Gone- $2,400,000 ($14,948,000)
11) The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D- $1,543,000 ($12,844,000)
12) The Comebacks- $1,475,000 ($11,940,000)

The Clown Prince

[Lord Dalek]

Well I can't say I'm not surprised here. Usually family movies trump R-rated dramas at the BO, but it seems the very good word of mouth American Gangster has received (its apparently Ridley's best film since Blade Runner) won out this time.

Also Saw IV continues to under perform compared to its direct predecessor. It made about 2,000,000 less in its opening weekend than Saw III and suffered a larger drop off in week 2 with a difference of about 10%. Is it possible that this is starting to show signs of Jason-itis?

[Moto Pete]

but the advancing years of its audience, which CinemaScore tracked at 53 percent over age 25, could use some lowering if this bee is gonna keep flying. Because, you know, studies show that fans of the Seinfeld sitcom don't turn animated movies into hits, kids do.


Bee Movie has pubbed everywhere hahhahahhahahahahahha
\

[Hanshotfirst113]

"Damn it feels good to be a gangsta."
Ridley Scott

Oh, come on! How could I resist?!

[Movie06]

Well, I'm glad to see American Gangster and Saw IV are doing well.

[Draft]

Wow

this is prolly more shocking to me than the Pats-Colts game..

An animated Dreamworks movie gets it's ass handed to by Gangsta Movie

Edit: Fred Calus Gets 3rd with 15 Million

[Tay the Cat]

An animated Dreamworks movie gets it's ass handed to by Gangsta Movie

Seeing as how Bee Movie made only 7 million or so less, that's a huge exaggeration.

[Draft]

Seeing as how Bee Movie made only 7 million or so less, that's a huge exaggeration.
True

But I think this is the first CGI Dreamworks Movie(Flushed Away excluded) to not get #1 in it's first weekend(and also the lowest tally too, not a ghood sign when dropoffs are signifgantly more than they used to be)

[HG Revolution]

True

But I think this is the first CGI Dreamworks Movie(Flushed Away excluded) to not get #1 in it's first weekend(and also the lowest tally too, not a ghood sign when dropoffs are signifgantly more than they used to be)

Over the Hedge came in second to The Da Vinci Code.

[The Clown Prince]

Bee Movie BTW had a budget of $150 million. Not including all the advertising and promotional tie in's it has.

American Gangster had a budget of $100 million.

[Punisher]

Also Saw IV continues to under perform compared to its direct predecessor. It made about 2,000,000 less in its opening weekend than Saw III and suffered a larger drop off in week 2 with a difference of about 10%. Is it possible that this is starting to show signs of Jason-itis?There really isn't that much a concern between $33 million for Saw 3 and $31 million for Saw 4 in their opening weekends...to me that shows consistency, but whatever. It's already made back five times it's budget, something Bee Movie will never do. It's doing extremly well for a horror franchise, and rightfully so.

[Lord Dalek]

But I think this is the first CGI Dreamworks Movie(Flushed Away excluded) to not get #1 in it's first weekend(and also the lowest tally too, not a ghood sign when dropoffs are signifgantly more than they used to be)Over The Hedge didn't get #1 in its first weekend and made a million less than Bee Movie.

[Hades]

Not surprised, especially considering American Gangster was excellent. However, I disagree about it being Ridley Scott's best movie. You had Gladiator, which is #1, followed by Kingdom of Heaven. I was never a big fan of Blade Runner, it was just too different from the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," then I would have cared for.

Bee Movie just looks down right terrible, and it has one of the worst actors in history in it. Yes, I'm talking about Senfield. I think he is a terrible actor and makes Tom Cruise look good. At least Tom had 2 good movies in his so-called career (Collateral and Legend).

Anyway, I care about nothing next weekend, which I think sucks that they are putting Hitman and Beowolf together for the following week. I HATE DOULBE WEEKENDS!!!

Of course, it is going to be worse next month considering AvP2, National Treasure 2, and The Golden Compass are all supposed to be out the same weekend. OUCH!!!!

[Wonderwall]

Bee Movie just looks down right terrible, and it has one of the worst actors in history in it. Yes, I'm talking about Senfield. I think he is a terrible actor and makes Tom Cruise look good. At least Tom had 2 good movies in his so-called career (Collateral and Legend).


I think its a huge stretch to call Seinfeld the worst actor, because he really isn't one, he's made a career being himself( sweet deal really ). And I think thats the first time I've ever heard anyone use the word good and the movie Legend in the same sentence.:D

[Lord Dalek]

And I think thats the first time I've ever heard anyone use the word good and the movie Legend in the same sentence.:DI have to admit even though Ridley's director's cut of it is a major improvement (the US theatrical version is virtually unwatchable), the film still seems like it was a series of hastily sketched gobbledygook that Ridley spewed while watching Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast and Hjortsberg wrote down while sitting next to him (which apparantly it was according to the dvd).

Of course we haven't seen the 2 hour 30 minute version they apparently just found though so all bets could be off.

[AhmedtheHead]

Well, it was hard to determine which one will make #1.

When I saw American Gangster (It was really good by the way, if a bit long), the theater was PACKED, and there were sold-out showings. Bee Movie (didn't see it yet), on the other hand, didn't have sold out showings.

This amazed me, considering that usually short films are able to make more money than epic-length films. However, Bee Movie missed the top mark because of the insane non-stop advertising. That seems to have annoyed moviegoers, thus losing interests.

As for Martian Child, it seems that New Line WANTED it to fail. Low advertising + opening on very competitive weekend = low confidence and care of studio. Even though it looks kind of corny, it could have been released earlier.

For next week, Fred Claus could land at either #1 or 2, depends on moviegoers. It's a Christmas comedy, so it's going to have a good opening.

My Predictions:

1) Fred Claus
2) Amer. Gangster
3) Bee Movie
4) Saw IV
5) Lions for Lambs

[Peter Paltridge]

About two years ago I heard a studio had bought the rights to Paul Dini's Jingle Belle for a possible live-action Christmas movie.

Did they decide to do Fred Claus instead, or is this from a different studio? Cause no one can do Jingle Belle NOW; it'd look too similar.

[Doggeh]

I totally thought Bee Movie was going to come out on top.

But then I got to work on Friday and saw the insane amount of people coming to American Gangster and that thought changed.

We also had a lot of people come for Dan in Real Life (which sold out several times) so I thought that might have gotten in the top 3.

[Ragebot]

Not surprised, especially considering American Gangster was excellent. However, I disagree about it being Ridley Scott's best movie. You had Gladiator, which is #1, followed by Kingdom of Heaven.

I've always thought that Gladiator was terribly overrated. I found American Gangster to be several orders of magnitude greater. It is perhaps, if not really his best film, than his most dramatically sophisticated film he has ever made.

[Discloner]

I totally thought Bee Movie was going to come out on top.

But then I got to work on Friday and saw the insane amount of people coming to American Gangster and that thought changed.

We also had a lot of people come for Dan in Real Life (which sold out several times) so I thought that might have gotten in the top 3.
We had Dan in Real Life sell out this past weekend as well - and a single showing of American Gangster which we've got playing on two screens.

We also sold out a showing of Into the Wild - it was a pretty good (and crazy) weekend for us.

We also got two prints of Bee Movie to play on two screens as well - which baffled me considering we didn't even get two prints of Ratatouille when that came to the theater in the summer. I didn't think there'd be a real 'demand' for Bee Movie...and I was kind of right. If we had it on only one screen surely we'd probably come close to selling it out...but with the number of showings we've got it's a pretty even spread over how many people are coming to see each showing.

I saw American Gangster Saturday night and I really don't get what all the fuss is about. I just don't get the appeal - an overly long and bloated film featuring two of the most arrogant leads ever, yay. However people have been asking when the movie comes out since August...so; guess I can't say I didn't see it coming.

[Hades]

I saw American Gangster Saturday night and I really don't get what all the fuss is about. I just don't get the appeal - an overly long and bloated film featuring two of the most arrogant leads ever, yay. However people have been asking when the movie comes out since August...so; guess I can't say I didn't see it coming.

It is no different than The Departed.

[Chris Wood]

I think it would have done even better if they'd called it Virtuosity: Gangsta Edition.