“Epic Movie” Turns Hits Into A Hit At The Box Office
Posted January 28, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
If math had anything to do with movies, it would stand to reason that rolling a whole bunch of hit films into one would produce a success.
And wouldn’t you know it: that math added up Sunday, as super-spoof “Epic Movie” cruised to the top spot in Hollywood with a $19.2 million debut.
In the tradition of the “Scary Movie,” “Date Movie,” and even “Naked Gun” before it, “Epic Movie” takes shots at many recent hit films as well as pop culture notables and celebrities.
“When you gross the first weekend almost what it costs to make, it is enormously successful. We’re pleased,” Fox executive Bert Livingston said of the Regency Productions film distributed by his company.
Other Hollywood experts weren’t the least bit surprised.
“It seems these teen audiences have just this insatiable appetite for these spoofs,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
“They are economically sensible. It’s just a licence to make money for the studio.”
On its heels was high-octane action flick “Smokin’ Aces,” which features a star-studded cast that includes Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Common, Andy Garcia, Ben Affleck, Ray Liotta, Jason Bateman and Alicia Keys in the story of hired guns competing over a bounty placed on a strung out magician and informant named Buddy “Aces” Israel. The film received solid reviews, but may have been too violent to capture a wide audience.
As such it ended up just slightly off the pace with $14.3 million in its first week.
“It’s a very edgy, R-rated, hip and cool movie,” Dergarabedian said.
In third place for what seems like the millionth week was Ben Stiller’s “Night at the Museum,” which took in another $9.5 million to boost its six-week total to $217 million.
The new Jennifer Garner vehicle “Catch and Release” was fourth, while last week’s top film, “Stomp the Yard” fell to fifth.
In the bottom half of the top 10, Oscar contenders got a major boost from nominations, including “Dreamgirls” at six, “The Pursuit of Happyness” in seventh, “Pan’s Labyrinth” in the eighth spot and “The Queen” coming in ninth.
Here’s the rest of the weekend’s top 10, with all figures estimated according to Media By Numbers LLC.
1. “Epic Movie,” $19.2 million.
2. “Smokin’ Aces,” $14.3 million.
3. “Night at the Museum,” $9.5 million.
4. “Catch and Release,” $8 million.
5. “Stomp the Yard,” $7.8 million.
6. “Dreamgirls,” $6.6 million.
7. “The Pursuit of Happyness,” $5 million.
8. “Pan’s Labyrinth,” $4.5 million.
9. “The Queen,” $4 million.
1 0. “The Hitcher,” $3.6 million.
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