1. Mission: Impossible III - $48.0 (1st Week)
2. RV - $11.1 ($31.0 Total - 2 Weeks)
3. An American Haunting - $6.4 (1st Week)
4. Stick It - $5.5 ($18.0 Total - 2 Weeks)
5. United 93 - $5.2 ($20.0 Total - 2 Weeks)
6. Ice Age: The Meltdown - $4.0 ($183.3 Total - 6 Weeks)
7. Silent Hill - $3.9 ($40.8 Total - 3 Weeks)
8. Scary Movie 4 - $3.8 ($83.7 Total - 4 Weeks)
9. Akeelah And The Bee - $3.4 ($10.7 Total - 2 Weeks)
10. Hoot - $3.4 (1st Week)
Ha ha. I was right. M:I:3 came in much lower than expected and my guess was pretty accurate. I said $51 million and it only did $48, which is about $15 Million less than it was forecast to do. That's a bad sign for the film and for Tom Cruise. Since the movie's production budget was $150 million and the domestic promotional budget was at least another $50 million, it's extremely unlikely the film will make back its money here in the US. In fact, if next week's new big releases (Poseidon, etc.) perform really well, they could keep M:I:3 from even making $100 milion total (Hollywood's magic number for assessing any kind of moderate success). Sure, the film will probably make back all of its money in foreign grosses in order to cover all its costs and will be relatively successful when released on DVD, but its weak showing this weekend pretty much guarantees there will not be an M:I:4 and Paramount has lost another tentpole franchise.
As for Mr. Cruise, he'll continue to act and have more successes, but this weekend was not a good omen for his next few films. First, it shows that he needs to lay off the craziness. All those couch jumping episodes, public scientology based moments of anger, gross red carpet kissing episodes, really creepy laughs and just general weirdness really do affect how people view the world's biggest movie star. As long as he continues on this path, it's definitely going to affect how his films perform (especially the next few releases). Second, studios, directors and other film folk might think twice before working with him or signing him for his huge salary requirements. Who wants to work with such a big question mark? The big budget Hollywood film world likes to work with 'sure things' and this weekend shows that he is less of a 'sure thing' than ever before. So welcome back to the real world, Mr. Cruise. The Mother Ship has taken off without you and left you earthbound for a little while longer.
As for my other 2 estimates, I was way off. Hoot was a total bomb and An American Haunting did okay, but did not continue the line of recent horror successes. Oh well, you can't win them all.
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