BOX OFFICE: HORTON makes some loot!

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who has made a massive $45.1 million on it's debut weekend in nearly 4,000 theatres. The film is third highest opening for a Jim Carrey movie ever just behind Bruce Almighty (which also starred Steve Carell) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (another Dr. Seuss adaptation). Jim Carrey's first ever animated voice work (I know, I was surprised by that tidbit too) looks to be a hit, though 20th Century Fox had to pull out a decent amount to hire both these stars. The film's budget was $85 million, a figure it should be able to see a return on but to be a massive winner it's going to need to do well internationally. A big 54% drop for Roland Emmerich's awful looking epic 10,000 B.C. leaves that movie on a ten day gross of $61.2 million, which is WELL under the $109 million budget. Again that movie is going to need international numbers for a profit. A little surprising to me was the movie that ended in third. Summit Entertainment's first hit Never Back Down, a martial arts drama starring young and mostly unknown actors opened with a $8.6 million taking but it's still well below it's $20 million production budget. I guess they must have been expecting a bigger opening, but why? Opening seven weeks before it hits in the U.K, the British apocalyptic thriller Doomsday was an expected U.S. flop with only a $4.7 million opening. If they were testing the waters before opening it here then it's not a good sign, though with names like Malcolm McDowell and Bob Hoskins in the cast, it may play better here. 1 Horton Hears a Who! (2008) $45.1M $45.1M 2 10,000 B.C. (2008) $16.4M $61.2M 3 Never Back Down (2008) $8.61M $8.61M 4 College Road Trip (2008) $7.89M $24.3M 5 Vantage Point (2008) $5.4M $59.2M 6 The Bank Job (2008) $4.91M $13.1M 7 Doomsday (2008) $4.74M $4.74M 8 Semi-Pro (2008) $2.98M $29.7M 9 The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) $2.9M $19.2M 10 The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) $2.39M $65.4M source - coming soon