So this looks to be the slowest box office weekend of the entire year, with Lionsgate's predictable hit man action pic Bangkok Dangerous the only new wide release. And still Nicolas Cage can't attract an audience.
It barely opened Friday with a paltry $2.7 million from 2,650 theaters for what should be just an $7.5 million weekend -- much less than the tracking showed, or about what his film Next made in 2007.
Clearly the only reason anyone wants to see Cage is if he's starring in a Marvel comic book movie like Ghost Rider (and Sony is making the sequel, Ghost Rider 2) or Disney's National Treasure franchise. Other than those, he hasn't starred in a movie that's made money since, like, forever.
Really, Cage needs to take a long, hard look at his career since constantly appearing in badly revewed pics like this is a price quote killer. (And he needs to pay his taxes, too.)
DreamWork/Paramount's moviemaking spoof Tropic Thunder took 2nd place Friday with $2.1 million from 3,446 venues and should finish the weekend with $6.5M and a new cume of $96M. Sony's Playboy-meets-college comedy The House Bunny was No. 3 Friday with $1.7 million from 2,736 dates but should drop a notch to #4 by weekend's end with $5.1M.
In the 4th spot was Warner Bros' mega-blockbuster The Dark Knight which eked out another $1.4 million Friday from 2,575 plays for what will probably be #3 and $5.2M for the weekend and a new cume of $511M. And in 5th place for the second week (-41%) is Overture's Traitor starring Don Cheadle which made $1.3 million Friday from 2,066 runs for what should be a $4 million weekend.
