Will Ferrell Makes “Blades Of Glory” Hollywood’s Top Film
Posted April 1, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Let’s face it: people love stupid movies. People also love Will Ferrell, so if you were to say, put Will Ferrell in a stupid movie, there’s a decent chance it would be successful.
That’s certainly the formula “Blades of Glory” producers were leaning on, and it appears to have paid off as the figure skating spoof, which also features “Napoleon Dynamite” star Jon Heder, soared to the top spot at the box office with a $33 million debut.
Disney’s animated adventure “Meet the Robinsons,” about a brilliant but lonely orphan’s journey through time, debuted in second place with $25.1 million.
The second go-round didn’t go so well for the previous week’s champ, and Warner Bros. animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles revival “TMNT” slipped to fourth with $9.2 million, a 62 per cent drop from its opening haul of $24.3 million.
In fact, all of Hollywood took a step down this weekend, and the top 12 movies took in $115 million, a 13 per cent dip the same weekend in 2006 when “Ice Age: The Meltdown” opened with $68 million.
“This is still a good weekend, a pretty healthy one-two punch with `Blades of Glory’ and `Meet the Robinsons’ at the top,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers, who added that overall movie attendance is still up four percent in 2007.
And things are certainly looking up for Ferrell, who notched the second-best opening of his career behind last summer’s “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” which debuted with $47 million.
“It starts with a great concept, and the whole picture was cast so well,” said DreamWorks spokesman Marvin Levy. “Another part of the surprise was, we got a ton of very, very good reviews.”
Here’s the rest of the weekend’s top 10, with all figures estimated according to Media By Numbers LLC.
1. “Blades of Glory,” $33 million.
2. “Meet the Robinsons,” $25.1 million.
3. “300,” $11.2 million.
4. “TMNT,” $9.2 million.
5. “Wild Hogs,” $8.4 million.
6. “Shooter,” $8 million.
7. “Premonition,” $5.1 million.
8. “The Last Mimzy,” $4 million.
9. “The Hills Have Eyes 2,” $3.9 million.
10. “Reign Over Me,” $3.7 million.
