Box Office: NARNIA takes $56.6 million

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

U.S. Box Office for Weekend of May 16th to May 19th 2008 1 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) $56.6M $56.6M 2 Iron Man (2008) $31.2M $222M 3 What Happens in Vegas... (2008) $13.8M $40.3M 4 Speed Racer (2008) $7.64M $29.8M 5 Baby Mama (2008) $4.59M $47.3M 6 Made of Honor (2008) $4.5M $33.7M 7 Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) $2.54M $55.1M 8 Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008) $1.8M $33.9M 9 The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) $1M $50.3M 10 The Visitor (2007/I) $687K $3.4M I'm not going to be so harsh on the box office results for the first weekend of release for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the sequel to the mega 2005 hit that was The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe as you might expect. Sure it hasn't performed as well as the original movie and domestically should be something of a disaster but the total in itself is good when you remember, the first book is one of the most popular childrens books of all time, most haven't read any more in the series after it. It was foolish to think Prince Caspian would be able to drum up the same kind of interest. A $56.6 million opening isn't too bad and the worldwide success of this film will see it turn out alright. Sure, if it was domestic alone then this movie would be killed being on release so close to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but it's global audience should see it through. With a much heavier marketing campaign and audience awarness, the first movie took home $70 million on it's opening weekend (if you adjust for inflation) and benefited from the closed Christmas season as it went on to gross a domestic final total of over $290 million. This sequel won't get that luxury in the Summer, which really does make you wonder why they rushed this movie out for May rather than waiting until the festive season. This one didn't quite feel like a Summer movie did it? The series, which was expected to go on for many, many more sequels (there are lots of books in this series) will now probably come down to how well the next movie The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader performs in May 2010, but they have a change of director on board for then. Vet Michael Apted (The World is Not Enough, Enigma) is in pre-production on the movie right now, though it is still wedged in with some blockbusters... opening just a week later than the expected Iron Man sequel. Speaking of the Marvel hero, Iron Man was down 39% to $31.2 million and has made $222.17 million in 17 days, which will soon overtake the final gross of the last X-Men movie.

With no other new releases except for Narnia, The Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz comedy What Happens in Vegas still managed to stay ahead of Speed Racer and has now grossed a total of $40 million. Speed Racer on the other hand is looking to be a huge disaster, taking only $7.6 million in it's second week and faltering to a $42 million WORLDWIDE gross... way short of it's near $200 million project when the advertising blitz is put into consideration. And those eagle eyed of you will have noticed that sneaking into the top ten was The Visitor, a Thomas McCarthy (The Station Agent) drama based on his own screenplay about a college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment. Veteran character actor Richard Jenkins led the movie as the professor and from what I've heard it's suppose to be excellent, so if you live in the States make sure you give it a chance if it's playing near you!.

The movie opens next month in the U.K.