Kudos to Clint Eastwood: he is poised for his best opening weekend of his career. The grisly actor-director, who has suggested this may be his last performance in front of the camera, sure knows how to go out on top if that’s the case.
According to SlashFilm, Gran Torino made $10 million on Friday alone, setting it up for a $25-$30 million weekend. The movie has already made $11 million in limited release, so following its first big weekend (2,800 theaters, equivilant to a $10,684 per theater average), it will have around $40 million in the bank.
Considering that the usually reliable Box Office Prophets predicted that Gran Torino would make $11.3 million over the ENTIRE WEEKEND.
All I can say is that this is great news, since Gran Torino is one of the best movies of 2008. Though it’s a drama, it is absolutely hilarious – as long as you don’t mind a constant barrage of racial slurs and so on and so forth. Eastwood is at his best in the film, and the picture itself is utterly entertaining, whether it’s making you laugh, cry or clenching your fist for some good old retired-Dirty Harry action.
Beyond Gran Torino, the other new releases performed better than expected as well. Bride Wars, set for a $17 million opening based on Box Office Prophet’s predictions, earned $7.6 million Friday, meaning it should surpass $20 million for the weekend. The Unborn’s marketing efforts, which took advantage of creepy dead children, twisted monsters and Odette Yustman’s ass, made $7.5 million on Friday, setting itself up for what may just be under $20 million for the weekend. That’s pretty good box office for a horror movie.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
That’s pretty off for Box Office Prophets… they’ve been a little off their game lately. My latest must-read blog has been The Box Office Junkie, which relaunched a few months ago. He’s usually really accurate, but the box office was just surprising this week and I don’t think anyone expected these sorts of results, so even TBOJ was off a bit! I put the link if you click my name.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Hi William, yeah, they have been. You recommended Box Office Junkie a couple weeks ago, right? I haven’t had a chance to look at it in any detail.
January 16th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Clint Eastwood used his outward crankiness to come across as tough and yet also heroic at the same time, well done i’d say
February 21st, 2009 at 3:21 am
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