HARRISON FORD - BOX OFFICE TUMBLES

BOX OFFICE TUMBLES

The weekend box office proved to be worse than studios had estimated, as final figures indicated that the top 12 films grossed just $87,791,200, a 13-year-low for the eleventh weekend of the year and 17 percent below last year's figure for the weekend. The downturn marks the end of a streak of better-than-expected theater attendance that saw revenue climb 14.1 percent above last year and attendance rise 12.4 percent. Leading the pack was Disney's Race to Witch Mountain with $24.4 million -- OK for a relatively low-budget family film. In second place was last weekend's winner, Watchmen , which plummeted 68 percent to $17.8 million to bring its two-week total to $85.8 million. Universal's Last House on the Left opened in third place with $14.1 million, followed by 20th Century Fox's Taken , which took in $6.6 million in its seventh week, dropping just 10 percent from the previous weekend. Miss March , the only other film to open wide over the weekend, barely made the top ten list as it tanked with just $2.4 million. In limited release, the Harrison Ford drama Crossing Over seemed unlikely to cross over to a much wider release as it earned just $102,331 at 38 theaters, bringing its three-week total to a meager $272,175.

17/03/2009