{"id":2294,"date":"2009-08-15T13:39:12","date_gmt":"2009-08-15T17:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/headlineplanet.com\/home\/?p=2294"},"modified":"2009-08-16T14:26:12","modified_gmt":"2009-08-16T18:26:12","slug":"district-9-dominates-the-goods-bandslam-bomb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/headlineplanet.com\/home\/2009\/08\/15\/district-9-dominates-the-goods-bandslam-bomb\/","title":{"rendered":"“District 9” Dominates Box Office, “The Goods,” “Bandslam” Bomb"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: This data on “District 9,” “The Goods,” “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and “Bandslam” regards Friday’s box office. For the full weekend report, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sci-fi thriller “District 9” dominated the Friday box office, as neither the other new releases nor the second week of “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” proved to be threatening.<\/p>\n

The film grossed $14.2 million Friday, which gives it the second-highest R-rated opening day for a film in August history (“American Pie 2” holds the record at $16.5 million). The opening day gross is so significant that even if the film faces the Saturday and Sunday drop-off that is not uncommon for films in the genre, it should have absolutely no difficulty beating its mid-$20 millions projection.<\/p>\n

New release “The Time Traveler’s Wife” faced poor reviews, but it managed to gross a healthy $7.7 million Friday, proving that while August 2009 has so far belonged to guy flicks like “G.I. Joe” and “District 9,” there is still an opportunity to cash in with female-skewing films.<\/p>\n

Showing the limited shelf life anticipated by Headline Planet in last week’s box office write-up, “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” took a steep drop Friday, falling 68% to $7 million. Saturday and Sunday should not fare much better for the film, and a sub-$20 million weekend is very possible.<\/p>\n

“Julie & Julia,” which scored well with the female demographic last week, dropped to $3.6 million Friday. That kept the film in fourth for the day, ahead of “G-Force,” which added $2.1 million to its take.<\/p>\n

Despite the successful debuts for “District 9” and “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” not all new releases proved fruitful. Comedy “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” bombed, earning a mere $2 million at the box office. Consistent with the very pessimistic $5-7 million weekend projections, the number proves that the aggressive promotional campaign, which included a trip from the film’s stars Jeremy Piven and Ken Jeong to WWE RAW, did nothing to combat the poor reviews and general lack of interest. A $2 million opening figure is attainable for bare bones, male-skewing comedies; between the aggressive marketing campaign and the casting of Jeremy Piven, Ed Helms and a slew of recognizable comedy faces, the opening figure is simply terrible.<\/p>\n

But it was not the most disappointing opening of the day. “Bandslam,” which was banking more on the inclusion of a new “New Moon” trailer than the actual film content, pulled just $880,000 from moviegoers Friday.<\/p>\n

On the limited front, “Ponyo” earned $1.2 million at 927 screens, while “Spread” grabbed $38,000 from 91 theatres.<\/p>\n

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