The Steve Carell comedy Evan Almighty, the follow-up to Jim Carrey’s Bruce Almighty, may have expectedly debuted at No. 1 with a solid $32.1 million, but it was less than half the $68 million opening of its predecessor.
With a $175 production budget, Evan Almighty was an expensive comedy to make, and the opening numbers are considered low. But if it can hold on in theaters and then score well overseas, on television and in home video, the comedy could earn its money back, Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers, told The Associated Press.
“Opening weekend no longer is the only barometer by which you can determine whether or not a film can turn a profit,” Dergarabedian told AP. “If it finds life in the foreign marketplace, on home video, all those revenue streams are really important. It just has to do well in the long term, then have life after its theatrical distribution.”
As for the other openers this weekend, the Stephen King adaptation 1408, starring John Cusack, debuted in second place with $20.1 million, while biopic A Mighty Heart, starring Angelina Jolie as the wife of kidnapped and slain journalist Daniel Pearl, only managed 10th place with $4 million.
SiCKO also had sold-out sneak previews this weekend around the country. It opens in theaters June 29. The early screenings were intended to get interest focused on the movie itself, rather than publicity over a U.S. Treasury Department investigation of Moore’s trip to Cuba for the film to get medical care for ailing Sept. 11 rescue workers.
The Top 12 movies took in $125.4 million, down 3.46 percent from last year’s total of $129.9 million and down 10.22 percent from last weekend’s total of $139.6 million. The Top Three films at the box office this time last year were: Sony’s Click, which opened at No. 1 with $40 million in 3,749 theaters, averaging $10,673 per theater; Buena Vista’s Cars, which dropped to second place in its second week with $23.2 million in 3,949 theaters, averaging $5,897 per theater; and Paramount’s Nacho Libre, which dropped to third place in its second week with $12.6 million in 3,083 theaters, averaging $4,119 per theater. (Click here to read last year’s box office report).
BOX OFFICE TOP 10, ESTIMATES
(Source: Exhibitor Relations, Inc.)
No. 1: Evan Almighty (Universal, PG)
• Gross: $32.1 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 3,604
• Per-theater average: $8,910
No. 2: 1408 (MGM, PG-13)
• Gross: $20.1 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 2,678
• Per-theater average: $7,534
No. 3: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (20th Century Fox, PG)
• Gross: $20.1 million (-65%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 3,963 (+4)
• Per-theater average: $5,085
• Cume to date: $97.6 million
No. 4: Ocean’s Thirteen (Warner Bros., PG-13)
• Gross: $11.3 million (-42%)
• Weeks opened: 3
• Theaters: 3,450 (-115)
• Per-theater average: $3,288
• Cume to date: $91 million
No. 5: Knocked Up (Universal, R)
• Gross: $10.6 million (-24%)
• Weeks opened: 4
• Theaters: 2,975 (+68)
• Per-theater average: $3,575
• Cume to date: $108.9 million
No. 6: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Buena Vista, PG-13)
• Gross: $7.2 million (-42%)
• Weeks opened: 5
• Theaters: 2,802 (-527)
• Per-theater average: $2,575
• Cume to date: $287 million
No. 7: Surf’s Up (Sony, PG)
• Gross: $6.7 million (-28%)
• Weeks opened: 3
• Theaters: 3,309 (-222)
• Per-theater average: $2,025
• Cume to date: $47.3 million
No. 8: Shrek the Third (DreamWorks, PG)
• Gross: $5.7 million (-36%)
• Weeks opened: 6
• Theaters: 2,822 (-683)
• Per-theater average: $2,039
• Cume to date: $307.9 million
No. 9: Nancy Drew (Warner Bros., PG)
• Gross: $4.5 million (-34%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 2,612 (unchanged)
• Per-theater average: $1,725
• Cume to date: $16.1 million
No. 10: A Mighty Heart (Paramount Vantage, R)
• Gross: $4 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 1,355
• Per-theater average: $2,956
OTHER OPENINGS
You Kill Me (IFC, R)
• Gross: $239,000
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 37
• Per-theater average: $6,459
SiCKO (Lionsgate, PG-13)
• Gross: $70,000
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 1
• Per-theater average: $70,000
Broken English (Magnolia, PG-13)
• Gross: $53,000
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 7
• Per-theater average: $7,571
