Tagged: Marley and Me

Doggie on top

Marley and Me, the dog-centric holiday comedy, stayed atop the post-holiday box office last weekend as the family film earned $24.2 million in its second week of release, good enough to stay on top. The film now stands at $106 million in domestic take since it opened, but has only added a meager $5.3 million in foreign ticket receipts thus far.

Bedtime Stories was close behind with a $20.5 million weekend and finally made its $80 million budget back by going to $85 million in total take. Benjamin Button was third with $18.6 million and at $79.2 million so far, still is only just over halfway to making back its lofty $150 million budget.

Valkyrie ($14 million), Yes Man ($13.9 million) and Seven Pounds ($10 million) rounded out the top six as the only movies to go over $10 million on the weekend. While none of these movies are exactly bonfires of the bathroom vanities, the results are mixed as films like Marley and Me overperform, but highly-touted dramas like Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie continue to disappoint.

No new movies debuted over the weekend following New Year’s Eve.

Marley and Me tops packed weekend

Hollywood’s gone to a dog.

Specifically, Marley and Me, the good-natured dog comedy, which took in $37 million over the weekend and $51.6 million since Christmas Day. That was enough to best Adam Sandler’s latest, Bedtime Stories, which took in $28 million over the weekend and $38.5 million since Christmas Day. Close behind in third place was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the Brad Pitt fantasy that took in $27 million ($39 million since Christmas Day).

So Tom Cruise’s $75 million-budget World War II drama, Valkyrie, was left in no better than a distant fourth place with $21.5 million over the weekend and $30 million since Christmas day. That puts the flick in good position to make its money back, which may not be the case with Pitt’s Benjamin Button, a $150 million-budget-buster that severely underperformed expectations.

The biggest disappointment, though, had to be the comic book movie The Spirit, based on the long-running Will Eisner comic strip; although it opened in nearly as many theaters as Valkyrie, it couldn’t stand the heat of competition from five new movie debuts and barely managed $6.5 million ($10.3 million since Christmas Day) and a ninth-place finish.

Yes Man and Seven Pounds continued to draw between $13-$16 million in their second weeks but were pushed out of the way by all the strong debuts. Tale of Despereaux and The Day the Earth Stood Still both dropped out contention for the most part, beating out only The Spirit from all the strong debuts.

The fastest grower of the week, and winner of imaginary heated mattress pads, was the Fox Searchlight flick, The Wrestler, featuring Mickey Rourke. Available on only 18 screens nationwide, it’s averaging $21,000 per screen.