Big Box Office Weekend

[Jedi Master Carr]

Looks like Ice Age will do huge this weekend, it made almost 14 million on Friday and will probably do at least 40-50, have to say that is a huge surprise I would have guessed 32-35 which would have been a great opening but this is massive, and not only did that do well but RE made 6.7, it should make between 17-20 for the weekend which is pretty good considering the poor reviews. Showtime really wasn't ready for Showtime as it only made 5 million finishing in third, I think it was the ads they just weren't funny. When I first heard about it I thought Deniro and Murphy would be a great movie but the studio did some poor marketing with their comericals making the film look very unfunny. Now maybe it is funny but the ads probably turned people away.

As far as Ice Age goes have to say I think there were three factors
1 there hasn't been much for families out there so this just stood out
2 the first trailer was awesome and completely different and made people interested in seeing it

3 The final SW trailer I am sure at least added something to it (like it did for Monsters INC) I took my nephew to it today and there were some young adults there without kids and I was thinking that is why they were there, one even yelled out a yeah when it came on.

As far as the movie I really liked it, it was funny and cute and a great movie for kids.

[Hart]

Would you say that it was one of those kids movies that most adults would enjoy too?

[Jedi Master Carr]

I thought so most of the adults in my theater were laughing at the jokes, it wasn't really kiddy, it was similar to Toy Story or Monsters INC and had some jokes for the adults.

[Hart]

Yeah, that's what I would've expected after I had heard of the casting. I couldn't imagine Dennis Leary singing the Barney song.

[Jedi Master Carr]

No Leary could not :) actually I liked Leary's character, Diego (a sabertooth tiger) the best he was really interesting, kind of dark character have to watch the movie won't go into more details and I liked how it worked out in the end. I also like Ray Romano's character, the Mammoth he was funny and also a complex character, the Sloth, voiced by John Leguizamo, was kind of a goofball always getting in trouble but he was funny.

[Marcus Telcontar]

oooo, Ice Age! I wanna see this one!!

[Jedieb]

I took my son to see Ice Age on Saturday. I thought it was good. It wasn't as adult oriented as Shrek, but it was still the kind of animated movie an adult could get a lot out of. I'm also a Ray Romano fan so I enjoyed his character a great deal. Unfortunately, a "potty break" my son had to take made me miss a godd 10 minutes of it so I'll be looking forward to the DVD when it comes out. If he'd told me he had to go during the AOTC trailer I would have let him wet his pants. :evil

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well Ice Age had a huge weekend make 47.9, Resident Evil finished second making 18.2, Showtime is a disapointment at 15.0 and man Time Machine droped 52% ouch, I guess that won't make a 100. Looks like Ice Age will be the first movie to 100 in 2002 take 10 days to or maybe a little more.

[Champion of the Force]

Yeah Ice Age did pretty good - even better than what I originally expected. Question is will ET threaten it next week?

Was a bit surprised to see Showtime perform as it did - I know some people were expecting it to be 1st for the weekend, especially considering DeNiro's and Murphy's recent track records in comedy.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Good question also Blade 2 opens next weeken so I expect a three way battle if Ice Age drops 40% which is likely it will make around 30 and that could be enough to hold on to #1, either ET or Blade will finish 2nd and it will be a fight, I am guessing ET makes 22 and Blade makes 20 but Blade could surprise who knows. I am also not sure how much interest is there for ET I don't know too many people interested in seeing it, so who knows it could make anywhere from 15-30 that weekend.

[JMK]

How did LOTR do? I don't think it made the top 10 did it?

[ReaperFett]

The Top Grossing Movies of All Time
at the Worldwide Box Office

1 Titanic (1997) $1,835,300,000
2 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) $942,400,000
3 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $922,300,000
4 Jurassic Park (1993) $919,700,000
5 Independence Day (1996) $811,200,000
6 Star Wars (1977) $797,900,000
7 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) $768,400,000
8 Lion King, The (1994) $767,700,000
9 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $704,800,000
10 Forrest Gump (1994)

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think it was #11 it might pass Return to Neverland when the actual numbers come in, it looks like it was about 100,000 to 200,000 behind it, acording to what I can find out. So it has probably made about 295 (aprox). It will make it to 300 maybe 305 at the most unless the re-release helps it even more.

[Champion of the Force]

Yep - FOTR was #11 with just over $2 million (drop of only 20% or so from last weekend). It's well on track to break $300 million (TTT trailer getting released at the end of March). :)

[Jedi Master Carr]

The trailer for it comes out Friday here in the US right? That is what I read on some web site.

[JonathanLB]

Two of the biggest animated openings ever and the movies both had Star Wars trailers before them. Coincidence? No. :)

E.T. $15 to $30 million?!?! Uhh, no way dude.

$30 million would have been about equal to the ALL TIME March record before Ice Age's opening.

I doubt, I very much doubt, that it even makes $10 million on the first weekend. I doubt that it will open in a huge number of theaters, first of all, and I doubt there will be very much interest in going to pay to see an old movie that has not maintained its popularity like Star Wars. I think the entire re-release could add between $20 million and $45 million. The promotion has been decent, but not good. For the SE's, the promotion was incredible. They appeared on the covers of Entertainment Weekly, every sci-fi magazine, and a ton of major articles in newspapers and other huge magazines. Aside from unpaid advertising, the commercials on TV were everywhere you looked and the trailer in theaters was a big deal too, people PAID to see ID4 just for the purpose of seeing that SW:SE trailer. Although they may have seen ID4 anyway, there was an article about people going to the movie specifically for that. The interest was very obvious, it was like a groundswell of enthusiasm. I wasn't even a fan at that point, but I saw all these kids in my class looking at the magazines and all talking about how badly they wanted to see the re-release. At that point I thought it was rather silly myself, lol, I enjoyed Star Wars but at first I had no intention of going to see old movies in theaters again... until the release date got closer and I decided to go that first Saturday. I became a fan that day :)

Blade 2 and Ice Age will have a major battle for first. I think Ice Age will make about $32 million and Blade 2 will make $28, but hopefully I am wrong and Blade 2 cuts Ice Age back to the Ice Age, hehe.

Blade 2 is going to rock.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think that is the range I didn't say I think it will make 30, I actually doubt it. It will probably open around 2000 theaters maybe a little more so that should help it get to at least 15 million, honestly I think it will depend on if children want to see it because there are no diehard ET fans running around. Heck there are more die hard Back to the Future fans than ET fans (Back to the Future has an online fan club at least) and I would think BTTF would do that well on a re-release. Also the Harrison Ford scene still won't be in the movie (its going to be on the DVD) so I defintely will skip it, I think it might do 45-50 in its run (depends on how long Spielberg wants it to be out) I think Ice Age will remain #1 actually, unless it drops 50% which I don't see happening.