Weekend Box Office: 21 Beats House, Leatherheads Fumbles

 George Clooney’s Leatherheads, picked off at the box office by Jodie Foster and Nim’s Island.

If you bet on 21 holding on to the top spot at the box office, then its time to gloat over your ever increasing stack of chips. According to Variety, the card-counting tale took in $15.1 million, dropping only 37% from its opening weekend. Meanwhile, the George Clooney-directed Leatherheads, came in tied for second with Nim’s Island at best, and third place at worst; by Sunday night, the numbers were too close to call, with Leatherheads at $13.5 million and Nim’s Island at $13.3 million. Final numbers will be available later today.

But it doesn’t really matter for Leatherheads, because anything less than the top spot has to be seen as a disappointment. A period romantic comedy–even a sports-related one–has to be a tough sell, but the producers were undoubtedly counting on the star name cast, including Clooney, Renee Zellweger and up and comer John Krasinski,  to bring in audiences. The movie had a huge, seemingly relentless marketing campaign, but anything not set in their lifetime will often scare off young people, and older audiences read reviews, and these reviews weren’t good. On top of all that, again, I personally still don’t understand why you would release a football movie on the weekend of the Final Four, during the first week of the baseball season? This movie just cries out August to me.

Universal president of distribution Nikki Rocco weighed in on the disappointing showing:

“The results are less than we hoped for. The movie is a fun ride, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. George Clooney is a great director, and I think they came for him. I’m disappointed for him…Having said that, there is a lot going on. I do think the basketball playoffs hurt attendance in the big cities. What really upsets me is the level of overall business.”

Yeah, nice catch–in April people aren’t thinking of football, except draft weekend and on draft weekend, no football fan is leaving their house to go to a movie. Try again, scheduling wizards.

Meanwhile, 21 has a lot to appeal to audiences–a young good-looking cast, with Kevin Spacey hanging around to give it a little actor cred. It’s got the based on a true story angle, the glamor of Vegas angle, and the audience members who are hoping to pick up a few card-counting tips angle. It should be a steady performer until the big summer movies begin to open. As for Nim’s Island, this is a nice victory. Am I the only one who saw almost no commercials or advertising for this? Once again, if you can make a decent family movie, people will come.

Nim’s is also the second family film to succeed for Fox, following Horton Hears a Who, which moved into the number 4 spot, with $9.1 million. The Ruins opened quietly at number five, with $7.8 million.

In the limited release arena, the Martin Scorsese Rolling Stones doc Shine a Light, earned $1.5 million in 276 locations. However, that includes 93 IMAX theaters; $1.1 million of the total box office came from those locations, where tickets are typically more expensive than regular theaters. The audience for the doc was 50% over age fifty, and only 25% under 35. It also leaned more male, at 55%. Translated: Rolling Stones doc = old white guys.

Wong Kar-Wai’s My Blueberry Nights, starring singer Norah Jones (not singing, I believe), opened in six theaters and took in $73,742, for a per screen average of $12,190. Think that’s impressive? Then look at Flight of the Red Balloon, starring Juliette Binoche: $36,000 at two locations, making that a nifty $18,000 per screen. The bad news is if everybody who wants to see that movie (a very well-reviewed one, I might add) showed up at those two theaters this weekend.