Weekend Box Office: SNAKES Okay

[AndyDursin]

You know, a potential $15 million weekend gross for SNAKES ON A PLANE isn't terrible. I'm guessing it didn't cost a ton (though it's not a whole lot more than ANACONDAS 2 if you look at it that way).

On the other hand, this also speaks about how little "internet buzz" plays into these films. There were actual box-office projections of $30 million and more out there for this movie! Seriously, how many people would have ever seen SNAKES ON A PLANE in the first place? (It's like SUPERMAN RETURNS and X-MEN 3. "Internet buzz" favored the former and it was beaten decisively by the latter).

But I also assume this film might have grossed even less without the hype! Or possibly gone right to video!!

WEEKEND PROJECTIONS

Snakes on a Plane 6.8 6.8
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby 4.4 105.0
World Trade Center 3.7 37.9
Accepted 3.7 3.7
Step Up 3.5 33.0

[Carlson2005]

The same thing happened with the X-Files movie, which generated a huge amount of internet traffic - but mostly from people who stay in the basement because the aliens are out to get them. Fox were predicing $160m US, but ended up having to content themselves with about half of that.

Still, SOAP has an advantage over the other films on that chart: it's the only one that will play well overseas. I was shocked to see just how low Will Ferrell's overseas take for his last few films was -

Elf - $45m
Old School - $11m
Anchorman - $5m
Kicking and Screaming - $3m

[romanD]

Anchorman was only released on video in Germany... Christmas-movies like ELF usually dont do well here anyway...

wouldnt be surprised if BOBBY... will dtv only to...

nice to see that WTC isn't such a hit...

well, am not surprised that SOAP isnt as huge as they were expecting. Everybody maybe made fun of it and talked about it, but everyone was like "well, sounds so silly, seems like fun, but honestly, who needs to see snakes on the loose?" Me doesnt get scared by snakes at all, so what's the point?

Same with SLITHER, got raves everywhere and then nobody went and watched it. And in the end it was decent at best.

The only thing really working was DESCENT in recent times, but well, it has been released here and there already, so ravings about it seemed believable. This pre-hype for a movie, which hasnt been out yet is always suspicious.

Will probably watch SOAP, but only because there is nothing else going on and I think David Ellis at least knows how to handle actionscenes... Trevor Rabin scoring it however doesn't sound very promising, at least if they seriously want to scare anyone.

[AndyDursin]

Well I'd say not opening at #1 is a pretty bad sign -- note $1.4 of SNAKES' $15.2 gross was Thursday night (not counted in these 3 day numbers).

1 1 Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby Sony Pictures Releasing $14,100,000 $114,686,000 3 3741
2 - Snakes on a Plane New Line Cinema $13,850,000 $15,250,000 1 3555
3 3 World Trade Center Paramount Pictures, United International Pictures $10,800,000 $45,005,000 2 2998
4 - Accepted Universal Pictures Distribution $10,112,000 $10,112,000 1 2914
5 2 Step Up Buena Vista Pictures Distribution $9,867,000 $39,448,000 2 2639
6 4 Barnyard: The Original Party Animals Paramount Pictures $7,489,000 $45,995,000 3 3227
7 12 Little Miss Sunshine Fox Searchlight Pictures $5,675,000 $12,756,000 4 691
8 6 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Buena Vista Pictures Distribution $5,012,000 $401,053,000 7 2277
9 - Material Girls MGM Distribution Company $4,620,000 $4,620,000 1 1509
10 5 Pulse The Weinstein Company , Dimension Films $3,528,000 $14,704,000 2 2323
11 8 The Descent Lionsgate $2,450,000 $22,333,000 3 1720
12 9 Zoom Sony Pictures Releasing $2,400,000 $9,008,000 2 2501