Cloverfield Grabs $18.25M Friday, $48 Million Expected

Paramount’s 2008 is off to a spectacular start. The J.J. Abrams-produced Cloverfield has delivered a monster opening day of an estimated $18.25M, and it will easily coast to both the All-Time January 3-Day record and the All-Time 4-Day MLK weekend record. The Friday number is a tough call because there’s no clear answer about where Paramount will add Thursday post-midnight sneak preview business. That means that there’s a slightly larger margin of error in my Early Friday Estimate than usual.There will almost certainly be a dip in business Friday-to-Saturday, maybe as much as 15%. Even with that sort of “front-loading,” this $25M-budgeted internet-driven phenomenon will likely reach a staggering 3-day of $48M, easily becoming the best January opening ever. By Monday night, fueled by the MLK school holiday, Cloverfield should set a new record for the long weekend with an estimated $52M.Paramount isn’t the only studio celebrating this weekend. Fox’s 27 Dresses, starring Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy, Knocked Up), has far exceeded industry expectations by “walking down the aisle” with $8.65M on opening day, which should translate to a $26M 3-day and a 4-day long weekend of approximately $30.7M. That will make this tepidly-reviewed romantic comedy the all-time 7th-biggest January opening and the all-time #4 MLK weekend 4-day opening.

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