Even Almighty Not Blessed With Box Office Bucks
Steve Carell earned the almighty number one spot at the box office this weekend with his new movie, Evan Almighty. Even so, the comedy earned only $32.1 million, less then half the $68 million that Bruce Almighty, the film's predecessor earned during its opening weekend.
Although both Almighty films used religion, comedy and Morgan Freeman cast as God, Bruce Almighty — starring Jim Carrey — was an adult comedy, while Carell's follow-up flick was made for family audiences. Universal, the films' production company hopes that Evan's family appeal will give it a longer shelf life, and more time to make money.
"Family films have an incredible ability to just play and play," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution at Universal. "I'm very optimistic about it playing out over the course of the summer."
Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers said that "opening weekend no longer is the only barometer by which you can determine whether or not a film can turn a profit. If it finds life in the foreign marketplace, on home video, all those revenue streams are really important. It just has to do well in the long term, then have life after its theatrical distribution."
If not, Evan Almighty might need a real visit from God to make up for its $175 million budget!
Click here to read our review of Even Almighty.
