Reject Report Update: I Now Pronounce You a Number One Movie

Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 22, 2007

It was a surprisingly close three-way race at the cinemas this weekend. In the end it was I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry that ended up in first place, nosing out Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Chuck and Larry finished with $34 million, while Harry Potter brought in $32 mil. I guess too many Harry Potter fans were hanging out at bookstores late at night and reading the latest release to bother with going to the theaters. The big story of the weekend really was the performance of Hairspray, which outpaced expectations at almost $28 million.

Anyway, that’s another week of my own predictions up in smoke. I had the numbers about right for Chuck and Larry, but underestimated the appeal of John Travolta in a dress, and overestimated the appeal of Harry Potter. I thought Harry would hold more of its audience and not drop too much, but the movie took a huge drop from last week. In fact, Box Office Mojo says it dropped 58.3%! In fact, it was the steepest drop in the entire Top Ten. That’s what threw my predictions right off. I thought there was no way this movie would do worse than $35 million at the very least! I guess people really are tired of sequels, then.

This is proof that people will see any dreck with Adam Sandler in it. Rotten Tomatoes has this flick at 14%. That’s really terrible! But people showed up anyway. I should never underestimate the ability of Adam Sandler to bring in an audience, though I still think Jessica Biel’s catsuit was also a contributing factor to the box office.

I read what Nikki Finke had to say about the box office totals at Deadline Hollywood Daily, and she said the strong performance of Chuck and Larry had a lot to do with a lack of light comedies at the cinemas this summer. She says people are starved for comedy, that’s why they showed up for this movie! But I dunno why she would say that, because Evan Almighty was rolled out, and so was License to Wed. And what about Knocked Up? Maybe she means there’s a lack of GOOD comedies out there. If that’s what she’s referring to, she’s right! There are definitely few good comedies out there and people are starved. It’s certainly telling that Knocked Up is still in the Top Ten, and it’s been out forever. I agree that if a good comedy comes along that hits the mark with audiences, it would probably clean up at the theaters the way Wedding Crashers did a couple of years ago. I should file this information away when I make my prediction for The Simpsons Movie.

The final weekend grosses from Box Office Mojo:

THE REJECT REPORT will be back this coming Friday for a big weekend of releases and a look at prospects for The Simpsons Movie which is likely to take America by storm.

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