Box Office: August 2008 Archives

All of the attention the past three weelks has been on the historic box office performance of "The Dark Knight" with features Heath Ledger's last completed performance. And rightfully so -expecially after the movie managed its third weekend in a row in first place and will pass the $400 million mark in record time.

What has not gotten much ink is the success of the musical "Mamma Mia" starring Meryl Streep. In its third weekend in theaters grossed $13 million and finished in fourth place. It was just a 25 percent drop from last weekend which indicates strong staying power. In 17 days, "Mamma" has grossed $87.9 million.

Meryl has been a movie star for 30 years but her biggest box office hit came just two years ago with the summer release "The Devil Wears Prada" which took in $124.7 million. Amazingly, the only other two films Meryl has appeared in to have grossed more than $100 million are 1979's "Kramer vs. Kramer" and 2004's "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events." Coming close was the classic 1985 film "Out of Africa" ($87 million) which woulf have outgrossed them all at today's ticket prices.

I'm most excited about the success of "Mamma" because it will encourage Hollywood to make more musicals.