Tagged: box office

Dark Knight fends off Pineapple Express

The Dark Knight is showing signs of slowing its momentum, but is still doing powerful enough business to fend off the latest challenger, the Seth Rogan comedy, The Pineapple Express. Dark Knight had a $26 million weekend in its fourth week of release, while Pineapple Express enjoyed a close second place with $22.6 million in its debut bow.

The Dark Knight now totals $441 million domestically and $263 million overseas for a total of $704.6 million to date. The Mummy was third with $16 million, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 debuted at fourth place with $10.7 million, and Step Brothers rounded out the top five with $8.9 million. X-Files continued its unexpected plunge, dropping to 13th place, grossing only $1.1 million on the weekend, and quickly shedding screens in only its third week of release. That’s still better money than you can generate by buying auto insurance online, but not by much.

X-Files: I Want to Believe has grossed $19.6 million against a $30 million budget and seems unlikely to reach black ink until the Blu-Ray video release. The movie has yet to be released outside of the US.

Enchanted proves family films sell

Despite Hollywood’s obsession with adult-rated fare, family films still sell, a lesson Disney’s Enchanted proved again this weekend, extending the film’s reign at the top of the holiday box office season to two weeks in a row.

Box office was down this weekend, though, as it only took Enchanted $17 million to take the top spot over the weekend, though its take to date is over $70 million. The live action musical comedy is a bit of an anachronism in an era when most musicals either take place on stage or via animation. However, animation is clearly changing, too, as the adult-themed Beowulf has been a box office flop in the US, largely due to its adult-rated content; the film is said to be a hit in Europe, however.

No matter how much market research film companies do, it seems they’ll never learn that making a film the entire family can watch together always reaps the most rewards.