Ghost Rider Flames Out at the President’s Day Weekend Box Office
Steve Barton
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Box Office Mojo
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When a Ghost Rider sequel was announced, most people wondered why. Moviegoers must have been asking the same question judging by the film’s middling box office receipts this weekend. Poor Nic Cage might have to sell his soul to Satan to get another hit movie at this point.
The good news for the producers of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is that their sequel/semi-reboot only cost about half of the 2007 original’s $110 million budget. The bad news is it opened in 3rd place to less than half what its predecessor took in its opening weekend. $22 million for 3 days, and that’s even factoring in inflated 3D ticket prices. Compare that to the $47 million the original pulled in, and you get what Box Office Mojo describes as “a nearly unprecedented drop for a sequel.”
Then again, by all reported accounts, the only reason this Ghost Rider sequel even came into existence was because they had to get another movie off the ground ASAP or lose the rights to the character back to Marvel/Disney. That the film was a last-minute rush job might also explain why most of the reviews and word-of-mouth have been predominantly negative, with a few notable exceptions.
Safe House and The Vow continued to rule the box office for the second weekend in a row. Last weekend’s other new holdover, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island only dipped 27% with an additional $20 million for the weekend. After the success of Fast Five and now this, the producers of the new G.I. Joe movie must be feeling really secure in knowing they cast Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to try and salvage that property.
The 3D re-release of Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace plummeted a whopping 65% in its second weekend with a 6th place $7.9 million finish. Regardless, George Lucas is still laughing all the way to the bank.
Chronicle and The Woman in Black continue to do solid business with $7 million and $6.6 million, respectively. They came in at 7th and 8th, continuing the neck-and-neck pattern they’ve maintained for the three weeks they’ve been out.
Liam Neeson: Wolf Fighter Extraordinaire looks to finally be on its way out of the top 10, finishing 10th with $3 million, closing in on $50 million domestically.
Next weekend will see Amanda Seyfried tangle with a serial killer in Gone. Will you see it before it’s gone?
This weekend’s box office report wraps with an exclusive interview TheOnion.com scored with the puppeteer who has been operating the Nicolas Cage costume all these years. What? You thought that wildly manic over-actor was a real person?
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