2nd big "Snakes On a Plane" surprise - it kind of bombed. [View All]

[Pale Blue Dot]

The first surprise, for me at least, was that it got a lot of good reviews. That, coupled with all of the pre-release hype, led me to believe that "Snakes on a Plane" was going to be a smash - possibly one of the biggest films of the summer.

Well, the studios released their weekend numbers today, and while "SOAP" did finish the week in first place, it did so with only $15.3 million, just barely beating "Talladega Nights" which is in its third week of release. It made only $4300 per screen, which is very low for a heavily hyped new release. "Little Miss Sunshine", by contrast, made $8200 per screen. Given the fact that this is a late summer release, "SOAP" can probably expect to finally pull in about $60 million.

I don't think you need to cry for anyone associated with the movie. It only cost about $35 million to make, pretty low by summer movie standards, so it will still turn a nice profit. But the sequel might be in danger, and I don't think anyone's going to be rushing to become next summer's internet joke.

Did you see it? How was it?