The Friday box office numbers were even higher than we posted earlier, as you might have seen in our box office graph on the left bar. ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’ ended the day with $15 million. The second highest first day gross for a Adam Sandler movie, just behind ‘The Longest Yard’ in 2005. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ did $20 million, making it DreamWorks’ highest grossing non-sequel.

The Saturday estimates indicate an even better day for Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan — their voices I mean. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ made about $23.5 million, beating expectations yet again. Considering the usual Sunday drop, we’re looking at a $60 million weekend for the DreamWorks animation. This will translate into the fourth place on the top 10 of non-sequel animations, just behind three Disney features.

The Saturday box office was a little unsteady for ‘Zohan’ though. He had a small drop to about $14.5 million. The total is estimated at $40 million for the weekend, a typical Adam Sandler opening.

Notable is that the third to the fifth place were respectively taken by ‘Indiana Jones 4,’ ‘The Strangers’ and ‘Sex and the City’ with $9.9, $8.8 and $8.1 million. Quite a shift from Friday, when ‘Sex and the City’ was still third. But I fully expect it to return there tomorrow or during next week.

1. Sex and the City: $77,958,978 ($65 million budget)
2. Indiana Jones 4: $59,339,836 ($185 million budget, second week)
3. The Strangers: $28,356,800 ($9 million budget)

Continue reading This week’s box office roundup

We’re back with the ‘post-weekend drop,’ where we compare the weekend box office with the days after. This way we get an indication of the staying power of the movies. We’ve got some interesting numbers this time, so let’s dive in!

1. Sex and the City: The Movie
Saturday and Sunday: $30,267,352 million
Monday and Tuesday: $11,017,834 million
Drop: 63.6%

Continue reading The post-weekend box office drop