A funny thing happened on the way to The Simpsons Movie's box office domination.
According to Box Office Mojo, the flick, based on the long-running 20th Century Fox/Gracie Films television series, took a steep dive in box office receipts for its third week in theatres, making $11 million at the box office. That's a steep drop from last week, when the movie made $25 million. Even still, it managed to hang onto the Top Five, taking the #3 position.
Even with the more than 50% drop, The Simpsons Movie managed to cross the $150 million line. That means The Simpsons Movie is a modest hit, with a decent chance of getting full-on hit status ($200 million) if it doesn't collapse even more dramatically. However, this decline does indicate that a great many people who had wanted to see this flick have already done so, with not many new fans drawn in by its winning ways.
Will The Simpsons Movie beat Ratatouille at the box office? It's still too early to tell, but Pixar's rat chef is putting up a fair fight. Given that The Simpsons Movie hasn't gotten nearly the critical plaudits Ratatouille enjoyed, it may find it harder to sustain a continued run at the box office.
Speaking of "legs," Ratatouille seems to be continuing as a solid, unremarkable contender at the box office. The Disney/Pixar flick managed to score another $2.9 million, slipping two spots to lucky number 13 on the chart. This puts the Brad Bird film to $193 million, well within spitting distance of the magical $200 million mark.
Can Ratatouille keep going until Labour Day? It's possible if it sustains whatever momentum it still has. Right now, the flick is the odds-on favourite to take the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film next February. Will Ratatouille pass Cars' box office take of $244 million? That's pretty doubtful: it will be a solid hit but not the all-out cash bonanza Disney's executives were hoping for.
Speaking of disappointments, the makers of Surf's Up must be dealing with a lot of tough questions from Sony's executive suite right now. That flick slid to #30, making a measly $186,000 in its 10th week in theatres. That puts Surf's Up at $58.3 million total, and no one is pretending this flick is anything close to being a hit. That's less than half of what Ratatouille has pulled in half the time.
Disney's Meet the Robinsons seems to be lasting a very long time in theatres. DreamWorks' Shrek the Third has already pulled out of mondoplexes, figuring that $320 million was a decent chunk of change. However, Meet the Robinsons doesn't even pretend to that kind of status: $97.6 million is the best this flick's done even after 20 weeks in theatres.
I'll be continuing to do these weekly updates until The Simpsons Movie drops out of the Top Ten. After that, there's really no point. I'll restart this string of news stories next November, when Paramount's Beowulf, Disney's Enchanted and DreamWorks Animation's Bee Movie hit theatres.
