Weekend Box Office

Better late than numbers!

For kicks I considedered catching the very, very late show of Toy Story 3 this weekend. It was Friday night, and I swung by the mall an hour and a half before the show that was too late for kids to go to, and there was still a line forming. No thanks! I thought. I don't like crowds.

If you don't like crowds, you would do well to have avoided this movie's opening weekend, because it had a per screen average of $27,000. TS3 debuted at #1 natch, earning $110 million. Just goes to show what presold properties, 3D and Imax can do. Plus, I hear it's pretty good.

Meanwhile the rest of the movie business saw this tsunami coming and sensibly kept out the of the way. The only reason to open a movie in an environment like this is if you have a huge barkin' turkey - you can blame the failure on the other movie, plus some people will buy tickets just because the blockbuster they came to see is sold out. Thus, WB's Jonah Hex comes in at #7 with $5.4 million. Bet it's more than the movie deserves! PSA was $1904, for comparison. Like the old west, the auditoriums were places where a man could stretch out and claim a patch of land as his own.

Top prize for documentary titles: The Nature of Existence, from Walking Shadows pictures. The poster promises "Every mystery of human existence - explained in one movie!" And that had a per screen of $2977. I'd see it myself but A: I'd have nothing to live for afterwards and B: It has a running time of 700 years.