"Evan Almighty" made $32.1 million over the weekend, which is $32.1 million more than you have. Still, as Box Office Mojo points out this morning, the film cost twice as much to make as the original "Bruce Almighty" and made half as much its opening weekend. That's not the kind of math Hollywood likes.
What "went wrong"? Beautiful weather on the East Coast and elsewhere kept a lot of people outside, but that's only part of it. I think people realized a broad family-friendly comedy is not the kind of movie they want to see Steve Carell in. Eddie Murphy, maybe. Tim Allen, if you must. But why hire Carell and refuse to let him bare his teeth?
Meanwhile, the John Cusack/Stephen King room-service freakshow "1408" (in photo above) had a smaller opening-weekend -- $20.1 million -- and a less impressive per-theater-average ($7,533 vs $8,910 for "Evan"), but it cost $25 million to make versus "Evan"'s $175 million, so guess who'll be in the black by next week?
"A Mighty Heart" opened in fewer theaters (1,355) and performed wanly ($4 million), which makes depressing sense: It's an important (if not wholly successful) film about real-world events that audiences should be paying attention to. Why would anyone want to watch that when you can see Steve Carell in a fake beard?
Michael Moore's "Sicko" played in one Manhattan theater -- and made 70 grand. That may be the highest per-theater-average on record. Reports of scalped tickets and patrons turned away, etc. Moore plans to project the film on the sides of major HMO headquarters today. You'll have to wait until Friday to see it in a proper Boston theater, but it'll be worth it. Bring your doctor.
