The Ben Stiller comedy "The Heartbreak Kid" was a stunning disappointment in its opening, but there was plenty of heartache to go around as Hollywood executives estimated their weekend receipts Sunday.
DreamWorks Pictures' R-rated comedy -- a re-teaming of Stiller with "There's Something About Mary" directors the Farrelly brothers -- opened to an estimated $14 million in the U.S. and Canada.
That was well below industry expectations of $20 million to $25 million for the film, which cost upward of $60 million to produce. The movie was expected to top the charts but instead finished No. 2, behind the comedy "The Game Plan," which stayed No. 1 by grossing $16.3 million.
"We were surprised by the harsh reviews because we've seen it play well over and over again in advance screenings," said Chip Sullivan, a DreamWorks spokesman. "Reviews can be important for an R-rated comedy because all the hilarious moments can't be shown in any of the marketing materials."
Critics gave the raunchier remake of the 1970s classic only a 31% "fresh" rating, according to movie website Rotten Tomatoes. Paying audiences gave the film an unusually low CinemaScore rating of C-minus in exit surveys.
The fantasy adventure "The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising," from 20th Century Fox and Walden Media, had even more trouble finding an audience. The PG movie, seen as the potential launch of a new franchise based on a series of novels, opened to $3.7 million domestically -- also far shy of predictions.
"The only positive spin is that the exit polls are good, a smidge above the norm," said Chris Aronson, senior vice president of distribution at Fox. He also noted that few other family films were opening in the next month.
The weekend's other wide new release, Sony BMG's musical dance drama "Feel the Noise," opened quietly to $3.4 million, although expectations were modest for the low-budget production.
The happiest campers in town had to be the gang at Walt Disney Co., whose father-daughter comedy "The Game Plan," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, fell only about 29% in its second weekend.
Studio surveys showed that two-thirds of the opening weekend audience was made up of families, but Disney executives said the film was playing broadly as word of mouth spread.
"Anecdotally, we're seeing a lot of couples without kids," said Chuck Viane, the studio's distribution president. "It's an everybody movie, and the Rock is a really good comedy actor."
