What happens when a studio puts all its energy into a monster opening weekend without the bother of a good movie to back it up? Right: It falls off a cliff. "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" dropped 62% from its opening-weekend grosses, similar to the fate that befell "Spider-Man 3" a few weeks earlier. "Pirates" was still the No. 1 movie in the country with $43.2 million, but, truly, most of us had already moved on to the next glittering diversion.
Which would be "Knocked Up"? Sort of. Buoyed by reviews of glue-sniffing delirium and expectations of another "40-Year-Old Virgin," the movie pulled in $29.3 million, a good increase over "Virgin"'s $21 million two years ago. Still, that R-rating has to have made a dent and the movie's cheerful but unabashed raunch will keep it from going mom-and-pop broad. (It's fun to scroll through the user comments for the film over at IMDB and guess which posters are under or above the age of 35.) It's worth noting that the per-theater-average for "Knocked Up" ($10,199) beat the PTA for "Pirates" ($9,900), and that the Judd Apatow comedy cost $30 million to make versus $200+ million for the third swashbuckler. That means Disney will keep "Pirates" in theaters until next March to cover their investment.
The Kevin Costner serial killer movie "Mr. Brooks" opened with a mild wheeze: $10 million. The Shue family soccer flick "Gracie" sank without a trace: $1.4 million.
Some interesting numbers in arthouse land, though: Irish musical "Once" is up to 60 theaters and is still making an average $7,500 per, quite strong for a lovely little bit of low-budget perfection. Period immigrant saga "Golden Door" made an average $11,000 at each of the three theaters it played at. (Wesley saw it last week and is kvelling mightily; it opens here a week from Friday.) And Russian sci-fi sequel "Day Watch" ($9,260 PTA) and Japanese anime blow-out "Paprika" ($7,412 PTA) are playing nicely to their respective niches.
Further BO info at Box Office Mojo and Leonard Klady.
