Sunday, July 12, 2009

Box Office Contest Update: Movie I Wish You Would See Edition

Before we get to this week’s results, please allow me this one public service announcement: Go see “The Hurt Locker,” one of the best and most intense movies of 2009.

OK, with that out of the way, this week brought the release of “Bruno” for me and “I Love You, Beth Cooper” for John.

“Bruno” opened strong with a $14 million Friday, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo, but then dropped -39% for a weak Saturday of $8.8 million leading to an opening frame of $30.2 million.

No one loved “Beth Cooper,” with the Fox comedy matriculating only to $5 million in its opening weekend. In better news for John, “Ice Age” froze another $28.5 million in box office cash this weekend, leading to a 12-day cume of $120.6 million.

Dave’s “Public Enemies” held up OK, grifting another $14 million this weekend for a total of $66.5 million.

But all this is largely irrelevant, given that Stu has run away with this summer’s contest. His “Transformers” is now up to $339 million, “The Hangover” is at $222 million, and three of his other picks have passed the $100 million mark, including "The Proposal," which continues to earn. He has over $1 billion in the can.

As a noted basketball announcer used to say, this one’s in the refrigerator. The door’s closed, the lights are out, the eggs are cooling, the butter’s getting hard and the jello’s jiggling.

John holds out hope because next Wednesday marks the arrival of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” but it’ll take more wizardry than Hogwarts could ever conjure up to stop the Levine express.

Totals through July 12:

Stu (seven films): $1 billion
Robert (six films): $587 million
Dave (seven films): $541 million
John (three films): $192 million

Click here for our complete picks and release dates.

No comments: