Alyson Hannigan

Fox’s spoof comedy Date Movie opened at number one on Friday kicking off the four-day Presidents’ Day holiday weekend with an estimated $6.7M in its first day of release. Over the long Friday-to-Monday span, the PG-13 pic might collect $24-27M.

Also debuting impressively was Disney’s adventure tale Eight Below which took in an estimated $5M on Friday for second place. In previous years, family films opening on this holiday frame have done about 22% of their four-day bows on Friday. Eight Below could play out in similar fashion and gross $21-23M over the long weekend.

Not faring as well as the two big openers was the crime thriller Freedomland which collected an estimated $1.8M on Friday, its first day of release. The Samuel L. Jackson-Julianne Moore drama might give Sony $6-8M over four days.

Among sophomore holdovers, Friday-to-Friday declines were 30% for The Pink Panther, 60% for Final Destination 3, 35% for Curious George, and 46% for Firewall.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $28.8M on Friday which was down 15% from a year ago when Constantine opened on top with $11.5M on its way to a $33.6M weekend launch which put it in second place behind Hitch’s $36.7M.

Be sure to read the NEW weekly Oscar Spotlight column which features a one-on-one interview with Steven Friedlander, distribution president for Warner Independent Pictures which earned eight Academy Award nominations for three of its films - Good Night, and Good Luck, March of the Penguins, and Paradise Now. Check in every Friday for a new interview that goes behind the scenes of some of the most acclaimed films up for Academy Awards.

For a NEW review of Eight Below visit The Chief Report.