U.S Box Office Report - 16th - 18th March 2007

1. 300 $31.1M - $127.4M
2. Wild Hogs $18.8M - $103.9M
3. Premonition $18M - $18M
4. Dead Silence $7.7M - $7.7M
5. I Think I Love My Wife $5.7M - $5.7M
6. Bridge to Terabithia $5.1M - $74.9M
7. Ghost Rider $4M - $110.2M
8. Zodiac $3M - $28.9M
9. Norbit $2.7M - $92.3M
10. Music and Lyrics $2.2M - $47.3M

After last weekend's record breaking opening 300 is down by more than 50% this time around - something that most analysts had predicted before the film was even released. This was because 300 was heavily front loaded - fans would have raced out that first day of release to see the movie - consequently last Saturday and Sunday where down a little on Friday's opening numbers and therefore it follows that this weekend will be down a fair bit more. Horror movies follow a similar path, with a strong opening and a more relaxed second outing. 300 is certainly performing well (and better than most horrors) with that solid second weekend of release and has already surpassed the $100M mark and should clear $130M by Monday night. It's beaten Ghost Rider's takings and moved into the biggest grossing movie of 2007 slot.


I don't know who it is, but someone is still going to see Wild Hogs. The movie has hardly moved since opening three weeks ago and given the lack of competition the movie is still eeking out near $18M+ weekends, not forgetting that $49M opening. As mentioned in a previous report, Wild Hogs is now the only straight out comedy in the top ten (save for Norbit, which is aimed at a slightly younger market), appealling to those who don't fancy the violence of 300 or have no kids to take to Bridge to Terabithia. Wild Hogs is now Travolta's biggest movie since 1999's The General's Daughter, in fact only four films stand between Wild Hogs being Travolta's biggest ever movie.

Our first new entry this week, the Sandra Bullock thriller Premonition, gives her her biggest opening movie since she started acting. With a take of $18M the film tops her previous best of $16.7M set by Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood in 2002. The film, which also stars Nip/Tuck's Julian McMachon opened on 500 screens less than Wild Hogs & 300. People expecting another Lake House style romance were set to be disappointed by the spooky thriller in which Bullock 'sees' her husband in die a car crash - except he's alive and well the next day...

Ventriloquist dummy horror (I kid you not) Dead Silence opens in fourth place with an uninspiring $7.5M weekend take. Directed by James Wan, who directed the first Saw movie, the film had little mainstream hype and opened on only 1800 screens. The movie cost around $20M (a bit more than your average horror movie) and will struggle to recoup that. Expect this to fade fast but do half decent business on DVD.

Bridge to Terabithia, with the kid/family market still pretty much all to itself will cross the $75M mark by Monday night, when final numbers are issued. The film is down just 24% from last weekend and may finish as high as $90M.

Our final new entry I Think I Love My Wife, an 'adult' orientated Chris Rock comedy, crashes into sixth place with a well below par $5M. This is Rock's first stab at a more mature comedy (though the film does incorporate some of the topics covered by his stand up work) and it may well have turned off some of his long standing fans. This marks Rock's second directorial outing after 2003's Head of State, which opened to $13.5M.

Ghost Rider sits at $110M this weekend, just covering its production budget. There's been talk of a sequel this week but whether Cage will return (it would mark his first sequel) is yet to be seen. The film has a global taking of $185M. Poor Zodiac is still struggling to make $30M and is surely a case of the right film being released at the wrong time. This might turn out to be its final weekend on the chart, which is a real shame. Expect this movie to make more than a few 'best of 2007' lists.

The top ten is rounded out by gross-out fat-suit comedy Norbit which doesn't look like it'll see $100M after all and rom-com Music and Lyrics, which really struggled to find an audience in what should have been a slam dunk Valentine release slot a month ago.