Box Office: Do You Smell What The Rock is Bewitching?

by Matt Bradshaw Mar 11th 2009 // 6:32PM

Filed under: Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Family Films, Box Office Predictions

Who watches the Watchmen? Quite a few people apparently. The R-rated super hero epic was last week's only new release, beating out its nearest contender by about $47 million. Here's the top five:
1. Watchmen: $55.2 million
2. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail: $8.5 million
3. Taken: $7.3 million
4. Slumdog Millionaire: $6.8 million
5. Paul Blart: Mall Cop: $4.1 million

Three new releases this week:
The Last House on the Left
What's It All About: Remake of Wes Craven's disturbing sleaze-fest from 1972 which borrowed its plot from Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring. Two young women are brutally assaulted by a prison escapee and his gang. The criminals take refuge in what turns out to be the home of one of their victims and find themselves on the receiving end of her parents' revenge.
Why It Might Do Well: 2008's home invasion horror flick The Strangers struck me as very similar to Craven's original Last House, so there may be a market for this kind of movie.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The original was a dark and disturbing product of its time. How much will the story have to be de-fanged for a major release today?
Number of Theaters: 2,300
Prediction: $17 million

Miss March
What's It All About: A young man awakens from a four year coma to find out his girlfriend is a Playboy Playmate, so he, along with a sex-crazed friend, embark upon a road trip to the Playboy Mansion to win her back.
Why It Might Do Well: An R-rated movie about a Playboy model? There's got to be nudity in there somewhere.
Why It Might Not Do Well: A relatively small release and a juvenile plot will keep this one out of the top five.
Number of Theaters: 1,700
Prediction: $6 million

Race To Witch Mountain
What's It All About: Dwayne Johnson stars in this family oriented science fiction adventure which is a remake/reimagining of a Disney semi-classic. Johnson plays a cab driver who helps two aliens (who look remarkably like adolescent humans) return to their space ship.
Why It Might Do Well: This is easily the most family friendly film of the week.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Didn't the original have a flying Winnebago?
Number of Theaters: 3,000
Prediction: $32 million

I suspect next week's top five will go a little like this:
1. Race to Witch Mountain
2. Watchmen
3. The Last House on the Left
4. Taken
5. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail

Not one of us counted on Paul Blart bouncing back into the top five, but congratulations to kingsley ume, Ray, Greg, Laura, PT and greatone for having vision enough to score a 9. Here's how we all did.
1. kingsley ume: 9
1. Ray: 9
1. Greg: 9
1. Laura: 9
1. PT: 9
1. greatone: 9
2. Julio: 8
2. Alex Focker: 8
3. Zach: 7
3. Matt: 7
3. Vera: 7
3. Romel: 7
3. White Wolf: 7
3. Jessica Dillon: 7
4. Buzzman: 6

Post your predictions for the top five movies in the comments section below before 5:00PM Eastern Time on Friday. One point for every top five movie correctly named, two points for every correct placement, and one extra point for the top movie.

24 Comments

Tags: Cinema, Cinematical, Miss March, MissMarch, Movies, Race to Witch Mountain, RaceToWitchMountain, The Last House on the Left, TheLastHouseOnTheLeft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments