The Simpsons Movie Drops to 2nd

Fox Film Slides 66%, making $25.1 million in 2nd Weekend

Aug 7, 2007

Matt Groening's The Simpsons Movie lost 66% of its audience for its 2nd weekend, but crossed the $100 million mark.

According to Box Office Mojo, The Simpsons Movie collapsed in its 2nd weekend in theatres, losing 66% of its audience. The Twentieth Century Fox film pulled another $25.1 million into its coffers, for a 2-week total of $128 million.

Considering the flick cost Fox and Gracie Films $75 million to make, that already puts The Simpsons Movie into the black, and shows that there is still a sizable audience for The Simpsons. However, such a steep decline indicates that pretty much anyone who really wanted to see this movie has already seen it at least once. It remains to be seen whether Simpsons fans will shell out for repeat viewings or the film will fall off rapidly.

Moving down the chart Ratatouille finally dropped out of the Top 10, landing at #11. It made $3.9 million last weekend, for a 6-week total of $188 million. Given the way this movie is going, it’s very likely that it will cross the $200 million mark, but it’s still the lowest scoring Pixar flick since 1998’s A Bug’s Life.

Despite its lackluster box office, Ratatouille is still tied with 2001’s Spirited Away as the most-beloved animated film on IMDb. Both movies have landed an 8.4 rating on the chart, the Hayao Miyazaki anime earning 20,000 more votes than the Brad Bird film. That also gives Brad Bird two movies in IMDb’s Top 5 animated flicks, with 2004’s The Incredibles landing at #4.

The current summer box office champ among animated films, Shrek the Third, is sitting pretty at #21, having pulled another $460,000 into its coffers. There’s no way that it can match the domestic box office of its predecessor Shrek 2, but it’s very close to matching Pixar’s box office champ, 2003’s Finding Nemo, which made $339,714,367.

Sony Pictures Animation’s Surf’s Up experienced a slight jump, bouncing to #27 (up from #31 the previous week). It raked in a further $234,000, which ended up giving the flick a 9-week total of $58 million. No idea whether or not this film has made back its studio costs but, given that even the least expensive CGI movies cost somewhere around the $70 – 80 million mark, it’s highly unlikely that Surf’s Up is showing a profit.

So far, Disney’s Meet the Robinsons is demonstrating the longest legs of any film on the box office charts, having lasted 19 weeks in theatres. Unfortunately, it still hasn’t managed to cross that magical $100 million barrier, having stalled at $97 million.

There will be no new animated films coming to theatres until November. Paramount’s Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight has been demoted to direct-to-DVD status, so there’ll be no animated flicks until DreamWorks Animation’s Bee Movie opens November 2nd, with Disney’s live action/animation hybrid Enchanted (November 11th) and Paramount/Warner Bros.’ Beowulf (November 16th) following close behind.

21) Shrek the Third (DreamWorks Animation): $460,108 ($320,706,665 over 12 weeks)

27) Surf’s Up (Sony Pictures Animation): $234,036 ($58,002,217 over 9 weeks)

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