ROTTEN TOMATOES: Box Office Guru Wrapup: Matt & Kate Strike Gold at #1

Box Office Guru Wrapup: Matt & Kate Strike Gold at #1

Fool's rushed in for the box office crown.

by Gitesh Pandya | February 10, 2008

Comedy and adventure collided at the North American box office and delivered a number one opening for Fool's Gold starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. Martin Lawrence's new comedy Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins enjoyed a solid second place finish, but the standup concert film Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show bombed in its opening finishing well outside the top ten.

Uncovering the most treasure, Fool's Gold premiered in the top spot over the weekend with an estimated $22M from 3,125 theaters for a strong $7,043 average. The debut for the Warner Bros. release was a bit below the $23.8M opening that the two actors generated for their romantic comedy How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days which launched five years ago this weekend. That figure would be roughly $27M at today's ticket prices.

The $70M-budgeted Gold, which features the stars as an estranged couple reuniting to hunt for sunken treasure, was panned by critics and received some of the worst reviews of any film released in this new year. Andy Tennant (Hitch, Sweet Home Alabama) directed. In the half-decade since 10 Days came out, Hudson has been absent from the box office throne while McConaughey headlined two number one openers - 2005's adventure Sahara and 2006's romantic comedy Failure to Launch.

Debuting in second place with a nearly identical performance on a per-theater basis was the Martin Lawrence-led comedy Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins with an estimated $17.1M from 2,386 locations for a solid $7,180 average. The Universal release played in 739 fewer theaters than Fool's Gold and posted an average that was $137 higher. Directed by Malcolm D. Lee (The Best Man, Undercover Brother), the PG-13 film tells of a famous talk show host who returns to his childhood home for the 50th anniversary of his parents and reconnects with family and friends. Cedric the Entertainer, James Earl Jones, Michael Clarke Duncan, Mike Epps, and Mo'Nique co-star.

Produced for $35M, Roscoe Jenkins generated an opening similar to last month's First Sunday which was another comedy led by an African American cast. That pic which starred Ice Cube bowed to $17.7M from 2,213 theaters and is headed for a finish of just under $40M. According to Fox research, Roscoe's audience was 52% female and 52% over the age of 30.

Despite its A grade from CinemaScore, Disney's Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert plunged 66% in its second weekend to an estimated $10.5M ranking third for the frame. The G-rated concert film played in only 687 theaters and still averaged a sizzling $15,295 per location and boosted its ten-day cume to a fantastic $53.4M. Hannah Montana was originally promoted as a one-week-only event and racked up record pre-sales over the past two months so it was expected to absorb most of the demand in the first seven days. The studio announced last Sunday that it would extend the run. With a reported budget of $7M, the 3D tween sensation could climb to an astounding $70-75M. Most theaters are charging an extra-high $15 per ticket.

Jessica Alba's horror pic The Eye held up reasonably well in its second weekend falling 47% to an estimated $6.6M. The $22M Lionsgate title has grossed $21.5M in ten days and should see itself ending up in the neighborhood of $35M.

More female starpower followed as a pair of funny ladies from Fox tied for fifth place with an estimated $5.7M each. Oscar contender Juno slipped only 18% and boosted its cume to an amazing $117.6M. The wise-cracking pregnant teen is the eldest stateswoman in the top ten having just entered her tenth weekend. Eight of those frames were spent in the top ten. Katherine Heigl's 27 Dresses dropped only 33% and pushed its sum to $65.4M.

Hot on the trail of those young ladies were a bunch of old geezers. 70-year-old superstars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman watched their hit film The Bucket List collect an estimated $5.3M, off just 21%, for a cume of $75.1M for Warner Bros. Not far behind was 61-year-old action star Sylvester Stallone with Rambo which fell 42% to an estimated $4.1M giving Lionsgate a tally of $36.5M.

The bottom three positions in the top ten delivered a very close race as two other films reported estimates of $4.1M also. Fox's spoof comedy Meet the Spartans was off by 45% and reached a total of $33.9M. The Daniel Day-Lewis oil saga There Will Be Blood expanded and saw its weekend milkshake dip by just 13%. Paramount Vantage has taken in $26.8M to date with much more expected in the weeks ahead as moviegoers catch up on high profile Academy Award contenders.

Opening miserably outside of the top ten was the standup comedy doc Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show which debuted to an estimated $507,000 from 962 locations for an embarrassingly low $527 average. Scoring an opening weekend average of just three digits is never a good thing. The R-rated Picturehouse release follows the comic actor and his group of standup comedians on their tour across several states.

Grossing a similar amount of money from just a tiny fraction of the theaters was the Colin Farrell hitman drama In Bruges which bowed in just 28 locations to an estimated $471,000 for a solid $16,829 average. Focus will expand the R-rated film hoping to capitalize on the publicity it generated from its opening night slot at Sundance. Reviews were mostly encouraging.

A pair of studio flicks fell from the top ten this weekend. Sony's gory crime thriller Untraceable dipped 31% to an estimated $3.5M in its third session and raised its total to $24.3M. Budgeted at over $30M, the Diane Lane vehicle should finish up with a decent $30-35M. The $25M camcorder-style thriller Cloverfield dropped 45% in its fourth frame to an estimated $2.7M for Paramount. With $75.9M banked to date, the disaster film looks to reach $80-83M by the end of its domestic run giving the studio a nice moneymaker. Cloverfield remains the top-grossing new release of 2008.

All five Oscar nominees for Best Picture enjoyed strong holds with declines of 26% for Atonement, 18% for Juno, 13% for There Will Be Blood, and 10% for Michael Clayton. Frontrunner No Country For Old Men was the only one to not drop, inching up 2%. All films are spending aggressively on advertising to take advantage of their nods in the marketplace.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $85.3M which was off 2% from last year when Norbit opened at number one with $34.2M; and down 13% from 2006 when The Pink Panther debuted in the top spot with $20.2M.

Author: Gitesh Pandya, www.BoxOfficeGuru.com

(1-13 of 13 posts) | Reply

PsychoMP writes:
on Feb 10 2008 06:55 PM

The Hottie and the Nottie didn't shoot up to #1?

Maybe there is hope for America.

(Reply to this)

TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Feb 10 2008 08:20 PM

This proves two things, neither of which is particularly surprising:
1) Critics/reviews are completely irrelevant to box office
2) I hate everyone who paid for 'Fools Gold.'

..okay, not really, but are you f#cking KIDDING me, people?

the only thing I'm looking forward to is this movie plummeting 50% or more in it's next weekend. Please, GOD, don't let them make enough to make more of these...

(Reply to this)

Moviemaniack1993 writes:
on Feb 10 2008 08:47 PM

Well it is going to happen. Hudson and McConaughey bring a lot of revenue. I wouldn't be surprised if they do another film together. I honestly cannot see this movie being as terrible as all the critics and everyone is saying. But, I will wait for DVD anyways.

(Reply to this)

Xx MooSE xX writes:
on Feb 10 2008 09:05 PM

In reply to this comment (#1567457)
if we all went soley by what critics say,"no country for old men", would pass 100 milliion dollars at the box office, critics tend to think the only really good movies are the ones that make u think, people do not want to think! They wanna watch flat chested hos and dumbass stoners who keep forgetting to put on shirt run around f'n island, people suck!!!

(Reply to this)

Xx MooSE xX writes:
on Feb 10 2008 09:06 PM

In reply to this comment (#1567457)
if we all went soley by what critics say,"no country for old men", would pass 100 milliion dollars at the box office, critics tend to think the only really good movies are the ones that make u think, people do not want to think! They wanna watch flat chested hos and dumbass stoners who keep forgetting to put on a shirt run around an f'n island, people suck!!!

(Reply to this)

westond writes:
on Feb 10 2008 09:24 PM

In reply to this comment (#1567549)
I still like to think while I'm watching crappy movies. Thoughts such as: why am I watching this, why would any actor agree to this unless they didn't read the script, how many sequels will they make before the producers pull the plug, and why do the writers need a pay raise when this is the type of material they are coming up with. You know, those kinds of thoughts.

(Reply to this)

Xx MooSE xX writes:
on Feb 11 2008 07:52 AM

In reply to this comment (#1567572)
with a thought process like that, i'd think you would be able to take one look at fools gold and "think" thats a crappy show and i'm not gonna watch it.

(Reply to this)

Elixor writes:
on Feb 11 2008 08:33 AM

I'm with you on this one Moose. The only reason that people could've gone to this movie with knowing anything about the movie, would be to go see Kate and Mathew bods. I saw nothing that would've made me think that the movie would be funny, dramatic, or at all interesting.

People for the most part are dumb when it comes to things that they don't pay close attention to. Nobody wants to research or make an effort to understand anything in general. Most of the people that went to this movie probably just went to theatre, read the names of the movies, saw "Fool's Gold" and said, "Hey, I saw a comercial for that one, let's see that". I doubt they even remembered whether or not they even liked the comercial.

(Reply to this)

unbreakable_samurai writes:
on Feb 11 2008 08:54 AM

I'm happy In Bruges did well, hopefully it keeps expanding so I can see it. I did go and finally see There Will Be Blood(B)which was wierd and interesting and pretty good but not as awesome as it was made to be or as I was hoping it would be. I also saw 27 Dresses(B) which was a predictible amusing and pretty funny chick flick.

(Reply to this)

GelflingJen writes:
on Feb 11 2008 12:10 PM

If you build it, the idiots will come.

(Reply to this)

Eldorado writes:
on Feb 11 2008 01:31 PM

Guys.. Fools Gold is a chick flick, which demographic led the way to these box office numbers?

Need I say more?

(Reply to this)

rt_hire_me writes:
on Feb 11 2008 09:52 PM

My wife talked me into watching Failure to Launch, and I loved it, from the naked room all the way down to the Yoda impression. Don't you find a disproportionate amount of rom com's get panned? Granted, many are vomit-inducing scumfests (eg How to lose a guy in 10 days). So, I see 10% approval for Fool's Gold and I think, yeah, it's a good thing rt is around to prevent me from wasting my time on this kind of trash. But then I think of F2L and that breakup movie with VVaughn and JAniston, which critics also panned, and I think, what if I would have liked this movie? Alright, kick my *ss, see if I care.

(Reply to this)

Pathhh writes:
on Feb 12 2008 09:04 AM

In reply to this comment (#1569633)
No i can see where your coming from......it's all a matter of opinion

(Reply to this)

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