Borat: Bigger Than Santa Clause!
Source: Box Office Mojo, Edward Douglas November 6, 2006
The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.
This weekend, the guy bringing presents wasn't wearing a red suit, he was wearing a gray one, as Sacha Baron Cohen's acclaimed comedy Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan took on two new family films for a surprising victory as the king of the box office with an estimated opening weekend take of $26.4 million!
That amount wouldn't be nearly as impressive, if not for the fact that the comedy opened in almost a third as many theatres as the other two new wide releases, after a controversial decision by distributor 20th Century Fox to cut back its opening weekend release to 837 theatres. As of Friday, it looked like "Borat" would surpass Michael Moore's 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 as the highest per theatre average for a film opening wide in less than 1,000 theatres. Actually, "Borat's" stunning per-theatre average of $31,511 (estimated) is the third highest per theatre average for a wide release EVER, just behind the summer hit Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and the original Spider-Man. It averaged more per theatre than Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith just to give some idea how huge this movie is. 20th Century Fox plans on expanding the movie into over 2,200 theatres next weekend, although after such a huge opening, one can expect that number will increase by Friday.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you!
