Monday, January 07, 2008

Hit movies hang on, as fans still find 'Treasure'


By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
The new year is proving kind to old movies.
For the third consecutive weekend, National Treasure: Book of Secrets was the No. 1 film, taking in $20.2 million, according to studio estimates from box office trackers Nielsen EDI.

The second installment of the Nicolas Cage adventure has done $171 million in three weeks, just $2 million shy of what the 2004 original did overall.

Treasure led a pack of holdovers that continue to play well. Will Smith's I Am Legend was second with $16.4 million, bringing its four-week total to $228.7 million.

Juno, the offbeat teen pregnancy comedy, continues to emerge as the indie hit of the season with $16.2 million and third place, having done $52 million in five weeks. Alvin and the Chipmunks was fourth with $16 million. The comedy, a blend of live action and computer-generated effects, has done $176.7 million in a month.

The only major newcomer, the horror film One Missed Call, was No. 5 with $13.5 million, about $4 million above most analysts' expectations.

Among movies in limited release, Daniel Day-Lewis' There Will Be Blood did $1.3 million on 56 screens for a strong $26,000 per-theater average.

Guillermo Del Toro's Spanish horror film The Orphanage pulled in $500,000 on 66 screens for a healthy $7,500 average per theater. Both movies expand wider later this month.

Ticket sales dipped 2% from the same weekend last year.

4 comments:

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Has anyone here seen the new National Treasure?

I'll wait for the DVD release. In fact, I just might boycott all movies until Indiana Jones..

JPX said...

No, see I Am Legend for crying out loud!

Octopunk said...

Yes, do. I caught it over the weekend and liked it a lot, although I have some notes that I'll share soon.

We missed the Batman sequence. Walked in for the very last shot. I don't want to talk about it.

JPX said...

"We missed the Batman sequence. Walked in for the very last shot. I don't want to talk about it."

Good lord, man! How does that happen?

Salem's Lot 1979 and Salem's Lot 2024

Happy Halloween everybody! Julie's working late and the boy doesn't have school tomorrow so he's heading to one of those crazy f...