The weather did it.
That was the spin from Hollywood as one high-profile film (see Jim Carrey's Yes Man) after another (see Will Smith's Seven Pounds) landed with a thud at the weekend box office.
"I'm of the philosophy any real moviegoer would walk through a blizzard to see the movie they wanted to see," Exhibitor Relations' Jeff Bock said Sunday.
Certainly the weather, which was nasty, especially in the East and Midwest, didn't detour the art-house crowd from The Wrestler, Gran Torino, Doubt and Frost/Nixon, all of which did well in limited release.
Of course, maybe conditions were more brutal at multiplexes showing Yes Man and Seven Pounds. The grosses sure were.
On paper, yes, Yes Man finished No. 1 in the weekend standings. But the comedy's $18.3 million Friday-Sunday gross was down 40 percent from the take of last weekend's No. 1 film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and down 60 percent from the take of the same weekend's No. 1 film from last year, National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
For Carrey, Bock said, Yes Man was "a return to form that just did not pan out—this opened worse than The Cable Guy [$19.8 million debut in 1996]."
Yes Man came up short when judged against nearly any classic Carrey comedy, from Bruce Almighty ($68 million) to Yes Man's spiritual forerunner, Liar Liar ($31.4 million).
For Smith, the most reliable of box-office draws, Seven Pounds was his first film since 2001's Ali to fail to open at No. 1. And, Bock predicted, it'll be the star's first movie since Ali to fail to gross at least $100 million overall.
Estimated on Sunday to have opened with $16 million, Monday's final numbers showed the drama only took in $14.9 million. On nearly the same weekend in December 2006, Smith's The Pursuit of Happyness, from the same director as Seven Pounds, debuted with $26.5 million.
Other numbers and stats from the weekend box office:
- Weeks of advance awards-show press worked for Mickey Rourke's The Wrestler, which bowed with $202,714 at four theaters. Its per-screen average ($50,679) put to shame Yes Man's ($5,318).
- In their second weekends, Gran Torino ($468,221 from 19 theaters) and Doubt ($680,948 from 39 theaters) remained hot.
- In its third weekend, Frost/Nixon ($378,052 at 39 theaters) managed to nearly hit $1.5 million overall.
- The Tale of Despereaux opened at 2,758 theaters, which is about the most impressive thing that can be said of an animated film that bowed with an underwhelming $10.1 million.
- The Day the Earth Stood Still ($9.9 million) has no legs. Ticket sales plunged 68 percent from last weekend to this.
- Four Christmases ($7.7 million) hit $100 million overall.
- Slumdog Millionaire ($3.1 million) added more theaters, picked up more awards and finally cracked the Top 10.
- Milk ($1.7 million) fell out of the Top 10, but passed $10 million overall.
- Judith Miller and Valerie Plame need not fear publicity being stirred up by Nothing But the Truth—the Kate Beckinsale film, inspired by but not based on the Miller-Plame CIA-leak imbroglio, only took in an estimated $3,500 at two theaters.
Here's a recap of the top-grossing weekend films based on Friday-Sunday final numbers compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
- Yes Man, $18.3 million
- Seven Pounds, $14.9 million
- The Tale of Despereaux, $10.1 million
- The Day the Earth Stood Still, $9.9 million
- Four Christmases, $7.7 million
- Twilight, $5.2 million
- Bolt, $4.1 million
- Slumdog Millionaire, $3.1 million
- Australia, $2.2 million
- Quantum of Solace, $2.1 million
(Originally published Dec. 21, 2008, at 11:55 a.m. PT.)