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Box Office Analysis, Oct. 17: ‘The Fog’ Blankets Competition
HOLLYWOOD - With Halloween close at hand, horror reigns again. The Fog--a creepy redo of the John Carpenter 1980 film about revengeful ancient mariners who wreck havoc on a small seaside town--fogged up the competition, coming in first with $12 million.
It pushed last week’s champ Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit down to second with $11.7 million.
This makes the second top opener for a horror film in two months. The Exorcism of Emily Rose debuted in the top spot last month with $30 million. Coming up next is Saw II, a sequel to last year’s surprise horror hit.
Cameron Crowe’s latest opus, Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, didn’t fare as well. The film, about a guy (Bloom) who goes back to his father’s hometown in Kentucky to bury him and learns a little about himself, debuted in third place with $11 million.
Meanwhile, the Keira Knightley-starrer Domino--based on the real-life of model-turned-bounty hunter Domino Harvey--opened in sixth place with a measly $4.6 million.
The Top 12 films grossed an estimated a four-day total of $72.2 million, down 18.21 percent from last year's draw of $88.2 million and down 18.11 percent from last weekend's $88.1 million.
The Top Three films at the box office this time last year were: DreamWorks' PG-rated Shark Tale, which stayed at No. 1 for the third week with $22 million in 3,948 theaters, averaging $5,574 per theater; Universal Pictures' PG-rated Friday Night Lights, which stayed in second place in its second week with $12.2 million in 2,764 theaters, averaging $4,420 per theater; and Paramount Pictures’ R-rated Team America: World Police, which opened in third with $12.1 million in 2,539 theaters, averaging $4,774 per theater. (Click here to read last year's box office report)
BOX OFFICE TOP 10, ESTIMATES (Four-Day Totals)
(Source: Exhibitor Relations, Inc.)
No. 1: The Fog (Sony/Screen Gems, PG-13)
• Gross: $12.2 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 2,972
• Per-theater average: $4,105
No. 2: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (DreamWorks, PG)
• Gross: $11.7 million (-27%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 3,656 (+11)
• Per-theater average: $3,200
• Cume to date: $33.3 million
No. 3: Elizabethtown (Paramount, PG-13)
• Gross: $11 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 2,517
• Per-theater average: $4,370
No. 4: Flightplan (Buena Vista, PG-13)
• Gross: $6.4 million (-40%)
• Weeks opened: 4
• Theaters: 3,111 (-212)
• Per-theater average: $2,081
• Cume to date: $70.7 million
No. 5: In Her Shoes (20th Century Fox, PG-13)
• Gross: $6.1 million (-39%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 2,840 (+32)
• Per-theater average: $2,148
• Cume to date: $20 million
No. 6: Domino (New Line, R)
• Gross: $4.6 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 2,223
• Per-theater average: $2,103
No. 7: Two for the Money (Universal, R)
• Gross: $4.6 million (-47%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 2,397 (+6)
• Per-theater average: $1,919
• Cume to date: $16.5 million
No. 8: A History of Violence (New Line, R)
• Gross: $3.6 million (-29%)
• Weeks opened: 4
• Theaters: 1,348 (+8)
• Per-theater average: $2,671
• Cume to date: $22.3 million
No. 9: Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (Warner Bros., PG)
• Gross: $3.4 million (-47%)
• Weeks opened: 5
• Theaters: 2,525 (-479)
• Per-theater average: $1,370
• Cume to date: $47.6 million
No. 10: The Gospel (Screen Gems, PG)
• Gross: $3.2 million (-57%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 983 (+14)
• Per-theater average: $3,255
• Cume to date: $47.6 million
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