'College' DOA, 'House Bunny' holds steady

As expected, College was an universal box office bomb this Labor Day weekend. The film, which starred Season 5's 11th-place finalist, Kevin Covais, only mustered $2.1 million from 2,123 theatres nationwide for the traditional 3-day weekend and only $2.6 million for the extended 4-day weekend according to studio estimates on BoxOfficeMojo.com. It came in on the charts at #15 and likely suffered due to the over saturation of comedies in the marketplace.

As for its critical reception, College currently has an awful 14% fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com, taking into account its total of only 14 professional reviews. User reviews are a little more kind, as it currently has a B- from 376 users on Yahoo!Movies.

Katharine McPhee's The House Bunny was another story, as the hit comedy showed staying power for the weekend as it dropped from #2-4 with $8.3 million for the 3-day and $10.2 million for the 4-day. Its total now sits at $29.8 million, which is a great number all things considered. It dropped 42.9% weekend-to-weekend and averaged $3,058 from its 2,714 theatres.

The overall weekend box office was nothing special, so it will most likely be even worse this coming weekend taking into account the fact that it is not a holiday weekend.

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Kat finishes second...again

After months of anticipation, Katharine McPhee's major studio acting debut in Sony's The House Bunny finally hit theatres across the nation this weekend. Although McPhans never doubted the hilarity of the movie's subject matter, its box office performance was much more unpredictable.

But fans were elated to discover that Bunny in fact beat most experts' expectations, as it posted a solid $15.1 million weekend according to early estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com. Despite the higher than expected figure, it was only good enough for a No. 2 finish, as estimates are giving Tropic Thunder a $1 million advantage and a second week at the top. When actuals are released tomorrow afternoon, however, it is possible that Bunny could squeak out a win.

Bunny, which had a production budget set at $25 million, looks to become a late summer hit. On the ratings front, the film is averaging a 41% on RottenTomatoes.com, as it received 28 positive reviews out of a total of 68. This score led those of the three other films that received wide releases for the weekend. As for user reviews, the film currently has a B+ from a total of 831 ratings on Yahoo! Movies.

Although one film cannot determine an up and coming actor's future success, it looks like Katharine at least began her film career on a positive note. As for Kevin Covais' debut in this coming week's College, one can only guess what the outcome will be.

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