Weekend Box Office: A little 'Pursuit' keeps 'Eragon' out of first.

[The Clown Prince]

It looks like we have a little surprise in the box office results this weekend as Will Smith's new movie The Pursuit of Happyness took the number spot this weekend with $27 million!

Meanwhile, the film thought to take the number one spot was Eragon which came in second place with $23.4 million and not too good of reviews.

And coming in a somewhat distant third was Charlotte's Web which brought in $12 million in the most theaters out of all the movies in theaters at 3,566. A number IMO seems kind of low.

In fourth place was Happy Feet with $8.5 million and a $149.4 million total.

And rounding out the top 5 is The Holiday with $8.2 million and a $25.3 million total.

Out of the top 12 are The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (13th), Borat (14th), and Stranger Than Fiction (16th).

Opening next weekend, Christmas weekend are 5 movies over the course of 3 different days. First up this Wednesday is Rocky Balboa (rated PG) the sixth and final Rocky film. It stars Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Milo Ventimiglia, Tony Burton, James Francis Kelly III, Antonio Tarver, and Geraldine Hughes.

Then on Friday we have We Are Marshall (rated PG-13) with Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, David Strathairn, Ian McShane, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, January Jones, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Huntley Ritter, and Kate Mara.

Next is Night at the Museum (rated PG) starring Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Ricky Gervais, Kim Raver, and Robin Williams.

And we also have The Good Shepherd (rated R). Directed by Robert De Niro it stars Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, William Hurt, John Turturro, Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, Gabriel Macht, Tammy Blanchard, Vladimir Mashkov, and Joe Pesci.

And finally next Monday which is Christmas Day we have the horror film remake Black Christmas (rated R) with Michelle Trachtenberg, Lacey Chabert, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Katie Cassidy, Andrea Martin, Jessica Harmon, and Oliver Hudson.

Here are your numbers...


1) The Pursuit of Happyness- $27,000,000 ($27,000,000) NEW!
2) Eragon- $23,450,000 ($23,450,000) NEW!
3) Charlotte's Web- $12,026,000 ($12,026,000) NEW!
4) Happy Feet- $8,520,000 ($149,406,000)
5) The Holiday- $8,200,000 ($25,310,000)
6) Apocalypto- $7,723,000 ($27,924,000)
7) Blood Diamond- $6,270,000 ($18,390,000)
8) Casino Royale- $5,700,000 ($137,574,000)
9) The Nativity Story- $4,700,000 ($23,056,000)
10) Unaccompanied Minors- $3,675,000 ($10,223,000)
11) Deja Vu- $3,004,000 ($57,777,000)
12) Deck the Halls- $2,000,000 ($32,865,000)

The Clown Prince

[Draft]

Well, it is, Web is at least an 85Million Movie, not including advertising. So I would like to say an eulogy for animal movies with all star casts..

Eragon did suprisingly better than i thought, but i doubt that really made 20% of its budget

Hooray for Will Smith and his son for getting #1 spot

[Peter Paltridge]

There was nothing opening this week to my taste, so I would've been dissatisfied with anything that made #1. It's that happy sappy Smith movie? Fine...be that way, America.

[Tay the Cat]

Eragon did suprisingly better than i thought, but i doubt that really made 20% of its budget

It only cost $100 million to make, so it actually made more than 20% of it's budget.

[Condiment King]

I really want to see The Good Shepard next week. It looks fantastic. Also, Rocky Balboa looks like the laugh-out-loud film of the year.

[Chris Wood]

I really want to see The Good Shepard next week. It looks fantastic. Also, Rocky Balboa looks like the laugh-out-loud film of the year.

? I think you mean the kick-butt film of the year.

[Lord Dalek]

? I think you mean the kick-butt film of the year.

Well the fact that its getting marginally better reviews than The Good Shepard (48%!) says a lot.

[Chris Wood]

Well the fact that its getting marginally better reviews than The Good Shepard (48%!) says a lot.

It's not about the reviews though, it's about heart. The will to go the distance.

[Hades]

Nice to see Will Smith beat out Eragon. While I am not sure if it is a movie I'd go see, it does look like it would be pretty good for those who are interested in it.

Toon Overlord, I actually wouldn't be surprised if Eragon made more than it cost to make.

As for Rocky? I thought V was the final movie.

[Condiment King]

? I think you mean the kick-butt film of the year.

As much as I love Rocky and Rocky II, I thought Rocky III and IV were okay and V sucked. I think this installment could be okay, but some parts from the trailer looks both intentionally and unintentionally funny. I also think the wrap-up is rather unnecessary (but then again so was Rocky V all those years ago).

As for Rotten Tomatoes, I don't know how much I agree with them about movies these days. Like, while I agree with critics about The Departed being fantastic, I don't agree with how split they are on something like The Prestige. I thought The Good German looks good and it got bad reviews. I thought Blood Diamond looked bad and it got marginally good reviews. The Good Shepherd looks like another case of that.

Also, the difference between the two movies at this point is the mere fact that The Good Shepherd has been reviewed two more times, they have the same amount of good reviews. There's still time, it could wind up a lot different later in the week.

But I'm definitely seeing both of the movies in question and no, I don't think Rocky Balboa will be terrible, just to clarify.

[Chris Wood]

I don't know how good it will be, but hey, it's Rocky. I'll be there. It has to be better than film V.

[Baltofan]

I predicted Charlotte's Web to be #1.

[Tay the Cat]

If "Rocky Balboa" does well then I have no faith in humanity.

[mammy2shoesfan]

Pursuit isn't a movie that I would normally see, but the fact that it really happened to someone and that he was able to do good things in the end made me intersted in this story. So I'm glad that it did well and I plan on seeing it this weekend with my wife.

[Temple Fugate]

I'm also interested in seeing Happyness, though I can't understand the creative decision to purposefully misspell it. I suppose I'll find out when I see the movie.

[KuwabaraTheMan]

It only cost $100 million to make, so it actually made more than 20% of it's budget.

Except stuidos only get 45% of what a movie makes. It needs to make around $250 million worldwide to even draw a profit.

And that's not bringing marketting costs into play.

Granted, DVD sales will help, but I doubt it even reaches $100 million domestic with that kind of opening, so $200 million worldwide is really the best it can hope for. The studio will be taking a loss on this movie.

[Hanshotfirst113]

Nice to see Will Smith beat out Eragon. While I am not sure if it is a movie I'd go see, it does look like it would be pretty good for those who are interested in it.

Toon Overlord, I actually wouldn't be surprised if Eragon made more than it cost to make.

As for Rocky? I thought V was the final movie.

What've you got against Eragon?

[Sharklady]

> It's that happy sappy Smith movie? <

The reviewers have been saying this movie is grittier than it looks in the ads.

[Hades]

What've you got against Eragon?

Bad plot concepts followed by really really terrible and cheap effects. Normally I don't care about the quality of the effects, but when you thinking a movie preview is actually a video game preview, you know there is a problem. The dragons just don't look anywhere near realistic or even being remotely close to looking realistic. You can tell they are CGI like Sat morning cheap CGI.

[purplehairedwonder]

Bad plot concepts followed by really really terrible and cheap effects. Normally I don't care about the quality of the effects, but when you thinking a movie preview is actually a video game preview, you know there is a problem. The dragons just don't look anywhere near realistic or even being remotely close to looking realistic. You can tell they are CGI like Sat morning cheap CGI.

The effects weren't the problem for Eragon... That would be the script and directing.

I'm interested in seeing Happyness, as I love Will Smith though I'm surprised it's #1. As disappointing as Eragon was, I'm glad it wasn't the top movie.