ROTTEN TOMATOES: Box Office Wrapup: Jumper Teleports to #1 Over Presidents' Day Weekend

Box Office Wrapup: Jumper Teleports to #1 Over Presidents' Day Weekend

A respectable Valentine's weekend.

by Gitesh Pandya | February 17, 2008

Moviegoers lined up to see ex-Jedis Hayden Christensen and Samuel L. Jackson duke it out sending their new science fiction actioner Jumper to number one over the Presidents' Day holiday weekend. The dance drama Step Up 2 The Streets debuted in second place while the fantasy adventure The Spiderwick Chronicles premiered in third. For the first time ever, three films opened to more than $15M each over the Friday-to-Sunday portion of the Presidents' Day holiday frame.

Landing in the number one spot, Fox's sci-fi action entry Jumper easily led the field opening to an estimated $27.2M over three days. Playing in 3,428 theaters, the PG-13 pic averaged a muscular $7,942 and has taken in $33.9M since its Thursday launch. The Christensen-Jackson film met with horrible reviews from critics, but audiences didn't care and instead responded to the slick marketing campaign. Including the Monday holiday, the $85M pic should bank just under $40M in its first five days of release.

Buena Vista swiped the second place spot with its dance sequel Step Up 2 The Streets which opened with an impressive $19.7M over three days from 2,470 sites. The PG-13 teen tale played in about 1,000 fewer theaters than Jumper but generated a similar average of $7,962. Since debuting on Valentine's Day, Streets has grossed $26.3M. According to studio research, young women led the way with 60% of the crowd being female and 65% being under the age of 25.

Although it had a different release pattern, the sequel's opening basically matched the $20.7M bow of 2006's Step Up which was a summer title and featured a different cast. Rather than relying on starpower, Buena Vista focused on keeping the music and dancing as updated as possible with a marketing campaign that made full use of the hit song "Low" from Flo Rida which has been the nation's number one song for the last eight consecutive weeks. Look for the studio to continue to develop the Step Up brand just like Universal did with its Bring It On property which continues to spawn lucrative direct-to-DVD titles.

Close behind in third was the effects-heavy fantasy pic The Spiderwick Chronicles with an estimated $19.1M from 3,847 theaters for a solid $4,960 average. Paramount's PG-rated adventure has grossed $21.5M since its Thursday debut and is expected to reach $24.4M by the end of the holiday weekend on Monday. Aimed at family audiences, Spiderwick should continue to have its target demographic all to itself over the next two weeks when many schools take their winter breaks as no other kidpics will open. Critics gave a very positive response. The Friday-to-Sunday tally was just a bit behind the $22.6M bow of last year's kids fantasy pic Bridge to Terabithia which debuted over the same holiday frame before finding its way to $82.3M.

The critically-panned adventure comedy Fool's Gold held up reasonably well after its number one debut last week. Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson witnessed a drop of 39% to an estimated $13.1M pushing the ten-day tally to a sturdy $42M. Budgeted at $70M, the Warner Bros. flick should find its way to $70-75M domestically.

Opening in fifth with the smallest debut among the frame's four new releases was the romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe with an estimated $9.7M over the Friday-to-Sunday period and $12.8M since its Thursday bow. Playing in 2,204 locations, the PG-13 pic averaged a moderate $4,394 over three days. Adult women made up the primary audience as 67% of the crowd was female and 54% was over 30. The $24M film earned generally good reviews from critics.

The holiday weekend's four new releases grossed a combined $75.7M over the Friday-to-Sunday session and $94.4M since Thursday. This year marked the first time that every new wide release opened on the Thursday Valentine's Day holiday to get an early jump on the Presidents' Day holiday weekend.

Falling from second to sixth was Martin Lawrence's comedy Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins with an estimated $8.9M, down 45%, for a ten-day cume of $29.1M. The $35M Universal release should end up with roughly $50M. Fox Searchlight's indie comedy Juno followed with an estimated $4.6M, off a mere 17%, giving the Oscar-nominated pic a stellar $124.1M to date. The Ellen Page hit has now spent nine consecutive weeks in the top ten, the most for any film since last April's Disturbia.

The Bucket List kept bringing in business dipping only 22% to an estimated $4.1M for a $81.1M total for Warner Bros. Plunging 68% in its third tour was Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert with an estimated $3.3M which bumped Disney's cume up to $58.4M.

The ten spot saw a two-way tie between Katherine Heigl's 27 Dresses and Jessica Alba's horror pic The Eye which collected an estimated $3.2M each. Fox's comedy fell 41% and reached $69.9M while Lionsgate's supernatural thriller tumbled by 52% for a $26.3M cume to date.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $112.8M over three days which was down 18% from last year's record session when Ghost Rider opened at number one with $45.4M; but up 7% from 2006 when Eight Below debuted in the top spot with $20.2M.

Author: Gitesh Pandya, www.BoxOfficeGuru.com

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The Spiderwick Chronicles

(1-20 of 33 posts) | Reply

lamer writes:
on Feb 17 2008 04:36 PM

Jumper at #1. 2nd is Step Up ****ing 2.

Someone have a barf bag?

(Reply to this)

yankeessuck.zach writes:
on Feb 17 2008 05:00 PM

doesnt surprise me. Almost how i thought it would play out except i thought The Spiderwick Chronicles would come in 2nd.

(Reply to this)

kooks25 writes:
on Feb 17 2008 05:06 PM

I actually didn't think Step Up was that bad....

But I hated Jumper.

(Reply to this)

jokerboy1991 writes:
on Feb 17 2008 05:55 PM

Jumper was mediocre.

(Reply to this)

supersean1984 writes:
on Feb 17 2008 05:56 PM

I'm shocked.

(Reply to this)

JKING writes:
on Feb 17 2008 06:31 PM

And what did you guys suspect? seriously

(Reply to this)

JKING writes:
on Feb 17 2008 06:33 PM

er...expect. Sorry, long day

(Reply to this)

~*Admiral Snowstorm*~ writes:
on Feb 17 2008 07:13 PM

Jumper and Step Up 2 are both garbage...And only garbage is allowed to take number one spot in the Box Office, which is why they have.

(Reply to this)

UberTai writes:
on Feb 17 2008 08:24 PM

Wait, what the hell?

Monday hasn't even happened yet.

(Reply to this)

darrinsgoodman writes:
on Feb 17 2008 09:16 PM

i know it only opened in a handful of theaters this past weekend - but i was curious how "diary of the dead" did considering that low count theaters average???

(Reply to this)

duckmanx88 writes:
on Feb 17 2008 09:18 PM

if u like dancing and music and actually have a girl to take to the movies, then step up 2 is greta. so no wonder it grossed so much. but if they make a step up 3 im gonna vomit

(Reply to this)

jeremyd4 writes:
on Feb 17 2008 09:39 PM

JUMPER is nowhere near as bad as it's made out to be!! I simply cannot understand how badly received it's been.... Given it's box office tally, surely not everyone out there has seen it though; so it would seem a lot of people are only calling it garbage based on the trailer.

It is not the greatest thing out there, but given some of the crap that's been put out lately and over the past few years, well, you can sure do worse than this film. It's just a bit of mindless escapism. I can see what flaws it does have, but, it has left the door open for the franchise to mature nicely if any sequels are made. It's a nice little intro to the world created, and I for one would like to see where the story goes from here.

(Reply to this)

Dinobot77 writes:
on Feb 17 2008 10:22 PM

I will say that I was disappointed in Jumper. There were too many loose angles and undeveloped story plots. It seemed as if they tried to throw as much as they could into the time frame allotted without trying to give a good story without any holes. There were just too many scenes that were unbelievable and left you with too many questions, all in a negative way.

On the other hand, I was actually rather surprised with Spiderwick. To me, the movie didn't try to base its events directly off of the book's story. It was more of an adaptation and interpretation, imo. I have read the book and the argument could be made that Spiderwick the movie is completely different than the book. A story that has been reinvented and is a story all in its own. This is not the jacked-up piece of chit that Golden Compass was. I hate them for destroying Golden Compass. Spiderwick is a great movie and should have a long staying power for weeks to come.

(Reply to this)

Bruce Campbell writes:
on Feb 17 2008 10:51 PM

In reply to this comment (#1583011)
It had a $6000 average per theater.

Only Jumper and Step Up 2 had higher averages - Diary even beat Spiderwick.

(Reply to this)

thereign writes:
on Feb 18 2008 12:23 AM

Okay, I actually expected Jumper to make it to number 1...but Step Up makes it to 2nd place over Spiderwick? What in the flying f.uck!!???

(Reply to this)

bigbrother writes:
on Feb 18 2008 02:08 AM

Just saw Jumper. Not great, but not a complete waste of time. Story has gaping plot holes (We're supposed to believe a group of people who can teleport at will are contained by a group of religious nutjobs with tasers and they've been doing this since the Dark Ages....ummmm, what did they do before electricity was harnessed in the last 100 years? Pray for lightning?), but if you check your brain at the door it's not so bad. The jump special effects and action sequences are what really make the movie work when it does along with Jamie "Billy Elliot" Bell who gives the only notable performance in the film besides Samuel L. Jackson who plays Samuel L Jackson better than anyone in Hollywood(In this case evil Sam, who glowers a bit more than heroic Sam, but oddly doesn't swear as much).

(Reply to this)

Gimy writes:
on Feb 18 2008 05:15 AM

ok, did ANYBODY see Diary? i'm curious to hear how it was. i'd give it a chance because Cloverfield was actually a good pov action flick but thats the first one i've seen(besides porn) that was actually entertaining. i'm just not into the shakey camera-can't see the whole view-kinda movie.

(Reply to this)

Bruce Campbell writes:
on Feb 18 2008 08:19 AM

In reply to this comment (#1583680)
Nothing to worry about camera-wise.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/journal_view.php?s=&journalid=452389&action=view&view=public#482489

(Reply to this)

selke99 writes:
on Feb 18 2008 08:24 AM

If you have a girl to take to the movies, I would recommend Definitely, Maybe. I didn't want to see it at first because I hate formulaic chick flicks, but this was pretty original. Being so close to valentines day, I'm surprised it opened 5th! Not a bad movie though.

(Reply to this)

Racer Z writes:
on Feb 18 2008 08:47 AM

Jumper really wasn't as bad as it's made out to be. I do believe a lot of people here are making snap judgments based on the trailer and what they've read without actually having seen the film themselves. As far as plot holes, while I wouldn't say there aren't any, I would say that a lot of questions have not been answered. I assume these are points they plan to address in follow-ups of what is intended to be a trilogy. I for one hope they get to make the sequels as I thought this film had a very promising premise.

(Reply to this)