As you probably figured, Keanu Reeves, “The Day The Earth Stood Still,” won the box-office derby this weekend with a $31 million,” cume, but the earth didn’t really move and a lot of pundits are calling this a “soft” opening and that the film underperformed from expectations. Reeves is one of the worst big-named actors in the world and it’s kind of sad, because he seems like a genuinely nice person, but a good performance by him is far and few between.
He seems to know it too, according to Anne Thompson. “One set story I heard about Reeves had him saying, ‘I suck, I suck,’ after every take. But he doesn’t always suck,” Thompson wrote forgivingly.
We digress. Coming in second was “Four Christmases,” which bodes well for director Seth Gordon and whatever project he does next (the ‘King of Kong’ narrative?) The film added another $13.3 million to its total which now sits very pretty at an impressive, $87.9 million. “Twilight” took the third spot and grabbed another $8 million, making its total gross, a whopping $150 million so far.
“Bolt” was fourth and “Australia” was fifth with another small $4.3 million to add to its total which is still only at $37.8. The film cost $130 million-ish which probably means this one is going to be seen as one of the big bombs of 2008, unless it can snag up a few major Oscar nominations which seems doubtful.
The strongest per-screen-average of the box office weekend however belonged to all the indie films in limited release. Both “Gran Torino,” “Doubt” and “Che” did outstanding business. Clint Eastwood’s ‘Torino’ was only on six screens and averaged $47,333, the second-highest per screen average of the year after “Frost/Nixon.” “Doubt” did $35,000 from 15 screens. According to Indiewire, the most impressive release might be IFC‘s “Roadshow” release of Steven Soderbergh‘s “Che.” Obviously restrained by its four hour plus running, the film sold out nearly all its weekend screenings in New York and Los Angeles to find a $30,050 PTA.” All three film’s averages rank among the ten best specialty debuts of the year.
Box Office
1. “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” $31 million.
2. “Four Christmases,” $13.3 million.
3. “Twilight,” $8 million.
4. “Bolt,” $7.5 million.
5. “Australia,” $4.3 million.
6. “Quantum of Solace,” $3.8 million.
7. “Nothing Like the Holidays,” $3.5 million.
8. “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” $3.3 million.
9. “Milk,” $2.6 million.
10. “Transporter 3,” $2.3 million.