Box Office: Old English Is So Hot Right Now
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Paramount’s mega-budget animated production of “Beowulf” topped the box office with an estimated $28.1 million, easily winning the typically lucrative pre-Thanksgiving weekend. However, the top ten films made around $90 million together, making this the worst pre-Turkey frame in nine years. Apparently not even Angelina Jolie’s digitally-enhanced breasts could entice a blockbuster gross. The weekend dropped a precipitous 29% from last year (when Happy Feet and Casino Royale both opened to $40 million-plus) and 45% from 2005 when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire opened to $102.3 million. Though Beowulf was never expected to reach those heights, the general box office malaise as of late is making November look more like a typical October. The problem here is product – Bee Movie is playing more like Chicken Little than Shrek, and American Gangster is the only wide release performing beyond expectations. Current Oscar front-runner No Country for Old Men, however, expanded to a moderate 148 theatres and grossed an extraordinary $3.1 million, with a $20,932 per theatre average that blew away everything else in the top ten.