News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! came in at number one over the weekend, according to early estimates at Boxofficemojo. The movie grossed about $45 million at domestic theaters. Even if that number changes a little, there's no chance that it will be knocked from the top spot, considering that Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) caveman epic 10,000 B.C. is estimated to have grossed about $16 million, which was good for second position.
Seth Rogen, who is the new toast of Hollywood and who will probably try to weasel his way into a Tom-Hanks kind of career (i.e., steadily move away from goofy roles and get into some serious dramas), provided his voice to one of the characters, as did his "frat pack" buddies Steve Carell and Jonah Hill. Jim Carrey, of course, is the big name on the movie's credits, but believe it or not, I thought of Rogen first when thinking about this flick -- guess his brand equity is indeed on the rise. It's not a movie I'd necessarily see, but it had a pretty good marketing campaign behind it, so I can understand its success.
Shareholders of News Corp. can rejoice at Horton's debut, but shareholders of Disney (NYSE: DIS) are probably a bit more mellow considering the fact that College Road Trip dropped to fourth place in its second weekend (it was in second place last weekend) -- its total gross right now is about $24 million. That's too bad, since Raven-Symone and Martin Lawrence were powering the family film.
The box office doesn't seem too exciting right now; there isn't any film that really seems to be capturing the zeitgeist. Don't worry, though -- the summer movies will be here before you know it.
Disclosure: Steven Mallas owns shares of Disney; positions can change at any time.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-18-2008 @ 3:02AM
Mmy said...
Wow! Horton Hears came in at number one over the weekend? That's really fantastic! It is a pity that I have no time to see this new movie. I just picked up an old DVD of it three days ago: http://dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=91151&ru=279 , I think the story is without a doubt the best work by Dr. Seuss in his long and storied career. And the old one is also very attractive. Maybe if I have time, I will see this new one.