Escapism Rules at Movie Box Office in Weekend Before Elections

November 3, 2008
By
Image from HSM3
 
 
 
 
U.S. audiences sought solace from political controversies through escapist fare at the nation’s movie theaters over the weekend, with Disney’s High School Musical 3: Senior Year leading the pack again.
 
 

High School Musical 3: Senior Year continued its strong performance in its second weekend of release, garnering another $15 million to push its ten-day total to a very healthy $61.8 million.

Escapism has driven box office numbers higher in the past couple of weeks, although the past weekend was hurt by low numbers on Friday, as Halloween reduced moviegoing, and represented a 38 percent dropoff from the same weekend of the previous year, which featured two big film openings (American Gangster and Bee Movie). This time around, the comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno finished second with a take of $10.7 million in its initial weekend. The moral-dilemma horror film Saw 5 continued its strong performance while falling to third, with a solid $10.1 million.

A more serious and indeed somber film, Clint Eastwood’s Changeling, finished fourth, and a newly released small-budget horror film with religious implications, The Haunting of Molly Hartley, came in a decent fifth.

Guy Ritchie’s energetic crime film Rock ‘n’ Rolla fared very poorly, bringing in just $1.8 million in its first weekend of wide release, finishing well out of the top 10.

Overseas, the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, took in an impressive $38.6 million in its first weekend in Britain, France, and Sweden. Its opening day total of $8 million in the UK set a new record by $1.5 million over previous champion Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Interestingly, the new Bond film features an eco-terrorist as its main villain. More on that when we review the film here on TAC.

Tags: , ,

Leave a Reply


"Culture is the expression of the guiding philosophy of the day."—Murray Rothbard

Subscribe to The American Culture.

 

November 2008
S M T W T F S
« Oct   Dec »
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30  

Archive

Twitter Feed!

Follow the American Culture and S. T. Karnick on Twitter! Send message "follow stkarnick1" to 40404 on your cell phone or go to twitter.com.

Packages Seo