BOX OFFICE: Danny Ocean busts trying to beat 21!
George Clooney's gamble into a sporting comedy doesn't pay off.
George Clooney (especially in the comedy genre) finish second at the box office for his latest film's debut weekend, losing out to 21 which topped the charts for a second consecutive week! Leatherheads, Clooney's third film as an actor/director opened to an extremely mediocre $13.5 million - despite the big box office combination of himself and fellow A-list star Renee Zellweger. The film was made for a massive $58 million, so this is quite a huge flop for Universal. A confusion over whether Leatherheads was a comedy or a drama - a battle of the sexes comedy or a nostalgic sports flick during it's marketing campaign is easily to blame here and the lack of any real kind of momentum before it's release. I actually forgot this film was coming out and regardless of the decent reviews - it's a mis-step for all those involved. So once again first is 21 which was a suprising number one hit last week and even more so now. Dropping a very cool 37% in takings (despite much competiton) the Kevin Spacey/Kate Bosworth/Jim Sturgess gambling thriller added another $15.1 million to it's $46.5 million total. Domestically it has now shot past it's $35 million budget and hasn't gone worldwide yet - so it's been a worthy venture for Sony/Columbia. Another suprising flop was the light kids fantasy Nim's Island - the widest released movie of the weekend which only managed a weak $13.3 million - which was well under it's $37 million budget. It's another disappointing figure for the previously always popular Jodie Foster and after P.S. I Love You - shows that Gerard Butler isn't much of a draw in the fantasy/kids/rom-com genre of films. Depressingly the film opened under the opening weekend of Zathura. Finally, the 'torture porn' promoted horror The Ruins capped over a terrible weekend for new releases. A $7.8 million opening puts it firmly in between the two similar horrors The Descent and The Cave - and will quickly be forgotten about and joins the movie abyss that is low budget horror. 1 21 (2008) $15.1M $45.5M 2 Leatherheads (2008) $13.5M $13.5M 3 Nim's Island (2008) $13.3M $13.3M 4 Horton Hears a Who! (2008) $9.1M $131M 5 The Ruins (2008) $7.84M $7.84M 6 Superhero Movie (2008) $5.41M $16.9M 7 Meet the Browns (2008) $3.51M $37.8M 8 Drillbit Taylor (2008) $3.5M $25.6M 9 Shutter (2008) $2.88M $23.2M 10 10,000 B.C. (2008) $2.77M $89.3M source - box office mojo