EXCLUSIVE STEVE MASON EARLY FRIDAY ESTIMATES
1. Marley & Me (Fox) - $9.5M, $2,710 PTA, $91.96M cume
2. Bedtime Stories (Disney) - $9M, $2,443 PTA, $74.1M cume
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount) - $6.8M, $2,276 PTA, $67.45M cume
4. Valkyrie (MGM/UA) - $5.5M, $1,980 PTA, $52.15M cume
5. Yes Man (Warner Bros) - $5.4M, $1,573 PTA, $70.87M cume
6. Seven Pounds (Sony) - $4.3M, $1,559 PTA, $54.33M cume
7. Tale of Despereaux (Universal) - $2.7M, $874 PTA, $39.47M cume
8. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Fox) - $2.19M, $938 PTA, $71.64M cume
9. Doubt (Miramax) - $1.8M, $1,399 PTA, $15.51M cume
10. Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) - $1.62M, $2,647 PTA $25.62M cume
11. Twilight (Summit) - $1.61M, $853 PTA, $173.9M cume
12. The Spirit (Lionsgate) - $1.48M, $593 PTA, $15.97M cume
13. Four Christmases (Warner Bros) - $1.26M, $547 PTA, $116.65M cume
14. Gran Torino (Warner Bros) - $900,000, $10,714 PTA, $7.77M cume
*Milk (Focus) - $590,000, $1,909 PTA, $15.85M cume
*Frost/Nixon (Universal) - $500,000, $2,439 PTA, $5.39M cume
*The Reader (Weinstein) - $495,000, $1,244 PTA, $2.44M cume
*Revolutionary Road (Dreamworks/Paramount) - $300,000, $7,895 PTA, $689,000 cume
*The Wrestler (Fox Searchlight) - $75,000, $4,167 PTA, $1.39M cume
*NEW – Defiance (Paramount) - $38,000, $19,000 PTA, $115,000 cume
*Last Chance Harvey (Overture) - $34,000, $5,667 PTA, $254,000 cume
*Waltz with Bashir (Sony Classics) - $11,000, $2,200 PTA, $88,000 cume

EXCLUSIVE STEVE MASON EARLY 3-DAY ESTIMATES
1. Marley & Me (Fox) - $24.7M, $7,047 PTA, $107.16M cume
2. Bedtime Stories (Disney) - $22M, $5,972 PTA, $87.1M cume
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount) - $18.1M, $6,058 PTA, $78.75M cume
4. Valkyrie (MGM/UA) - $14M, $5,040 PTA, $60.65M cume
5. Yes Man (Warner Bros) - $13.9M, $4,048 PTA, $79.37M cume
6. Seven Pounds (Sony) - $10.96M, $3,976 PTA, $61M cume
7. Tale of Despereaux (Universal) - $8.1M, $2,621 PTA, $44.87M cume
8. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Fox) - $5.92M, $2,534 PTA, $75.37M cume
9. Doubt (Miramax) - $5.22M, $4,056 PTA, $18.93M cume
10. Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) - $4.29M, $7,015 PTA $28.3M cume
11. Twilight (Summit) - $4.18M, $2,217 PTA, $176.47M cume
12. The Spirit (Lionsgate) - $3.79M, $1,512 PTA, $18.27M cume
13. Four Christmases (Warner Bros) - $3.47M, $1,505 PTA, $118.86M cume
14. Gran Torino (Warner Bros) - $2.25M, $26,786 PTA, $9.12M cume
*Milk (Focus) - $1.53M, $4,964 PTA, $16.8M cume
*The Reader (Weinstein) - $1.38M, $3,482 PTA, $3.33M cume
*Frost/Nixon (Universal) - $1.3M, $6,341 PTA, $6.19M cume
*Revolutionary Road (Dreamworks/Paramount) - $800,000, $21,053 PTA, $1.18M cume
*The Wrestler (Fox Searchlight) - $270,000, $15,000 PTA, $1.59M cume
*NEW – Defiance (Paramount) - $102,600, $51,300 PTA, $179,600 cume
*Last Chance Harvey (Overture) - $100,000, $16,667 PTA, $320,000 cume
*Waltz with Bashir (Sony Classics) - $35,200 $7,040 PTA, $112,000 cume

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/author/smason/

With no new releases, the numbers just don't carry the necessary amount of surprise or anticipation. Looking forward to next Friday's numbers.

Slumdog could actually increase over last weekend despite losing a couple of theaters!

As expected Bedtime Stories had the best hold of last week's openers.

How does a film thats expanding lose theatres?? On the only weekend of the year there are no new wide releases Crazy!

If these are correct, that's quite a drop for Benjamin Button over the weekend. Bedtime Stories, on the other hand, could face a 16-17% decrease and come within $2 million of Marley & Me's weekend total.

Most impressive is still Gran Torino which looks to stay flat or just barely drop from last weekend despite not expanding.

Isn't Mason historically bad with holdovers?

How is a 30% drop bad for Benjamin Button? Most people were predicting that. The film is bound to have some frontloadness to it since it opened way above people's expectations last week. Frontloadness will wear off in the upcoming weeks and awards buzz and oscar nominations will kick in.

so will mediocre WOM

Mediocre like this?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421715/

Or like this?

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809785152/info

The WOM is not mediocre for Benjamin Button....

Yeah WOM is good on Button, just som anti-Button bias here on KJ.