Prince Caspian headed to Disappointing $51M Opening; Narnia Sequels in Question?

Posted on Saturday, May 17th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta

The early Friday night box office estimates are in,Â and Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian failed to match the opening of 2005’s The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe. Caspian took in $18M on Friday, and is looking at a $51 million weekend, almost 25% less than the previous film in the series. Theater owners were hoping for $80+M. Disney has already greenlit The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but I’m not sure the series will continue after that. Producer Mark Johnson announced at the New York Comic-Con that the future of the franchise is strictly dependent on the success of both Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Iron Man is still beating the expectations with a $9.25M Friday, soaring past $200M, and aiming for a $33M 3-day. Not bad for the film’s third weekend in the hot Summer movie season.

Friday Estimates
1. NEW - Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney) - $18M - $4,581 PTA - $18M cume
2. Iron Man (Paramount) â€“ $9.25M - $2,227 PTA - $200.5M cume
3. What Happens in Vegas (Fox) - $4.65M - $1,429 PTA - $31.1M cume
4. Speed Racer (Warner Bros) - $2.4M - $666 PTA - $24.5M cume
5. Made of Honor (Sony) - $1.65M - $586 PTA - $30.8M cume

Three Day Estimates
1. NEW - Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney) - $51.3M - $13,057 PTA - $51.3M cume
2. Iron Man (Paramount) â€“ $33M - $7,944 PTA - $224.3M cume
3. What Happens in Vegas (Fox) - $13.75M - $4,224 PTA - $40.2M cume
4. Speed Racer (Warner Bros) - $8.1M - $2,246 PTA - $30.2M cume
5. Made of Honor (Sony) - $5.3M - $1,882 PTA - $34.5M cume

source: Fantasy Moguls

Comments

clarence somerset

What a surprise. Why was the first instalment so successful? The religious element?

Aaron

Fingers crossed for the Golden Compass sequel. Happy to see this propaganda fizzle.

Allynd Dudnikov

I want a Golden Compass sequel..

Chimaera

*spoiler alert*

I went to go see the midnight showing Thursday night not really expecting much and it was actually not that bad...at least imo. There was more depth to the characters and the script, I thought, as far as the intrigue, betrayal, and inner workings of the main group. Though at times I felt like I was watching a more water-down, kids, version of LOTR...especially in the beginning sequence with the horse chase and then when the trees joined in the fight. Kinda sad that Peter and Susan won't be in the next one but that's how the books go I guess. I think it'll all depend on word of mouth if the numbers go up or not.

charles

When did $51 million, just become $51 million. Indy is coming out next week. Wake up.

Al

I'd also rather see the sequels to The Golden Compass (and the rumoured Extended Cut). The world and characters in it felt a lot more interesting than the first Narnia which was as bland as can be...

AJ

This is what they get for parading a winter movie around like a summer movie...

Pete

Speed racer is really tanking big time. When Indy comes out, it will be completely dead. They should have released Speed back in April, it would have stood a better chance. As for Narnia, I liked the first one...on DVD. That's where it will make up the box office shortfall. I would be surprised if it takes in more than 200-250Mil.

jamie

this movie should have been released this coming november around the thanksgiving period

and then dawn treader could have been a summer movie

hopefully, they keep on making them; i thought these were being made by anschutz's production company? he has deep pockets, and seems to believe in this...so they could keep on going with smaller budgets

Nate Nead

That's not great news. I was hoping for better. The story is such a classic. Hopefully it picks up.

Rockme

Thank god, the first was horseshit, don't need more shit.

Connor

Prince Caspian was excellent. I thought the reason why Prince Caspian isn't doing so well was pretty obvious: People were fans of the Narnia books, and they were waiting for a big screen adaptation of said series, and they got that with TLTWATW. They were probably let down by the first Narnia movie, (heck, I was) and when they heard Prince Caspian was coming out, they thought it'd be more of the same thing, so they didn't give it a chance. But let me tell ya', compared to TLTWATW, Prince Caspian blows it out of the water. It was such a great movie, from a movie standpoint, and for fans of the books.

Larry Leonardo

Good, fuck this movie, I hope they never make another one again.

They also had the worst advertising campaign for this movie, i didnt hear about it until this weekend.

starblazer101

haha iron man is still givin em hell yo!

lmao

we'll see how it goes down between indy and
iron man next week

till then

peace

=]]

Rosario

I guess im all by myseld here when I said I enjoyed both the 1st one and this one. The 1st one was not the greatest, that we can all admit, but it still wasn't that bad. I saw this last night and thought it was so much better then the 1st. I agree that this would of been a better winter movie but oh well.

And like Charles said, when did $51 million become chump change. I bet u Speed Racer would be happy with that.

Dan

Clearly parents are saving up their money to take their kids to see a real movie....Indiana Jones.

raven112

MORE RUBBISH FROM HOLLYWOOD -HOW ABOUT SOME ORGINAL MOVIES FOR A CHANGE.SAME JUNK YEAR IN YEAR OUT.

Jason

I actually liked this one. I thought it was well done, and certainly better than the first. I would recommend giving it a chance and not writing it off as rubbish

Chump Force 1

Families are being very selective with the so-called family movies this summer. The economy is in the tank and people are watching what they spend. While this may not necessary affect the 20 year old college student who will happliy see all the major summer blockbusters this year, families are only going to see what they think will be the best bang for their buck...expect them to wait for Indy, Wall-E and Kung-fu Panda...those are going to be your big family hits of the year.

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Prince Caspian headed to Disappointing $51M Opening; Narnia Sequels in Question?

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