MySpace is great for teen driven films.

It does. But it's useless for SOAP.

Step Up's trailer actually advertised the MySpace page. That's the major difference between it and all other films that have it. Other films just require a random search, but Step Up's official website IS the MySpace page, and it's affective.

I have to say I would not be the least bit shocked if Step Up did that well, really.

By the way, I wouldn't totally count out Pulse, it was sold out on my theater's 400-seat theater tonight.

Why is it useless for SOAP? It's a film driven by the internet.

Because Snakes on a Plane (I refuse to abbreviate it) is not going after an exclusively teen audience like Step Up is.

I'd rather see Step Up somehow surprise at number one than Talladega Nights repeat at the top. It's nice when a film surprises.

Pulse needed a MySpace page. I'm actually surprised it didn't have one as it's a teen-driven film as well.

Why the refusal to abbreviate it? It's faster.

Not to mention that having the hottest soundtrack of the year helps. A lot.

Because everyone is acting as if this is some epic like Lord of the Rings or something and it's a stupidass movie about killer snakes.

Touchstone sold Step Up as a sort of Save the Last Dirty Dance type film and it appears to have worked.

I think it's abbreviated because it's faster and sounds "hip" (God, how I hate that word) I just do it because it's faster and gets the point across. No one is expecting an epic like Lord of the Rings. They want a stupidass movie about killer snakes because you can never have enough killer snake movies.

World Trade Center 2458, 950 Friday, +30, B+
Step Up 1010, +41, B
Pulse 256, +13, C+
Zoom 348, +10, C-

Outstanding for Step Up. I agree that $7-8M is possible unless the ratios are way off. WTC has also done quite well today. I'm thinking it could see $6M+. Pulse and Zoom appear to be flops, but moreso for the latter, which could chime in with less than $5M for the weekend.

good for wtc

World Trade Center 2572, 1064 Friday, +114, B+
Step Up 1138, +128, B
Pulse 304, +48, C+
Zoom 365, +17, C-

Pulse is backloaded and isn't doing so poorly anymore. It won't break out, but it has a chance at 9m for the weekend.

My guesses:
Step Up - 7.3m
WTC - 5.5m
Pulse - 3.5m
Zoom - 1.3m

Does Step Up have a chance at being number one overall with that number?

Pulse seems to have recovered somewhat but I honestly wouldn't be that surprised if it open with 2.5 instead of 3.5. Zoom did horribly but it looked like a bomb a mile away with its derivative premise and chintzy look.

Step Up won't have too great of an IM, but it won't be like John Tucker I think. 8 mil for Friday would give it around 21 mil I think for the weekend, a -56%-57% drop for Talladega would it fall below that. I'm fairly certain Step Up will take Friday, but from there it could be close.

Final numbers:

World Trade Center 2598, 1090 Friday, +26, B+
Step Up 1157, +19, B
Pulse 310, +6, C+
Zoom 380, +15, C-

$7.0-7.5m for Step Up, $6.5-7.0m for World Trade Center, $2.5-3.0m for Pulse and $1.5-2.0m for Zoom.

Projections:

Friday's ratio should be lower than Wednesday's for World Trade Center. I give it 180 for a $6.1m day. A ratio of 160 gives Step Up $7.2m. Pulse' grade is a little low, so I could only see $2.7m for it. And Zoom should have a Hoot-like ratio of 300 for $1.3m.

I'll change Pulse to 3.3m and Zoom to 1.4m.

World Trade Center 1090 $5,935,000 183.65
Step Up 1157 $8,515,000 135.87
Pulse 310 $3,395,000 91.31
Zoom 380 $1,520,000 250.00

Random observation, but Little Miss Sunshine is #10 on the all-time top-rated films chart.