'Spiderwick Chronicles' not such a great fantasy for Viacom

All movie studios want to find their own Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter franchise. Disney (NYSE: DIS), for example, seems to be headed on the right track with its Narnia brand. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) made a solid effort this past weekend by releasing The Spiderwick Chronicles to the mass multiplex marketplace -- unfortunately, things didn't turn out so well, at least as I'm seeing it.

According to Boxofficemojo, Spiderwick is in a battle with Disney's Step Up 2 the Streets for second place. The latter is right now estimated to have grossed $19.7 million for the three-day weekend of February 15 through February 17; the former has just over $19 million to its credit. So, Spiderwick could exit its current third-place showing and move up in the rankings, but it won't catch up to the big winner, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Jumper. I'll tell you, I had no idea this one was going to "jump" -- what a horrible, horrible pun, huh? -- to the top of the box office charts this weekend with a $27 million take.

Final numbers will be coming later today, and we'll get a better indication of how all the movies did once Monday's holiday figures are added; also, the second weekend is always the ultimate tell. But, as of now, I don't think Viacom's Spiderwick fantasy -- which is distributed by Paramount and is co-branded with Nickelodeon Movies -- will approach the economic prestige of Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Potter property. Better luck next time.

Disclosure: I own shares in Disney.