Will Ferrell Movie Disappoints At Box Office With $15M

LOS ANGELES — Will Ferrell's basketball comedy "Semi-Pro" dribbled to the top of the weekend box office, but it fell short of his previous blockbuster openings in the sports spoof genre, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The New Line Cinema film, starring Ferrell as the owner of a fictional basketball franchise, grossed $15.3 million in its weekend debut. That was lackluster compared to Ferrell's 2006 NASCAR parody "Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," which opened at $47 million, and last year's figure skating comedy "Blades of Glory," which earned $33 million in its first weekend.

Box office analysts said "Semi-Pro" likely suffered because it was released during a normally slow season and was rated R, while "Talledega Nights" and "Blades of Glory" were rated PG-13.

"Will Ferrell is always a draw and audiences love him. But this particular weekend is not quite as strong as his earlier efforts," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracker Media By Numbers LLC.

New Line representatives declined to comment. Last week, media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. announced that New Line would be merged with its Warner Bros. Entertainment studio to cut costs and improve profitability.

Last weekend's top film, the Sony Pictures terrorism thriller "Vantage Point," dropped to second place with $13 million in ticket sales, bringing its two-week domestic total to $41 million.

Sony's new release "The Other Boleyn Girl" performed better than expected, opening at No. 4 with $8.3 million at 1,166 theaters. Its $7,118 per theater average outdistanced other movies in the marketplace.

The weekend's other opening, the Summit Entertainment fantasy romantic comedy "Penelope," debuted in eighth place with $4 million.

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Box office revenues overall were down for the third straight week. The top 12 movies grossed $81 million, down 10 percent from last weekend and 25 percent from the same weekend in 2007.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Semi-Pro," $15.3 million.

2. "Vantage Point," $13 million.

3. "Spiderwick Chronicles," $8.8 million.

4. "The Other Boleyn Girl," $8.3 million

5. "Jumper," $7.6 million.

6. "Step Up 2 The Streets," $5.7 million.

7. "Fool's Gold," $4.7 million.

8. "Penelope," $4 million.

9. "No Country For Old Men," $4 million.

10. "Juno," $3.4 million.

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On the Net:

http://www.mediabynumbers.com

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Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and Vivendi Universal; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; DreamWorks, Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros., New Line, Warner Independent and Picturehouse are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.

Comments

[angel66]

Maybe the incessant media over-exposure made people feel like they'd seen the movie before it opened? Nah, can't blame the marketing folk for their endless "branding"­...

[GalaxieGal]

It's called front loading. The worse the movie is, the more of it you will see beforehand. I'm not sure of the logic, but that's what they do.

[hellisonfan]

And why is this a surprise, or even newsworthy? The trailers were skin-crawly bad, and that's supposed to be the best the movie has to offer.

[LeeLoosMultiPass]

I think he is overdoing the same schtick and finally jumped the shark. Some of his films have been pretty funny and also pretty sophomoric. He needs to take a different tack. Hell, his "funny or die" short vids are funnier than some of his films.

But all in all I like him. He'll always be around, folks, so don't get your panties in a wad over this.

[devilyousay]

Maybe people are figuring out he has one character and he puts it in a different sport for every movie. We've seen it all before. He's just not that funny.

And don't get mean about that comment or I'll just bang my cowbell louder to drown you all out.

[leftcoastindy]

Bang this ...dummy!

Obviously none of you have seen Farrell mocking that idiot we have for a Presnit.

He's even funnier than Bush-and you don't have to be embarrased while you're laughing.

[LoRiseAntlers]

Um,what th e hell does that have to do with the fact the guy is about as funny as a cult committing mass suicide?

Ferrell sucks in a way that threatens to create a vortex of numbing mediocrity.

[ashleybaines]

I do not - nor have i ever understood the Will Ferrell phenomenon­...

it's a measure of juvenile appetite for low brow humor I suspect...­. every child grows out of it.

[Colmore]

I agree, Farrell is not funny anymore. He was at his funniest on SNL, imitating Georgie Bush. After that, it seems to have gone downhill. Maybe he was a "one trick pony" after all. There is nothing funny about a grown man acting like child.

[whillice]

Millions of Frenchmen would disagree-- they looooooooo­oooooooove Jerry Lewis.

[fightorleave2]

Yes, I agree with wadenelson1. Why should it shock anyone? The movie looks terrible? Do the suits out there really think that we are that stupid that we go pay to see really bad movies just because we really like Will Ferrell.

[wadenelson1]

Will Ferrell Disappoints At Box Office

I think this is one of the "Five Truths" of Buddhism.

[Citizen54]

Excellent.

[ENK727]

The reason why this one probably didn't do well at the box office is because it's rated "R". Most kids that would go see this couldn't get in unless accompanied by a parent. Of course it wouldn't do well with it's core market with an R rating. They should have cleaned it up a bit so it had a PG-13... then it probably would have done very well. My kids wanted to go to the movies this past weekend and it seemed like most of the movies were rated "R", so they wound up not going.

[glaze]

Sorry, it isn't the rating.
Will Ferrel just isn't funny.
Your kids feel culture-deprived for missing out on a crappy movie?
Maybe you should take them to a library or bookstore. Much better return on your time and money.

[leftcoastindy]

You are sorry if you don't get Ferell's humor. And it definitely IS the rating.

Also, how many teenage girls want to see a movie about basketball?

Not good for kids and not good for dates. Who went? Mostly people hopeing the movie was better than the critics said, but they were probably disappointed. I love Ferrell and I'll wait for to come out on video.

[ENK727]

My kids are 14 & 16 and they do go to the library and bookstores, but they happen to really like Will Ferrell and his type of humor. So why don't you shut up.. dumbass.. you don't even know me.