Pixar's Ratatouille's Opening Gross Fails to Impress, I Smell a Rat

We're back with this week's box office report. As expected, Ratatouille opened in 1st place. Pixar's animated movie about a gourmet rat with an appetite for French cuisine earned some $47.2 million. This is not a bad opening gross, but when compared to other Pixar releases, one can see what is so upsetting.

Movies such as "Toy Story 2". "Finding Nemo" and "Cars" had openings between $57.4 million and $70.5 million. If you want to find a Pixar movie that did not exceed Ratatouille's opening gross you have to go back 9 years ago when "A Bug's Life" earned $33.3 million. However, all may not be lost just yet. Although it did not fare too well first time around, "Ratatouille" received critics' praise, which could mean that the movie will compensate initial grossing with a longer stay in the theaters. Only time will tell.

The veterans from the classic action movies seem to be coming back in style. The Governor of California played his most famous role one more time when he starred in "Terminator 3". Sylvester Stallone could not let his rival get away with it so he decided to use the boxing gloves one more time and astonished everyone when his "Rocky Balboa" did not earn him a "Razzie". And now, Bruce Willis returns as John McClane in "Live Free or Die Hard". This forth installment has earned $33.15 million this weekend and $48.2 million since its release last Wednesday.

"Evan Almighty", which opened up first last weekend, could only gross a third placed $15.1 million. That means that the 10-day total earnings are about $60.6 million. It also means that the earnings decreased by 52% since last weekend. Consider the fact that the movie had a record-breaking production budget of $175 million and you can imagine the situation at Universal.