ROTTEN TOMATOES: Box Office Guru Wrapup: American Gangster Crushes Competition at #1

Box Office Guru Wrapup: American Gangster Crushes Competition at #1

Denzel, Crowe, and Scott take over the multiplexes.

by Gitesh Pandya | November 04, 2007

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The North American box office exploded thanks to the scorching debuts of the Denzel Washington-Russell Crowe crime drama American Gangster and Jerry Seinfeld's animated comedy Bee Movie which combined for over $85M in ticket sales. Following weeks of sluggish business where the marketplace failed to match 2006 levels, this weekend's box office enjoyed a healthy bounce over last year and kicked off the holiday movie season with a bang.

Washington and Crowe both scored new career highs with the estimated $46.3M opening weekend for the crime saga American Gangster which dominated the multiplexes. Universal opened the R-rated tale in 3,054 theaters and generated a scorching $15,175 average per location. Directed by Ridley Scott, Gangster tells the true story of a drug kingpin who built up a heroin empire in Harlem in the early 1970s. The opening easily beat out the former all-time biggest debuts for the Oscar-winning actors: Washington's Inside Man with $29M and Crowe's Gladiator with $34.8M.

American Gangster enjoyed the second highest launch of the year for an R-rated film trailing only 300's $70.9M. Much of the success came from strong sales from young males and the urban audience which saw it as a Scarface for today's generation. The same audience also helped to power Eminem's R-rated hip hop drama 8 Mile to a surprising number one opening of $51.2M in November of 2002. Brian Grazer produced both Mile and Gangster. Reviews were mostly favorable and early Academy Award buzz could help the film in the weeks ahead. Despite the long running time of nearly two hours and forty minutes, moviegoers lined up and found their showtimes.

Paramount and DreamWorks settled for a second place debut for their latest animated film Bee Movie which grossed an estimated $39.1M in its opening weekend. The PG-rated toon averaged a sturdy $9,954 from 3,928 locations and performed just a bit below the levels of recent November animated titles. Last year, the penguin pic Happy Feet bowed to $41.5M while the previous year's Chicken Little launched with $40M. The two went on to gross $198M and $135.4M, respectively, from the North American market. Co-written by and starring Jerry Seinfeld, Bee Movie enjoyed virtually no competition in the current marketplace for family audiences. Critics were not too kind, but ticket buyers showed interest on the opening weekend. For 2007, the toon posted the fourth biggest debut for an animated film after Shrek the Third ($121.6M), The Simpsons Movie ($74M) and Ratatouille ($47M).

Suffering the largest sophomore drop in franchise history, Saw IV tumbled 65% from its top spot bow and grossed an estimated $11M. The Lionsgate title has still banked an impressive $51.1M in ten days and should finish with nearly $70M.

Buena Vista's Dan in Real Life fared much better in its second weekend dropping a slim 31% to an estimated $8.1M. With $23M in ten days, the romantic comedy might find its way to around $50M despite playing in less than 2,000 theaters.

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(1-19 of 19 posts) | Reply

lamer writes:
on Nov 04 2007 08:13 PM

*Claps hands* Bravo for American Gangster!

(Reply to this)

Bloody Mathias writes:
on Nov 04 2007 08:17 PM

Troy is the only other 150 minute flick to debut higher and that was a summer flick featuring a half naked Brad Pitt and Eric Bana in a war epic!

Truly impressive. I really thought Bee Movie had this weekend locked up.
Nice to know that Denzel can still bring in the crowds as long as he's got a mofo attitude and a gun.

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MMacKK writes:
on Nov 04 2007 08:30 PM

Quite impressive takes for both.
Yeah, you'd have thought with the more family friendly movie would have won out.

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johnny stone writes:
on Nov 04 2007 09:19 PM

Personally, I feel like Denzel always plays the same character, but that character seems to fit well with this movie. Crowe always delivers, so I hope its as good as the trailer.

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kissman24 writes:
on Nov 04 2007 11:12 PM

Thank God a good movie like "Gangster" beat off a bad movie like "Bee".

I hate it when Hollywood looks smart when they serve up a junk movie and it gets rewarded with a #1. Just because a lot of people don't have any taste when it comes to movies (a la the hundreds of thousands who paid to see "Chuck and Larry") doesn't mean that there shouldn't be a higher quality standard in Hollywood.

(Reply to this)

Paralyzer writes:
on Nov 04 2007 11:54 PM

i agree with kissman.im glad american gangster got its due

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Paralyzer writes:
on Nov 04 2007 11:56 PM

i agree with kissman.im glad american gangster got its due

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jasperoosterveld writes:
on Nov 05 2007 02:36 AM

I saw the new clooney movie! amazing movie, great story, great acting and a great movie! But yeah why see that when you can see crap like saw....

unbelievable.

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Allmano writes:
on Nov 05 2007 03:01 AM

Gangster was an average movie in my opinion. I didn't find it an emotionally engaging story. I think comparing is to Scarface is insane. Scarface was tense and you felt the character's emotional strain and stress thru the entire film. Goodfellas was a better film than both but even some compare "Gangster" with it. Washington and Crowe are some of my favorite actors but the script, the pot and the rushed ending had NO inspiration.
6/10 Gangster
7.5/10 Scarface
9/10 Goodfellas

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~*Admiral Snowstorm*~ writes:
on Nov 05 2007 03:48 AM

It seems like almost everyone who saw American Gangster is underwhelmed by it, calling it good but not great as we all expected it to be.

Still, good is better than bad, so at least American Gangster gets to keep those Bee Movie commercials from using "THE NUMBER ONE MOVIE IN AMERICA" now. Because you know they would if Bee Movie had edged out American Gangster.

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Gimy writes:
on Nov 05 2007 05:14 AM

i figured Bee movie would make alot more, kinda hit me i was wrong when i went into the theater and it was half empty on saturday. no clue why, it was a very very very cute movie. way better than the Rat one this summer that was overhyped/overblown.

admiral, it just changes the marketing. "the number one family movie in america!" or "the number one comedy in america!" they always say number one...always.

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frogleg writes:
on Nov 05 2007 06:04 AM

Ha! That's true. "The number one movie involving bees this week!"
American Gangster was very well done, IMO. Maybe not comparable to some of the classics with which it's being compared, but definitely a worthwhile flick. I thought Denzel did a hell of a job.

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blank blank writes:
on Nov 05 2007 06:38 AM

american gangster was just a well made movie. i was looking forward to it being epically awesome but it was merely solid. still a decent time at the movies though. denzel played it pretty close to the chest though, never really letting loose like he did in training day. crowe was his usual solid self. denzel's mom was pretty good too.

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TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Nov 05 2007 07:41 AM

In reply to this comment (#1252363)
GIMY;

'RAT' was overblown?!

You couldn't piss without seeing 36 ads for 'Bee[yotch]' Movie. I can only pray that with the movie finally coming out, they won't show any more of Seinfeld's wincingly painful 'TV Juniors' during shows that I actually WANT to see.

I honestly don't even care if the movie is good or not--I might even see it--but they pumped so much dam# money into advertising it, I hope they're coming in woefully under their projections.

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unbreakable_samurai writes:
on Nov 05 2007 07:55 AM

I still really need to see Gangster. I went and saw Bee Movie(C ) which really wasn't that funny, put more effort in the animation than the story. And Dan in Real Life which was a pretty charming dramedy(B).

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arendr writes:
on Nov 05 2007 08:41 AM

Count me as one who wasn't underwhelmed by American Gangster. I thought it was excellent. It's more of a French Connection type of movie than a regular old gangster movie. Great acting from everyone and an excellent script. I love how so many movies this time of year are just a class above the rest of the year.

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stg writes:
on Nov 05 2007 11:45 AM

Ratatouille was by no means over blown\hyped it deserved all the due critical acclaim that it got? its due to people like Gimy that **** a** animated movies like the shrek sequels and over hyped bee movie make millions at the box office where as an orignal and unique idea like rataouille suffers only managed a couple of hundred mil. And people wonder why hollywood is running out of original ideas,its a damn shame.

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TheAnswerMVP2001 writes:
on Nov 05 2007 06:30 PM

Wow, I didn't expect American Gangster to do that well... good for Russell and Ridley. (I couldn't care less about Denzel)

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Derbeste writes:
on Nov 06 2007 08:19 AM

In reply to this comment (#1251738)
"Troy is the only other 150 minute flick to debut higher and that was a summer flick featuring a half naked Brad Pitt and Eric Bana in a war epic!"

May I point you in the general direction of the Lord of the Rings? Most notably, The Return of the King?

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