Monday Morning Box Office: Coach Carter Reaps Benefit From Affleck's Curse
As you sit at home, enjoying your day off, take a stroll with the box office numbers.
1. Coach Carter—$23.6 million
We guess we shouldn't be too surprised that an inspirational, cliche-riddled sports flick did some nice business during a weekend where there was absolutely nothing new to see, but we were. Maybe that's because we really wanted to believe that Fox could saturate the airwaves with Elektra ads and steal a win. Everyone needs something to believe in.
2. Meet the Fockers—$19 million
At least one thing this weekend made perfect sense: Fockers finally fell out of first place. Ding dong, witch dead, etc etc...until it surfaces on DVD in a couple of months and we have to go through all of this again.
3. Racing Stripes—$16 million
We can't begrudge the talking animals movie its success. In these uncertain times of random, cat-flushing-dog violence, it's nice to see some wholesome, family entertainment.
4. In Good Company—$13.9 million
With all of the eating-disorder hisses directed at Mary-Kate Olsen, Renee Zellweger, or Lara Flynn Boyle any time they show an uncovered, bony arm in public, where's the outrage over Topher Grace? He might be 95 lbs, soaking wet (we're just using the idiom, we don't mean to conjure the image). It's time for a Save Topher t-shirt.
Also, we kind of hated this movie (Dennis Quaid's "Golly gee, I just don't get it" scene will stand as one of the dumbest cinematic moments of the year), but that's a story for another time. Let's not take the focus off Topher. Someone bring him a sandwich, stat!
5. Elektra—$12.5 million
We thought that Fox was going to be able to buy a win at the box office. How could we have been so foolish as to underestimate the Curse of Affleck? With a movie spun off from an Affleck bomb (Daredevil, if you haven't been paying attention) and with a star who may or may not be carrying Affleck's seed, Elektra never stood a chance.