BOX OFFICE: Claus, Cruise & Gangsters get stung by BEE MOVIE!
Last week's number two, is this week's number one... whilst Fred Claus underperforms and Tom Cruise flops!
Bee Movie has over taken last week's number one and this week's number two American Gangster. A $26 million taking after some really positive reviews has pushed the film to a $72 million gross, though of course it's still major in the red at this point as it cost $150 million to make! American Gangster couldn't quite keep it's audience the same way (dropped 44%, taking $24.3 million) but $80 million after two weeks is still great going and will easily go on to be the most successful film in Ridley Scott/Denzel Washington/Russell Crowe's recent career. This week's biggest new release was Fred Claus, which went for the premature Christmas audience and failed. The Vince Vaughn/Paul Giamatti comedy from the director of The Wedding Crashes underperformed badly to a $19.2 million opening though it does have the chance of staying around for a while. Another movie that has underperformed and in truth FLOPPED, is Lions for Lambs. The film is the first Tom Cruise produced film under the newly formed United Artists and took only $6.7 million, settling for a fourth place opening. It's yet another film dealing with the 'war on terror' subject matter which has flopped this year and despite some powerful messages in the trailer, it did look a little 'force fed' with it's message. Dare I say, it felt like a lecture movie? It's the quietest opening for a Tom Cruise film since Magnolia's limited opening and for Meryl Streep, it's two major flops about terrorism in a row after Rendition flopped earlier this year. For actor/director Robert Redford, the opening is around the same as his other directed movies. Elsewhere, the Steve Carrell comedy Dan in Real Life continues to make money ($30.7 million so far) and Saw IV has taken $58.1 million after three weeks. 1 Bee Movie (2007) $26M $72.2M 2 American Gangster (2007) $24.3M $80.7M 3 Fred Claus (2007) $19.2M $19.2M 4 Lions for Lambs (2007) $6.71M $6.71M 5 Dan in Real Life (2007) $5.87M $30.7M 6 Saw IV (2007) $5.01M $58.1M 7 The Game Plan (2007) $2.41M $85.4M 8 P2 (2007) $2.2M $2.2M 9 30 Days of Night (2007) $2.1M $37.4M 10 Martian Child (2007) $1.75M $6.01M source - box office mojo, imdb