Weekend Box Office: 'Batman' fights off a Witch, a Bug and some Zombies!

[The Clown Prince]

For the second weekend in a row Batman Begins was the number one movie fighting off 3 major releases. Batman Begins made an additional $26.7 million for a total so far of $121.6 million.

Opening in second place was Bewitched which made $20.2 million. Tom Cruise's ex couldn't beat Cruise's current love interest eh?

In third place was Mr. & Mrs. Smith which made $16.7 million and has a total now of $125.4 million.

Debuting in fourth place was Herbie: Fully Loaded which made $12.7 million.

Rounding out the top 5 and debuting was George A. Romero's Land of the Dead which opened with $10.2 million.

Also opening in limited theaters in New York and Los Angeles was Rize which came in twelfth place with an impressive $1.6 million. Anybody who wants to know what Rize is about and who's in it? Click here.

Opening next weekend for the 4th of July holiday weekend are 2 new movies. First up this Wednesday is the anticipated War of the Worlds directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, Rick Gonzalez, and David Alan Basche.

If you're wondering why you can't find many if any reviews about War of the Worlds, you're not alone. Apparently the studio, while they have had press screenings for this, have barred everyone who saw it from printing and posting their reviews until Wednesday. That usually spells trouble for a movie when a studio does that. It usally means that the studio knows it's not the best film, and wants to make as much money possible on opening weekend to make their money back. (Especially with this one which I'm sure cost A LOT of money to make) Silencing the critics has traditionally never been a good thing. We'll see what happens this Wednesday.

EDIT: I found this talkback over at RottenTomatoes which discusses the "embargo." http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/s...d.php?t=420847

Then on Friday Martin Lawrence returns to theaters with the PG rated family comedy Rebound.

Here are your numbers...


1) Batman Begins- $26,770,000 ($121,697,000)
2) Bewitched- $20,200,000 ($20,200,000) NEW!
3) Mr. & Mrs. Smith- $16,750,000 ($125,438,000)
4) Herbie: Fully Loaded- $12,750,000 ($17,787,000) NEW!
5) George A. Romero's Land of the Dead- $10,233,000 ($10,233,000) NEW!
6) Madagascar- $7,300,000 ($160,056,000)
7) Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith-$6,250,000 ($358,606,000)
8) The Longest Yard- $5,475,000 ($141,895,000)
9) The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl- $3,425,000 ($30,469,000)
10) Cinderella Man- $3,270,000 ($49,592,000)
11) The Perfect Man- $2,498,000 ($10,783,000)
12) Rize- $1,600,000 ($1,600,000) NEW! Limited Opening

The Clown Prince

[Spongebrain2.0]

Wow...I owe everyone on this board probably $5 bucks. Bewitched not opening at #1 surprised me, but still a healthy $20 million opener. Cool to see BB hanging in there. Herbie bombed, so did Land of the Dead. I hope WOTW bombs hard, so Tom Cruise cries himself to sleep on Katie Holme's shoulder

[Chris Wood]

[The Clown Prince]For the second weekend in a row Batman Begins was the number one movie fighting off 3 major releases. Batman Begins made an additional $26.7 million for a total so far of $121.6 million.

Impressive hold for Bats. I guess Dad was picking the family movie this weekend.

Opening in second place was Bewitched which made $20.2 million.

As expected, a Stepford Wives-like performance. Can I Dream of Jeannie be far behind?

In third place was Mr. & Mrs. Smith which made $16.7 million and has a total now of $125.4 million.

Also a solid hold. Possible sequel? Whose marriage can they break up next?

Debuting in fourth place was Herbie: Fully Loaded which made $12.7 million.

But you can't count ol' Herbie out until the final lap.

Rounding out the top 5 and debuting was George A. Romero's Land of the Dead which opened with $10.2 million.

Wow, that's really weak, only half what Dawn of the Dead did. Is the zombie craze finally dying out?

If you're wondering why you can't find many if any reviews about War of the Worlds, you're not alone. Apparently the studio, while they have had press screenings for this, have barred everyone who saw it from printing and posting their reviews until Wednesday. That usually spells trouble for a movie when a studio does that. It usally means that the studio knows it's not the best film, and wants to make as much money possible on opening weekend to make their money back. (Especially with this one which I'm sure cost A LOT of money to make) Silencing the critics has traditionally never been a good thing. We'll see what happens this Wednesday.

Well, not screening the film would be a bad sign, but as for postponing the reviews... It's hard to imagine a Spielberg project like this getting horrible reviews. Maybe it's a Sixth Sense sort of thing - they just don't want anyone giving away the twist.

Then on Friday Martin Lawrence returns to theaters with the PG rated family comedy Rebound.

Can you say flop? Time for a diet Martin. Then Bad Boys III.


And you left out Howl, which has now passed Mononoke at nearly $2.5 million. That's still pathetic next to Spirited Away's $10 million. Say it with me kids, "Americans hate anime."

[randomguy]

And Crash finally exits the top 12. Not too shabby of a run, eh?

Anyhow, I too am a bit surprised (but pleased) that Batman Begins managed to hold off Bewitched. Still, as a a bat-fan, I'm trying not to get too excited. Considering how expensive the film was to make, to say nothing of its supposedly enormous marketing budget, Batman Begins hardly seems like it's been the smash that was probably expected.

I chalk Land of the Dead's poor performance up to crowding. Though I supsect the public probably is a little tired of zombies (even I am, and I loves me some zombies), I think the real reason for the film's lack of success was the sheer volume of releases right now. It's a pity, too. Land of the Dead isn't a great film, but certainly the release of a new Romero zombie flick, which only happens once every fifteen years or so, deserves a bigger reception.

Anyhow, I expect War of the Worlds to do just fine. Everyone I know is excited (except for a few people with exceptional taste), and Tom Cruise's public hijinks aside, there's a lot of star power in that movie. The real excitement, at least for me, is going to be seeing how Fantastic Four does in early July. That one could go either way, and it's gonna be real interesting to see if it catches on or bombs.

[Bearpod91]

next week is so going to go to WOTW. BB is finally heading`for second place. I thought Bewitched was goin to be a bomb but second place was a suprise. duh the lovebug lost in the box office race. the smiths was a great movie and should stay in the top three for next week. tom, his new love, and his ex battle it out next week with our money. I go for WOTW...that movie looks too good...its great.

[Adam Tyner]

Land of the Dead didn't bomb -- it was expected to rake in between $7 - $10 million in its opening weekend, and it accomplished that.

1) It's an R-rated movie, so there's no chance of it grossing as much as something family-friendly like Herbie: Fully Loaded. Everything that grossed more this weekend was PG/PG-13.
2) It's playing on a thousand fewer screens than everything else in the top 5; its per-screen-average demolishes Herbie.
3) The budget was only $15 million, and even when you add in prints, advertising, the theaters' cut, etc., it should break even domestically, and it'll rake in a lot of money internationally and on DVD.

This wasn't the right time of year to release it, but at least that means there'll be a DVD around Halloween.

[Spongebrain2.0]

I think "Fantastic 4" will do pretty damn well. It seems more light-weighted & comedic than some of the other super-heroe franchises. It will do well, serious drama crap is what killed "The Hulk"

[Phantasm]

YAY for Batman!!
Though WOW will undoubtedly crush BB next week.

[Chris Wood]

Land of the Dead didn't bomb -- it was expected to rake in between $7 - $10 million in its opening weekend, and it accomplished that.

1) It's an R-rated movie, so there's no chance of it grossing as much as something family-friendly like Herbie: Fully Loaded. Everything that grossed more this weekend was PG/PG-13.
.

??? Dawn of the Dead opened with $26 million, and it didn't even have Romero's name attached. So yes, $10 million is a big disappointment.

[Adam Tyner]

??? Dawn of the Dead opened with $26 million, and it didn't even have Romero's name attached. So yes, $10 million is a big disappointment.

...and if Land of the Dead had opened in February or March, it would've done bigger business too. Like I said, at least from what I've seen on other forums, the analysts' expectations were in the $7 - $10 million range, and Land... hit that. It didn't do any worse than realistically expected.

[Spongebrain2.0]

How do those analyists nail it so much. They predicted $20 million for Bewitched...they were right, predicted around $26 for BB...right again. How do they do that

[TimTwoFace]

Yay for Batman making it two weeks in a row as #1; this is what I predicted a long time ago. I also figured BEWITCHED would make a smidge more, but no matter how you look at it, Michael Caine was the man this weekend.

This weekend makes BATMAN BEGINS the fourth-highest grossing Batman movie to date; it has already slaughtered the $107 Million final take of BATMAN & ROBIN, and is likely going to surpass BATMAN RETURNS' $162 Million by the end of next weekend.

About the WAR OF THE WORLDS embargo...I can totally see a movie like that being a huge flop. Even the great Spielberg himself is, in fact, fallable - and honestly, I'm not that pumped to see this movie, even though it looks like it could be a decent popcorn movie, at best.

The real question for me is wondering how far these movies will drop when WAR OF THE WORLDS opens up; that movie will almost definitely be #1 (unless the whole world suddenly has a huge hate-on for Tom Cruise). Batman Begins will be #2, and the rest will sort themselves out with much smaller takes.

-Tim

[Lord Dalek]

War of the Worlds will be #1 next week for sure. And I'm still thinking that Fantastic 4 will continue Marvel's losing streak. It just doesn't have that Wow factor X-Men and Spiderman had.

And now that it's written in stone, WTF were you Bewitched guys thinking?

Predictions:

1. War of the Worlds
2. Batman Begins
3. Herbie Fully Loaded
4. Bewitched
5. Madagascar

[Spongebrain2.0]

Next week's predictions...


1. War of the Worlds- $54 million

2. Batman Begins- $17.3 million

3. Bewitched- $15.7 million

[Hades]

OMG $20 mil for Bewitched?????????? I'm sorry, but WHAT?

Anyway, glad to see Batman was #1 again. It deserves its spot. Star Wars deserves #2-3, not #7!

I saw Land of the Dead, it was quite enjoyable, and I'm surprised it made so little, especially seeing how Bewitched made so much.

Ohyeah, and we all know why people went to see Herbie.

I have a feeling WotW is going to be a terrible movie. First off, from what I read, this movie was originally planned for 2007, but because Spielburg wants to begin Indy 4, he rushed it to be out this year. Not a good sign.

[Chris Wood]

I'm not that pumped to see this movie, even though it looks like it could be a decent popcorn movie, at best.
-Tim

Wait a minute, are we saying War is a popcorn movie and Begins isn't?

[ManicWebb]

I have a feeling WotW is going to be a terrible movie. First off, from what I read, this movie was originally planned for 2007, but because Spielburg wants to begin Indy 4, he rushed it to be out this year. Not a good sign.

It's an action/drama film, stars Tom "Footprints on Oprah's White Couch" Cruise, and has Spielberg's name attached to it. People are going to eat this movie up, regardless of quality. Even at his worst, Spielberg is still one of the biggest movie directors... um... ever.

[Boy Wonder]

I hope Tom's "knowledge" of "pyschology" will help him cope with a hopeful bomb of 'War'.

Wow, I can't believe Batman won this week. Man, killed the zombies, crashed Herbie, and didn't get into a Tom Cruise planned trap of a witch. Interesting.

[Arxane]

Ohyeah, and we all know why people went to see Herbie.

Yeah, but they'll all most likely feel jipped when they learn their "motivation" was altered somewhat because of early test screenings.

[Elf]

If you're wondering why you can't find many if any reviews about War of the Worlds, you're not alone. Apparently the studio, while they have had press screenings for this, have barred everyone who saw it from printing and posting their reviews until Wednesday. That usually spells trouble for a movie when a studio does that. It usally means that the studio knows it's not the best film, and wants to make as much money possible on opening weekend to make their money back. (Especially with this one which I'm sure cost A LOT of money to make) Silencing the critics has traditionally never been a good thing. We'll see what happens this Wednesday.The Clown Prince

Spoilers, that's why.

They want the audience to figure it out on their own, there's some reviews at AICN though, and they're calling it BEST SPIELBERG FILM EVER(although there are times when they can't be trusted)