Dwayne Johnson’s Disney update Race to Witch Mountain kicked off the weekend in first position, grossing $6.8 million at the box office on Friday. Family films tend to earn a lot of their money on weekend days, so this movie is well on target to pull further ahead on Saturday and Sunday and win the frame with a gross in the mid-$20 mil range. Meanwhile, the weekend’s other new remake, The Last House on the Left, scared up $5.6 mil on Friday the 13th. Fellow freshman flick Miss March was out of the running with just $890,000. And reigning champ Watchmen dropped a hugely disappointing 78 percent from a week ago to bring in a mere $5.4 mil. Friday’s figures are below, and please check back here on Sunday for a full weekend recap in the Box Office Report.
1. Race to Witch Mountain — $6.8 mil
2. The Last House on the Left — $5.6 mil
3. Watchmen — $5.4 mil
4. Taken — $2.1 mil
5. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail — $1.5 mil
More Box Office News:
Box Office Preview: Will ‘Race to Witch Mountain’ brew up a win?
‘Watchmen’ wins the weekend with $55.7 mil
‘Madea’ tops ‘Jonas Brothers’ for a second box office win
‘Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail’ wins big at the box office
‘Friday the 13th’ slashes records
EW.com’s Box Office Chart
im sure Watchmen will cross the 100-million mark in a couple of weeks.
Yeah, but it cost 150 mil to make.
Watchmen’s drop is disappointing, but not shocking. Its fan-base surely flooded theaters on opening day as there was a significant drop-off from Friday to Saturday of last week. I think the unfamiliarity of the characters and the vagueness of the marketing campaign made things even more difficult.
It should be interesting to see what kind of life this has on DVD. Hopefully this thing can manage to be profitable down the road, as it would be disappointing for studios to not get behind films like this in the future.
Saw Watchmen this week, and actually enjoyed it, but it left everyone I spoke to afterwards cold. Nobody got the fuss. Not surprised by the drop. It’s way too violent (in some ways, more than the graphic novel), and its densely layered backstories doesn’t translate well into the literal world of movies. I don’t see much of an audience beyond the fan base, and that’s too limited for a movie that cost $150 million to make and probably close to another $100 million to market.
Sad for Watchmen it was a well deserving movie.
You smell what the Rock is cookin?
I wonder if someone could explain something to me? Why does the box office chart only seem to count takings for weekends? If I go to see a movie on a Tuesday, for example, is the money I paid for that ticket not added to a movie’s total box office? It seems a very odd way to keep track of how a film is doing…
I enjoyed Watchmen a whole lot — but I’d say this drop is no surprise. With Snyder & Co. talking up the Deluxe Watchmen Blu-Ray Experience coming out later this year (with a bunch of extra scenes and the ‘Black Freighter’ incorporated into the story-flow), I felt less than enthusiastic about going to see the truncated version in theaters again.
I think word of mouth has ruined the Watchmen. I admit to not reading the novel and I wonder if that is why I really did not like it. I counted 7 people that left before it ended. I was so disappointed. Is reading the novel a prerequisite to enjoying the movie?
Loved Watchmen & I’m not into superheroes or comics or graphic novels. Others I’ve talked to were not crazy about it. It looks like it’ll be a cult-hit or a love-it/hate-it movie.
The current obsession with Box Office to measure a film’s “instant success” by the media (including EW) is not only damaging to the art — deciding in a week if a movie is a hit or a bomb? Please — but also ridiculous. Most7 of the ‘record-breaking whopping numbers’ aree due to ticket price increases. If you go by number of tickets sold, the most popular movie is STILL 19349′s Gone With The Wind. These stories are nonsense at best, harmful at worst.
Watchmen is one of the most unique movies ever made. An R-rated comic book film with new visionary effects. It’s probably plummeting at the box office because of that uniqueness.
I love Watchmen and Malin Akerman is so hot: http://www.actressscene.com/search/label/Malin%20Akerman
Many folks went to the theatre thinking they went to see X-Men or…Fantastic Four. On other words a popcorn movie.
In stead they got a dark take on the cold war, very messed up super”heroes” and were keept wondering “why is the blue guy naked?”
I personally thought it was one of the best films I have seen in years.
There tends to be a sneering tone which most of the media takes towards Watchmen, and other films which, while not perfect by any means, at least try to say something different. I’m not surprised, but I do miss the days when EW wasn’t quite so establishment.