Leo DiCaprio Goes to the Dogs; Chihuahua Wins Again
Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 12, 2008
It turned out to be a brutal weekend for new releases — and for everyone at the box office, generally. Everyone, that is, except Beverly Hills Chihuahua. That silly dog wound up with a haul of $17 million, and that was enough to finish first for the second weekend in a row and knock off a lot of movies that I thought would do better, such as Body of Lies.
I have to be honest. I am really surprised Body of Lies did as poorly as it did. It only made $13 million dollars when a lot of people were prediction something over $20 mil. This flick also cost a fortune to make, something over $100 million!!
Well, the “star system” really is dead if guys like Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe can’t put a movie like this one into first place for the weekend, especially against a stupid dog. Let’s see; that’s Leo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe down the drain this week, and Julianne Moore clobbered the week before. Who’s next? Denzel Washington, perhaps? Tom Hanks? At least Brad Pitt and George Clooney can feel good about how Burn After Reading did. I guess Anne Hathaway feels good that Rachel Getting Married made $464,000, given that it was only in 27 theaters. Same for that woman who voiced that chihuahua (Drew Barrymore). But those are about the only folks among the A-list feeling good about much at the moment.
Body of Lies didn’t even finish second for the weekend. Second went to Quarantine, which made $14.2 million. That’s a little more than expected. As for The Express, it did unexpectedly poorly: only $4.7 million. City of Ember only did $3.2 million.
Needless to say, the fall movie season has once again made a fool out of me and my predictions. It seems I always get the summer movie grosses accurate, and then the fall comes and my predictions go straight to hell. Just like these box office grosses to straight to hell every fall. True, I was a little bullish in my prediction for Body of Lies. But $13 million dollars is just a terrible showing.
A look at the final estimates for this weekend:
| 1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua | $17.5 million |
| 2. Quarantine | $14.2 million |
| 3. Body of Lies | $13.1 million |
| 4. Eagle Eye | $11.0 million |
| 5. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist |
$6.5 million |
| 6. The Express |
$4.7 million |
| 7. Nights in Rodanthe | $4.6 million |
| 8. Appaloosa | $3.3 million |
| 9. The Duchess | $3.3 million |
| 10. City of Ember | $3.2 million |
Sorry to have to give you folks the bad news that this silly chihuahua finished first again. Don’t blame the messenger, eh?
That does it for now. See you later this coming week for the next edition of the Reject Report, which will be brought to you by the letter “W.”
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