Box office is on par with last year....
John Carter earned first place on Friday, but its' not going to hold the lead for long. The expensive sci-fi film from Disney and Finding Nemo/WALL-E director Andrew Stanton earned an estimated $9.8 million on Friday, on par with 2010's Prince of Persia. Audiences gave it generally positive reception, as the film earned a "B+" CinemaScore. I really don't know how the weekend will play out for this, as only Saturday will determine how its' weekend will end up. Right now, I'm guessing that the film will earn roughly $30 million for the weekend, in line with Disney's expectations, but still disappointing.
The Lorax actually had a nice hold considering it opened to a monster $70.2 million last weekend. The latest animated megahit dropped 45% from last Friday to an estimated $9.6 million, coming in second on Friday. Considering the films' positive word-of-mouth, we can easily expect this to do huge on Saturday and Sunday and easily take the top spot (not to mention the first time this year a film has repeated on top). Based on recent trajectories, the film is heading for my $40 million prediction, though it could go a bit higher dependent on the bump it recieves on Saturday.
Third place went to Project X, which dropped 53% from last Friday to an estimated $3.8 million, in what should be an $11.5 million weekend. Act of Valor followed with a 51% drop to an estimated $2 million, on its' way to $7.5 million for the weekend.
The other two new releases were in fifth and sixth place. Horror flick Silent House earned an estimated $2.6 million, while Eddie Murphy's comedy A Thousand Words earned an estimated $1.9 million. Murphy's critically-panned film earned a "B-" CinemaScore, while the horror film was despised by audiences, earning a terrible "F" CinemaScore. Still though, look for $7 million and $6 million weekends, both on par with expectations...
