Weekend Box Office: (Small) Audiences Say ‘Yes Man’

Saying yes to everything apparently includes saying yes to annoying others.  

It was a bad weekend at the box office, especially for the holiday season when big movies with big stars are opening as fast as your 401(k) is shrinking. The winner, if one may apply that term, was Jim Carrey’s Yes Man, with $18.5 million. Will Smith’s Seven Pounds came in second with $16 million. That’s the worst opening for the super popular Smith in years. Both films were expected to do much better.

The stormy weather that wiped out moviegoing all over the Northeast was largely blamed, but the tepid reviews for both star vehicles didn’t help. Yes Man wasn’t considered so good that people were willing to drive through an ice storm to see it, in other words. As for Seven Pounds, once word got around about the actual plot of the movie, which had been kept carefully under wraps, people were equally uninspired to drive on icy roads to see a movie that could variously be described as a) a real downer b) ludicrous or c) just plain bad. Get that I Am Legend sequel rolling, Mr. Smith.

The Tale of Despereaux brought out the kids and their parents to the tune of $10.5 million. The Day the Earth Stood Still dropped a big 67% to land in fourth place with $10.2 million. Four Christmases which is finally approaching its deadline (no one likes to go see a movie with Christmas in the title after Christmas) was in fifth with $7.7 million. It crossed the $100 million dollar mark this weekend. Merry Christmas, Warner Brothers.

Art house films with buzz from the latest round of awards, best lists, and nominations, did better. Variety attributed the solid continued performances of films such as The Reader, Frost/Nixon, and Slumdog Millionaire to the hardy walking skills of New Yorkers, who don’t have to clean off their cars or deal with icy roads to go to the neighborhood tiny, tiny theater. The Wrestler, in its debut, made a solid $295,000 at four locations for a $52,250 per screen average.

So this is do or die week for 2008, with big guns The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Valkyrie, The Spirit, Bedtime Storiesand Marley & Me opening on Christmas Day. So it looks like there’s a little something for everyone. For, you know, that time when your family has had about enough of each other and everyone just needs to get out. You know it’s going to happen.