Beat the Blogger Results

Talk about over/under. Friday the 13th debuted much higher than expected with a record setting $42 million dollars between Friday and Sunday. The film only cost $16 million to produce, which was recouped by the end of business Friday.

Coming in at number 2 is He's Just Not That Into You with just under $20 million dollars. Coming in third place was the extremely durable Taken. Debuting in fourth, under the expectations I gave, was Confessions of a Shopaholic at $15 million. That was barely ahead of last weekend's Coraline.

The International debuted in seventh place with an expected $10 million.

Beat the Blogger Results

This weekend's box office was a bit of a surprise. The date night flick He's Just Not That Into You was proposed to do around $20 million, but opened much bigger at number 1 with $27 million dollars. It was followed by former top spot holder Taken, which had almost no drop off (just 17% percent) from last weekend.

Steve Martin's sequel Pink Panther 2 fell short of many expectations with just $12 million, about $8 million less than the original a few years ago.

The other pair of newbies this weekend included Coraline, which exceeded predictions to gross $16 million and end up at number 3. Push (poor Chris Evans hasn't been able to find a hit movie that doesn't include superheroes, and the prospects of him finding one are becoming more bleek) opened at number 6 hitting the prediction bulls eye with $10 million.

He's Just Not That Into You...the long and short of it

The short of it: He's Just Not That Into You starts out with a few chuckles but veers into Robert Altman terrority with too many characters and their intersecting lives. Most of them end up being unsympathetic, pretty people with dating problems. Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck fare the best of the group, while Drew Barrymore is unnecessarily filling time in the 129 minute film.

The long of it: to read the full review click here

Buzz Factor (out of 5): 2.5

Beat the Blogger...

This weekend has a handful of films opening up that are sure to accommodate everyone's appetite. Whether they will be the $10.00 and two hours of your life is another story. Let's who can predict the box office better, you or I.

My predictions:
It's going to be close for number 1. Pink Panther 2 and He's Just Not That Into You will battle it out. Panther should do around $20 million while Not That Into You will do just under and settle for number two. The marketing will get those happy couples celebrating an early Valentine's Day. (See my review tomorrow)

Taken will slide down to third with $10-12 million. Coraline should do around $10 itself. The wildcard is the Chris Evans actioner Push which will probably do somewhere between the two.

Now what do you think will happen???