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'Punisher: Dead Zone' Leftovers Rule Post-Thanksgiving Weekend Date: 12/8/2008 |
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Lionsgate?s Punisher reboot flopped as Four Christmases topped the box office charts for the second weekend in a row. The Vince Vaughn/Reese Witherspoon comedy dropping just 41.1% and earning an estimated $18.1 million. The vampire romance Twilight continues to show great legs, moving up to the #2 spot with an estimated take of $13.1 million during its third weekend. After performing the rare feat of earning more in its second weekend of its release than it did in its debut, Disney?s Bolt declined a precipitous 63.3% and finished third with a disappointing $9.7 million. The next four spots all went to holdovers, Australia, Quantum of Solace, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and Transporter 3. Altogether the leftover titles performed well enough to raise the weekend total some 6% over the post-turkey day frame in 2007. The holdovers didn?t get much help from the three new films that debuted. In spite of opening in 2,508 theaters, Lionsgate?s ?makeover? of its only Marvel live action property, Punisher: War Zone earned a mere $4 million?posting a hugely disappointing $1,595 per theater average. Lionsgate?s first Punisher film, which starred Thomas Jane and John Travolta and opened in a similar number of theaters in 2004, earned $13.4 million, a performance that led Variety analysts Ben Fritz and Dave Mcnary to predict on Thursday that ?Punisher: War Zone is looking at a tight race with the second weekend of Four Christmases and the third of Bolt and Twilight. All four pics will likely land in the teens.? Rubbing salt in the Punisher?s R-rated wounds was the fact that it was beaten by another Lionsgate?s action pic, Transporter 3, which opened last weekend?don?t ask why Lionsgate chose to open two R-rated action flicks targeting the same young male demographic on successive weekends. Sony?s Cadillac Records outperformed Punisher: War Zone on per theater basis, earning an average of $5,102, but since it was only in 686 venues, it earned only an estimated $3.5 million. The other newcomer was Freestyle?s drama Nobel Son, which could only manage a pathetic $415 per theater average from 893 theaters. |
| Source: ICv2 |
