David Poland and Nikki Finke report that The Nativity Story grossed a mere $2.3 million yesterday, coming in fourth for the day, behind not only Casino Royale and Happy Feet but also Deja Vu, all of which dropped between 58% and 74% from last week.
Finke estimates The Nativity Story will gross $7.8 million for the weekend. This is, admittedly, more than Thirteen (2003; $4.6 million) made in its entire run, and better than the $5.6 million that Lords of Dogtown (2005; $11.3 million) made in its opening weekend, and better than the opening weekend of any Christian “niche” movie to date (the record being held by 2002’s Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, which grossed $6.2 million on the way to a $25.6 million cume). But it’s still disappointingly small.
Now comes the part where we all sit back and wait to see if this movie will have any “legs” over the Christmas season.
If it does, it would not be the first time a seasonal movie opened small-ish but raked in a big pile of money when all was said and done; remember how The Polar Express (2004) opened to a mere $23.3 million and ended up with $162.8 million in the till?
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In