Weekend Analysis: Cars

Pixar?s Cars easily commanded the box office this weekend, though the pic failed to play as powerfully as The Incredibles ($70.5 million) and Finding Nemo ($70.3 million). The movie opened to a monstrous $62.8 million according to studio estimates, though Reel Source claims that $60.1 million is closer to the actual figure ? and they had caught X3?s studio estimate error three weeks ago. If that figure is indeed closer to the actual weekend gross, Cars bears a chance of coming in a notch under $60 upon final results.

Either way it turns, though, the opening is strong for Disney and Pixar, though the debut might end up coming short of Monsters Inc.?s figure ($62.4 million). The film's legs should be in question considering its weak Saturday jump, and next week Nacho Libre is likely to take away a decent chunk of its audience, not to mention Garfield, and Click the following week. Even if the film doesn?t clear $200 million domestically (at this point, it may, but perhaps not by much), the production budget was just $70 million, which will be easily profitable.

Robert Altman?s A Prairie Home Companion found a decent audience in its somewhat limited release this weekend, as the ensemble film (which has nearly every serious actor on the planet involved) took in $4.7 million in 760 theaters, averaging $6,146 per-screen. The film likely played best in the top markets like Altman?s previous works, and its real test will be upon nationwide expansion. Altman?s films tend to be most appreciated by intellectual audiences, kind of like Christopher Guest?s mockumentaries, and are not for everyone. Gosford Park, though, which cynics could bash as pretentious, still grossed an impressive $41.3 million domestically.