The Marketing Machine - Box Office Results

I consciously waited until today to discuss the weekend's box office results because the winner, Evan Almighty, was universally panned. Not to mention that this week's box office results are down almost 50% from previous weeks'. I didn't see anything that said it out loud, but I'm pretty sure this has been the slowest weekend of the summer, so far.

1408 came in second and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer slipped to #3. Spider-Man 3 finally fell out of the top ten, though Shrek the Third and Pirates of the Caribbean both stayed in.

Due to good buzz and almost unanimously great reviews, I look for 1408 to move up to #1 or at least hang onto #2 for another couple weeks and Evan Almighty to all but drop out of sight completely. In fact, I'd go on and reserve it at the DVD store if you decide to stay in over the weekend of the 4^th.

It just goes to show you what marketing can do: for the last two weeks, you haven't been able to turn on a show without there being some "sneak preview" or interview or behind-the-scenes look at Evan Almighty. And regardless of the fact that it was slammed by basically every critic out there, it still managed to become the #1 movie in America.