Based on Sunday’s estimates, courtesy of boxofficemojo.com:
A bunch of us hoity toity movie critics are in a fantasy league that started last week. Eight teams, six movies per team. Whoever makes the most money wins. Steve Wamsley’s TSSU Productions got out to a huge lead with “Saw III,” now let’s see what happens with the big three releases this week.
1) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan: $26.4 million (owner: Deb Medsker, Punch and Pie Pictures)
WOW. On 837 screens, “Borat” wipes the floor with this weekend’s two family-friendly movies, one of which was released on four times as many screens. When word broke that the movie would be “60% more exclusive,” we all thought the studio was burying the movie. I guess they knew what they were doing after all.
2) The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause: $20 million (owner: Jason Zingale, Seven Strangers Productions)
JZ’s gonna scream when he sees this. He never wanted the movie in the first place, but the draft room kept locking up on us, and boom, he was stuck with “Santa.” We all assured him it would make tons of money. And it probably would have, had they not released it two months before Christmas.
3) Flushed Away: $19.1 million (owner: Kristin Dreyer-Kramer, NightsandWeekends)
Uh oh. That’s not a bad number, but it’s less than you’d expect from your first round pick. “Flushed” needed to rake in big bucks before Thanksgiving, because it only gets harder from there.
4) Saw III: $15.5 million (TSSU Productions, $60.1 million to date)
Wamsley continues to benefit from the nation’s moral decay.
5) The Departed: $8 million ($102.3 million, fifth week)
This movie is not eligible for the league, and I’m ashamed to say I haven’t seen it yet.
Next weekend the competition gets even fiercer when “Stranger than Fiction,” “The Return,” “A Good Year” and “Harsh Times” all open, and “Babel” goes into wide release. And let’s not forget Fox’s whole “platforming” plan for “Borat,” which means it stands to make even more money. Time to start the smack talk, guys.
