Based on Sunday’s estimates, courtesy of boxofficemojo.com:
This is the first real weekend of competition between the studios in the Your Favorite Movie Sucks league, which the top five spots going to one studio or another.
1) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan: $29 million, $67.8 million to date (owner: Deb Medsker, Punch and Pie Pictures)
Game over. Between “Borat” and “Charlotte’s Web,” Punch and Pie is poised to blow the rest of us schlubs out of the water. The second to last pick in the second round, “Borat” is easily the steal of the draft so far. And to those college kids who are trying to sue Fox: let it go. It’s not the studio’s fault that you’re all boneheads.
2) The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause: $16.8 million, $41 million to date (owner: Jason Zingale, Seven Strangers Productions)
After an inauspicious debut, “Santa Clause” held rather well in its second week, putting off Jason’s plans to assassinate Tim Allen for at least one more week.
3) Flushed Away: $16.7 million, $39.9 million to date (owner: Kristin Dreyer-Kramer, Nights and Weekends)
Kristin’s grass-roots campaign to get all of her friends and family to see the movie in order to boost her fantasy team’s performance seems to be working. Man, I wish I had that many friends, because my first round pick didn’t do so well…
4) Stranger than Fiction: $14.1 million (owner: David Medsker, Scary Clown Studios)
Ow. Come on, people, it’s Will Ferrell! Not only that, it’s Will Ferrell in one of the smarter movies you’ll see this year. But like Jim Carrey, people are slow to accepting funny people not doing funny things. The biggest first round bust of the season so far.
5) Saw III: $6.6 million, $69.8 million to date (Steve Wamsley, TSSU Productions)
Another second round steal, “Saw III” keeps TSSU in first place for at least one more week.
6) Babel: $5.6 million (Steve Wamsley, TSSU Productions)
If we were keeping track of Oscar nominations, this would have been a better pick. But as a box office contender, well, it’s a hell of an Oscar contender.
8) The Return: $4.8 million (owner: Bill Clark, A Don’t Call Me Shirley Joint)
Have you seen the trailer for this? Cut, cut, loud noise, black. What the hell is this movie about? Don’t know, don’t care, and the moviegoing public appears to agree. Shirley stumbles out of the gate, but they have much better movies down the stretch.
10) A Good Year: $3.8 million (Nights and Weekends)
It looks as though Kristin’s efforts to goose the box office of Russell Crowe’s yuppie-finds-his-soul-in-France movie didn’t work out so well. If only Crowe had sung a Tom Jones song…
13) Harsh Times: $1.8 million (TSSU Productions)
This certainly has good cred, with Christian Bale and all, but Steve will surely wonder if “Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror,” which he dropped to pick up “Harsh Times,” would have made more money.
Current standings:
1) TSSU Productions: $79.1 million
2) Punch and Pie Pictures: $67.8 million
3) Nights and Weekends: $43.7 million
4) Seven Strangers Productions: $41 million
5) Scary Clown Studios: $14.1 million
6) A Don’t Call Me Shirley Joint: $4.8 million
Next week: TSSU opens two more movies, the biopic “Bobby” and the James Bond reboot “Casino Royale,” and Mark Pfeiffer’s Reel Times Pictures debuts with “Happy Feet” and “Let’s Go to Prison.” Will Harris’ What’s All This Then? Studios also makes its debut with “Fast Food Nation.” That’s 13 movies fighting for five spots. While we’re all duking it out, Punch and Pie has one more week to figure out what the hell to do about “The History Boys.”
