Weekend Box-Office: April 8-10, 2011

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Russell
Brand = king of box-office?

That’s right, ladies and
germs…the man, the myth, the dude who nailed more girls than I
will in my next six lifetimes and is now married to the
pop queen with perky boobs…Englishman Russell Brand voices
the lead character in the #1 film of the weekend, HOP, and stars
as the drunken rich guy ARTHUR in the #2 movie of the weekend (not
much of a stretch for the latter film, right?). Nice going,
Brandy! The bigger surprise came via SOUL SURFER, which was
released in less theaters than any of the 4 new films
opening this past weekend, yet managed the highest per-theater
average ($5,014) than the rest — only 2nd to HOP, which averaged
$6,000 per-theater.

The biggest disappointment for
the studio and for me personally, was YOUR HIGHNESS which despite
starring cult star Danny McBride, along with "name
actors" like Natalie Portman, James Franco and Zooey
Deschanel, only managed a measly 6th place opening, the worst of
all the new releases. I haven’t seen the film so I can’t vouch for
its entertainment value (although our very own Chris
Bumbray gave it a 7/10), but I just hate to see
original/creative movies not doing well at the box-office since
studios are very myopic and will likely follow the horrible
"remake trend" when they see results like this, and say,
"You see, nobody wants to see original movies…they want
retreads, TV shows, etc…" I hope I’m wrong, man.

The other "surprise"
for me was INSIDIOUS, which has not only received a decent
amount of solid
reviews (which is rare for a horror movie), but also managed
the smallest drop in its audience from last weekend (losing only
26%) while sticking around the top 5 and raising its total to $27M
in the first 10 days of release. Not bad for a film that only cost
$1.5M, right? Kudos to director James Wan and partner Leigh
Whannell for kickin’ that ass. HANNA also opened with high numbers
and great reviews,
so it may have "legs" over the next few weeks.

With 4 new releases in the top
10, it was time to get rid of some of the lesser films from the
box-office charts including Zack Snyder’s SUCKER PUNCH ($34M),
which dropped out after only 2 weeks in the top 10. PAUL ($35M)
also left the top 10, along with BATTLE: LOS ANGELES ($81M) and
the big hit of the year so far, RANGO which totaled $118M after
six weeks of release.

Overall revenues have been down
almost every weekend since November 2010, as compared to the
previous year, and 20% in 2011 compared to last year alone.
Needless to say, many studios are hoping that their summer movies
will help them get back in the black.

Next week sees the release of
the somewhat under-marketed SCREAM
4 (the Internet was particularly lacking in promotion for this
ideal film for the younger generation), as well as the latest Fox
animated movie entitled RIO,
starring a bunch of birds from Minnesota taking off to an
adventure in Rio de Janiero. M’okay. But if we concentrated only
on SCREAM 4 today, how much $$$ do you think it will make next
weekend? VOTE
HERE!!!