Several movies have made the grade with critics of late, but enthusiasm for Scott Pilgrim and now Piranha has not lead to large numbers at the box office. It has been very disheartening to see how poorly some movies have done at the box office.
Piranha should have been a slam-dunk for the Weinstein Company and Dimension, but the film only managed to snag sixth place, and did not break $10 Million over the weekend. That is with 3D ticket prices tallied in, which makes it even more disappointing.
Audiences that did see the movie didn’t really like it. The film only got an exit poll score of “C” from film-goers, according to Entertainment Weekly’s Hollywood Insider.
Nobody seemed too interested in seeing any of the new offerings. Holdover Expendables won the weekend with $16.5 Million. The film dropped about 50%, and its two week total is $65 Million. Take that, naysayers.
Vampires Suck nabbed the number two spot. The team that brought you the Scary Movie franchise, Date Movie, Epic Movie and many more, decided to parody the Twilight franchise this time around. The film has made about $18 Million since its opening day last Wednesday, with $12 Million of that coming from the weekend.
The Twilight series is ripe for parody, but the film clips for this film just weren’t that funny
Eat Pray Love fell about 50% from its opening weekend, and made an additional $12 Million. The film has recouped $47 Million of its $60 Million budget in two weeks.
Lottery Ticket made a decent $11 Million. Starring Bow Wow, Ice Cube, Terry Crews, and Mike Epps, the film about a man in the projects winning a lottery ticket opening in only 1,973 theaters, and actually surpassed Expendables as far as per-screen averages go.
The Other Guys held down the number five spot with about $10 Million. Nanny McPhee Returns and The Switch debuted in the number 7 and 8 spots. Nanny McPhee has been out internationally since March, and has made over $60 Million overseas, so it is already profitable despite a lukewarm ($8M) domestic opening.
The Switch reportedly only had a budget of $16 Million, so it should fare okay in the long run. Overall, the box office was down 7% from a year ago.
