Weekend box-office: YAWN! Stomp takes it but oh, how boring!

By Scott Rosenberg Jan 22, 2007, 0:50 GMT

Beginning of ‘07 is starting off s-l-o-w at the box-office.

Here we are going into the fourth week of January and weekend box-office figures barely broke double digit receipts with only one new release, ‘The Hitcher’ from Rogue Pictures, dropping in among the top five.

In first place for the second consecutive week is Sony/Screen Gems ‘Stomp the Yard’ pulling in 13.3 million from 2,051 locations. Take was a decline of 39% from previous opening week but brings two week total take to $41.5 million. Pic only cost $14 million to produce.

Second place goes to ‘Night at the Museum,’ which dropped only 24% from previous week. The Ben Stiller laugher took in $13 million from 3,483 locations bringing its five week cume to a whopping $205.8 million.

Golden Globe winner ‘Dreamgirls’ buoyed by its win, added 307 theaters for a total 2,214 locations which helped increase its weekend take to $8.7 million. Total cume for its sixth weeks of release $78.1 million.

Could the American public have grown tired of horror thrillers? Maybe as ‘The Hitcher’s poor opening performance mirrors Disney’s opening of ‘Primeval’ last week which took in $6 million then and only $1.8 million now – a tumble of nearly 70%.

Hitcher opened with $8.2 million from 2,831 locations.

In fifth place is Sony’s ‘The Pursuit of Happyness.’  Taking in $6.7 million from 3,055 locations, the Will Smith starrer has a total cume of $146.5 million in its sixth frame.

Meanwhile, ‘Pan’s Labyrinth,’ Guillermo Del Toro’s fantasy pic continues to pick up steam in its fourth week of release, as it more than tripled print count to 609 locations taking in $4.7 million for a total cume of $10.1 million. Take puts Labyrinth in seventh place this past weekend.

Distributor Picturehouse head Bob Berney predicted that Labyrinth has a shot to become the highest grossing Spanish language film. Current topper is "Like Water for Chocolate" with $21.7 million.

Picturehouse will add about 200 more prints for "Labyrinth" next weekend.

Sony Pictures Classics opened the Russian language ‘The Italian’ at four theaters taking in a paltry $24,302.

‘The Last King of Scotland,’ starring Forrest Whittaker jumped from release at four theaters to 495 theaters following Forrest Whitaker's best actor win at the Golden Globes. Pic grossed $1.8 million last weekend – a cume of $5.4 million in its seventeen weeks of release. Movie cost $6 million to make.