Horror films continue to draw audiences, with The Ring Two racking up an impressive estimated $36 million in receipts, drawing over $10,000 per screen in a very wide release of well over 3,000 screens. Drop-off looks to be severe–the film made less on Saturday than it did on Friday–so it probably won’t show the impressive legs that pushed the first film over the $100 million mark. However, with the tendency of horror movies to do well on the rental and home video market, there’s no doubt that this will prove a successful investment for the Dreamworks studio.
Robots came in at number two, raking in an estimated $21.8 million. That’s a forty percent drop from last week, which these days is pretty good. The film has drawn about $67 million in it’s one and a half weeks of release.
Despite scatching reviews, Disney’s The Pacifier held well, making around $12.5 million and dropping only a bit more than 30% from the previous weekend. It’s 17 day gross hovers about $73 million, already putting it well above star Vin Deisel’s last pic, The Chronicles of Riddick. Like horror films, comedies tend to do well on the home and rental video market, so don’t be surprised to see a sequel mentioned soon.
Disney’s Ice Princess fell on the ice, drawing a chillly $2,800 per screen for a lame $9 million in its opening weekend.
Doing rather better, Hitch continued it’s stay in the top five by drawing an additional $6.6 million dollars, for a total of about $160 million. Again, home video, rental and cable futures look extremely good for the latest film by Top 50 Movie Star Ever honoree Will Smith.
Bruce Willis’ Hostage drew little box office ransom with a paltry second weekend return of $5.8 million. In total it’s drawn not quite $20 million. Willis must be hoping for something a lot better from the upcoming Sin City.
Meanwhile, Million Dollar Baby showed more cinematic punch, drawing a tad over $4 million to raise it’s total to $90 million. Warner Bros. really screwed the pooch on this one, as they had forced long-time house director and star Clint Eastwood to seek financing for the picture on his own. With the film now a hit (not to mention a Best Picture nominee), Warners’ get a reduced percentage of the purse, and has no doubt pissed off Eastwood, who may shop his next film elsewhere.
