Box Office Cusps

Well, the summer box-office race is coming to a close, and even though I barely see ten movies a year I these days, I still follow it obsessively.

What interests me right now are what I call "cusp" hits. These seem to stay in release forever while the Studios wait for them to crawl across the finish line. (Look! Superman Returns grossed $200,081,192!) Of course, when you're grossing $200,000 a week and have two million to go, that can be a death march.

This summer's three big cusps seem to be Knocked Up($147,429,905), Ratatouille($197,614,304), and Evan Almighty ( $98,566,955).

Of the three, "Knocked Up" seems the most hopeless cause. It's been out the longest, has over $2.5 mil to go, and picked up less than half a mil last week. Still, this is just for bragging rights. Judd Apatow's 40 Year old Virgin was a surprise summer hit last year, and that grossed nearly $40 million less than "Knocked Up." Besides which, these comedies cost almost nothing compared to their take.

Then there's "Ratatouille;" tough, but do-able. It has almost $3.5 mil to go, but earned nearly three mil last week. Of course, the take will likely go down next week, but Pixar films tend to have legs. This is very important, though, as there have been grumblings about Pixar since they took over Disney animation. "Rat" will still go down as their weakest box-office performance to date, and having the total start with a "2" will help stifle their critics. Of course, when you're looking for box office magic it's probably best not to go with rats and French cuisine, but I think Pixar has their own strategy. They think making good films is what counts in the long run.

Then there's the just plain sad "Evan Almighty." Its theater count just went up, so I have no idea if it will make the extra $1.6 mil it needs, but it's still too little, too late. Some idiots blew $175 million on this thing, and it's now don to whether they have egg or poop on their faces.