U.S Box Office Report - 10th - 12th April 2009

1. Hannah Montana: The Movie - $34M - $34M
2. Fast & Furious - $28.7M - $118M
3. Monsters vs. Aliens - $22.6M - $141M
4. Observe and Report - $11.1M - $11.1M
5. Knowing - $6.6M - $68M
6. I Love You, Man - $6.4M - $58.9M
7. The Haunting in Connecticut - $5.7M - $46.3M
8. Dragonball Evolution - $4.6M - $4.6M
9. Adventureland - $3.4M - $11.4M
10. Duplicity - $2.9M - $36.8M

Hannah Montana returns a year after the success of her concert movie, which opened to a huge $31M from just 650+ locations. This time around Montana (Or Miley Cyrus) opens at over 4200 theatres and while it's performed well, it's obviously not translated into as big a success. Opening strong on Friday, the film was expected to be heavily front loaded and as the weekend wore on the numbers proved that, though Easter Sunday is usually down more than just an average Sunday.


Chances are this one is already in profit (it might even have been in profit on Friday evening) and that's excluding all the other merchandising that goes along with a release like this. Good thing too as if it follows the normal front-loaded path it'll take a bigger than average dip next weekend. Miley Cyrus has stated that she expects this to be her final film as Hannah Montana, though with those sorts of opening numbers I'm sure it won't be long before she reconsiders.

Fast & Furious is off a sharp 60% in its second frame of release but given it's fantastic start last weekend (biggest ever April opening) it was to be expected. After just seven days on general release the film had crossed the $100M mark and recouped it's estimated $85M production budget. This week's big hopeful, Observe & Report, failed to offer the film any serious competition leaving Fast & Furious to pick up anyone not interested in a family orientated film. By next weekend it will have bested the box office of 2 Fast 2 Furious ($127M) and should end up the biggest film of the series (The original is currently the most successful with $144M) by the end of its box office run. Paul Walker has already gone on record that a fifth film with him and Diesel is already in the offing.

Monster Vs Aliens drops 30% in its third weekend of release, adding another $22M into its already swelling coffers. Unfortunately for M Vs A is its production budget, a painful $175M. While the film should just about see that domestically, it'll need a little help from the global market to make it one of Dreamwork's most successful releases. It's currently ninth amongst their list of CGI releases, but has Over The Hedge firmly in its sights.

Seth Rogen has steadily become a high profile star since his appearance in The 40-Year Old Virgin. Knocked Up, Pineapple Express & Superbad helped cement his reputation (along with a number of Apatow's crew) and while Zack & Miri wasn't a hit, it didn't do him any harm either. Observe & Report had some decent word of mouth but that hasn't translated into great box office this weekend. The R-rating probably didn't harm this kind of movie (apart from voice work, all Rogen's movies have been rated as such) but the darker edged comedy probably didn't win over as many couples as Knocked Up did. Furthermore the teen market appears to have bypassed Observe & Report and instead gone to see Fast & Furious again. This one cost $18M to produce, a figure the film should see without too much trouble, and Rogen will have to wait until the summer for his next $100M film in the guise of the Apatow directed, Adam Sandler starrer Funny People.

Knowing drops a respectable 18% in its fourth weekend on the chart as it approaches $70M. Outside of the National Treasure sequel and Ghost Rider, Knowing has been Nic Cage's most successful film since 2004. Paul Rudd's I Love You, Man drops just 17% as it approaches the total made by his last film, Role Models ($67M). Next up for Rudd is Harold Ramis' Year One. The Haunting in Connecticut has easily doubled its production budget and stands on a global total just below $50M. A quick hit and tidy profit for Lionsgate with a movie shot over 2 years ago.

Dragonball Evolution, our final new release this week crashes and burns almost as spectacularly as March's Streetfighter movie. Fans of the series appear to have to stuck with the cartoon and Fox's only hope for the film now is the international market, in which the film has made $29M ($15M of which came from China & Japan). Adventureland and Duplicity round us off, with both film seeing their last weekend in the top ten. Neither film made much of a dent in terms of box office, being outshone by flashier releases.