Box Office: Sluggish Day The Earth Stood Still Stalls At $31M; Unlikely To Reach $80M Domestic

By Steve Mason/Dec. 14, 2008 6:00 pm EST

The horrible reviews (22% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and very weak Cinema Score exit surveys will add up to awful word-of-mouth, and Earth Stood Still will not have legs. Next weekend’s trio of wide releases, Seven Pounds (Sony), Yes Man (Warner Bros) and The Tale of Despereaux (Universal) will swamp Keanu’s Klaatu and his attacking alien race, and Fox’s would-be blockbuster could drop as 62%+ next weekend for something in the $11M range. With a possible 10-day cume just under $50M, it’s hard to imagine The Day The Earth Stood Still reaching $80M domestic.

For details on the weekend’s 3 major specialty releases including Gran Torino (Warner Bros), check out my Saturday night story on the weekend Per Theatre Average race.

STUDIO 3-DAY ESTIMATES

  1. NEW – The Day the Earth Stood Still (Fox) – $31M, $8,708 PTA, $31M cume

  2. Four Christmases (Warner Bros) – $13.27M, $3,749 PTA, $87.97M cume

  3. Twilight (Summit) – $8M, $2,196 PTA, $150.1M cume

  4. Bolt (Disney) – $7.5M, $2,396 PTA, $88.89M cume

  5. Australia (Fox) – $4.28M, $1,585 PTA, $37.88M cume

  6. Quantum of Solace (Sony) – $3.8M, $1,442 PTA, $157.66M cume

  7. NEW – Nothing Like the Holidays (Overture) – $3.5M, $2,095 PTA, $3.5M cume

  8. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Dreamworks/Paramount) – $3.25M, $1,174 PTA, $170M cume

  9. Milk (Focus) – $2.63M, $8,037 PTA, $7.63M cume

  10. Transporter 3 (Lionsgate) – $2.25M, $885 PTA, $29.27M cume

  11. Cadillac Records (Sony) – $1.6M, $2,326 PTA, $5.92M cume

*NEW – Delgo (Freestyle) – $916,000, $424 PTA, $916,000 cume

*Frost/Nixon (Universal) – $630,000, $16,154 PTA, $878,000 cume