Friday Box Office Analysis (1/28)

Hide and Seek debuted in line with the Michael Keaton creepy flick, White Noise on Friday, delivering $8.1 million in ticket sales. Booked in 3,005 theaters, the Robert DeNiro/Dakota Fanning pair-up averaged $2,695 per-screen. Though the figure neared the $8.9 million ($3,945 per-screen in 2,261 theaters) first day gross of White Noise, Hide and Seek also matched up with the $2,831 average ($4.8 million) of Nicole Kidman?s The Others. The Forgotten, a similar genre flick, also turned in $7.6 million on opening day for $2,455 per-screen.

White Noise was booked in 800 fewer theaters and so Hide and Seek?s performance will not be as generally impressive (per-screen wise). The thriller should, however, follow the daily pattern of The Forgotten and The Others in receiving a 10 - 13% or so second day increase. Saturday could look like roughly $9.0 million, with the weekend shaping out to be around $22.0 million. In comparison, White Noise drew in $24.1 million ($10,665 per-screen), The Forgotten brought in $21.0 million ($6,772 per-screen), whereas The Others earned $14.1 million but in only 1,678 theaters for $8,396 per-screen.

The weekend?s other new release, the thriller/horror flick Alone in the Dark, bombed with roughly $1.0 million in 2,124 theaters for a dreadful $471 per-screen. The performance is very similar to Extreme Ops, which took in around $900,000 in 1,800 theaters for a $481 average. Alone in the Dark couldn?t even rank up with Ghosts of Mars, which had a similar story and took in $1.3 million and $625 per-screen, leading to a $3.8 million three-day frame. For the weekend, Alone in the Dark should just barely make $3.0 million.