Box Office Update 12/14-12/17: I Am Legend Lands at the Top
Published December 18, 2007
No Country for Old Men continues to impress. It stepped into sixth place this weekend while only dropping 31%. The film should continue to do well as it racks up the critical awards as we steam through Oscar season. Atonement is also impressing, now in its second weekend. It was only showing at 117 theaters and it still managed to crack the top ten, finishing in ninth place with a per theater average north of $15 thousand, second best among the top ten.
Next weekend will see a number of films enter the fray in the final weekend before Christmas. Tom Hanks' will seek success with Charlie Wilson's War, Nicolas Cage seeks more history with National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Gerard Butler puts down his sword in favor of romance with Hilary Swank in PS I Love You, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp reunite with the Golden Globe nominated Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and John C. Reilly stars in the biopic parody Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Plus, the art house circuit will see expansions with Atonement, Juno, and The Kite Runner hitting more screens.
Three movies dropped off the top ten this week: Beowulf (12), Awake (13), and Hitman (8).
| This Week | Last Week | Title | Wknd Gross | Overall | Week in release |
| 1 | N | I Am Legend | $77,211,321 | $77,211,321 | 1 |
| 2 | N | Alvin and the Chipmunks | $44,307,417 | $44,307,417 | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | The Golden Compass | $8,825,549 | $40,768,661 | 2 |
| 4 | 2 | Enchanted | $5,533,884 | $91,801,187 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | No Country for Old Men | $2,827,530 | $33,390,003 | 6 |
| 6 | N | The Perfect Holiday | $2,283,360 | $2,930,188 | 1 |
| 7 | 3 | This Christmas | $2,260,812 | $46,004,292 | 4 |
| 8 | 4 | Fred Claus | $2,221,438 | $68,880,722 | 6 |
| 9 | 15 | Atonement | $1,806,862 | $2,918,154 | 2 |
| 10 | 7 | August Rush | $1,765,319 | $28,045,110 | 4 |
Box Office Predictions Recap
Placements were pretty good, box office guesses were not so. The top three were pretty easy to guess, the rest were just lucky guesses. What really surprised me was just how low I was on predicting I Am Legend and Chipmunks. Who would have guessed the two would be quite as popular as they are? I mean, I knew they would likely open well, just not this well. Was everyone so starved for a movie that they all chose this week to go out to them? Whatever the case may be, it will be interesting to see how it translates into the final weekends of 2007.
Anyway, here is how I picked the field:
| Actual | Prediction | Title | Wknd Gross | Prediction |
| 1 | 1 | I Am Legend | $77,211,321 | $44 million |
| 2 | 2 | Alvin and the Chipmunks | $44,307,417 | $19 million |
| 3 | 3 | The Golden Compass | $8,825,549 | $15 million |
| 6 | 4 | The Perfect Holiday | $2,283,360 | $13.5 million |
| 4 | 5 |
Enchanted | $5,533,884 | $5.5 million |
| 5 | 6 | No Country for Old Men | $2,827,530 | $3.5 million |
| 7 | 7 | This Christmas | $2,260,812 | $3 million |
| 8 | 8 | Fred Claus | $2,221,438 | $3 million |
| 12 | 9 | Beowulf | $1,380,513 | $2.5 million |
| 10 | 10 | August Rush | $1,765,319 | $2 million |
Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about entertainment when he isn't sitting in a movie theater. He is known around the office as the "Movie Guy" and is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Interests include science fiction, horror, and metal music. His writings can be found at Draven99's Musings and Draven99's Media Center. 
- Box Office Update 12/14-12/17: I Am Legend Lands at the Top
- Published: December 18, 2007
- Type: News
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: News
- Part of a feature: Box Office Update
- Writer: Chris Beaumont
- Chris Beaumont's BC Writer page
- Chris Beaumont's personal site
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