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Weekend Finals - January 10-12, 2003
Top Grossers 2000 - Canada
Top 40 Grossers - US
Full List Top Grossers - USThere was a different ring leading the charge at the weekend box office derby as Fox’s Just Married marched up the aisle to an estimated $18 million to claim the winning tiara.
However, there’s no need to pass the collection plate for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers or Catch Me If You Can, following in close succession with $14.8 million and $14.6 million.
Overall business for the frame should be close to $110 million which marks an 18% drop from one week ago and is a slight 2% erosion from the start of 2002. A year ago another teen comedy, Orange County, was the new juice in town.
Just Married was exactly what the movie doctor ordered for older teens and early 20s looking for a date movie. The comedy was totally undemanding, fungible entertainment that was expected to gross no more than $12 million according to industry tracking that continues to under value that demographic in the post Joe Farrell era. It was socko boffo in surburban malls while urban crowds continued to gravitate toward upscale movies.
A number of films whose futures hinge on current and upcoming award recognition expanded modestly and their ultimate viability remains cloudy. The dilemma for the prestige pictures is that there are just too many of them eating into each other’s business and creating an unnecessary Darwinian climate.
While Narc, 25th Hour and Antwone Fisher have uniquely appealing elements, they also have over-lapping target audiences and as a result none played to its full potential. Narc’s future is the most worrisome as it’s yet to emerge from the crowded field and Fisher simply has to hang in at its current level and pray word-of-mouth (and critical honors) will sustain it through to the Oscars.
About Schmidt held well and Chicago received a nice boost with the addition of 58 theaters. However, while the first film would appear assured of a slot among Oscar best picture nominees, Chicago is perilously close to being an also ran and will need both an assist from next weekend’s Golden Globes and solid box office when it goes wide on January 24.
Racing to the wire, Oscars leading best picture hopefuls are The Two Towers, The Hours, About Schmidt, Antwone Fisher, The Pianist and Far from Heaven. Such films as Adaptation, The Gangs of New York and The Road to Perdition now appear to be long shots with stronger shots in other categories.
While AMPAS would like to maintain that commercial popularity and quality exist at arm’s length among its membership, historically that’s rarely the case. The quirky, insider nature of Adaptation is stumbling through middle America and the result was a 15% box office drop this past weekend despite the addition of 450 playdates. The Pianist and The Hours respectively added 71 and 34 theaters and received significant boosts though both films have yet to step out into the heartland. And Far from Heaven -the most honored film of the year among the nation’s critics- is holding steady in limited play after 10 weeks in release, waiting from the Globes and Oscar nomination before it goes into national release.
Another true dark horse, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, certainly earned the award for popularity and stamina (still the best hold among national releases) and its theatrical future will be intriguing once it enters the video arena on Valentine’s Day within days of the announcement of the Oscar slate.
One Very Big Chain
With such theater chains as Landmark, General Cinemas and Hoyts in the process of being absorbed into either the Loews Cineplex or Regal dynasties, the movie going landscape is quickly evolving into the Davids vs. a limited number of Goliaths. Beyond these two very major players there’s Cinemark and AMC Theaters, but the latter chain already has significant investment from the Loews parent company that is planning to increase its financial stake - and anyone can guess where that will lead.
There are, of course, quite a number of significant regional players that can operate competitively on a market-by-market basis. However, they and the distribution community fret about the prospect of the behemoths wielding the clout of 5,000 plus screens.
The giants also have to be nervous even in the friendly current political climate. The presence of too much might in too few hands might easily snowball into legal suits of unfair competitive practices. One should expect some heated debate when the exhibition community meets in Las Vegas in March for ShoWest.
Canada, eh!
Though people tend to think of the domestic market place as the United States, it also includes Canada and, depending on the company, Puerto Rico, Guam and a few other insignificant countries. Last year, Canadian box office was well in excess of $1 billion and (see adjoining chart) its most popular movies pretty much mirrored American tastes.
By reporting standards of the majors, Canada represents roughly 11% of the domestic picture. Most companies report Canadian revenue at face value (the chart is in Canadian dollars) though its buck is roughly two-thirds of the U.S. counterpart and, strictly speaking, that means the 2002 domestic tally is a not insubstantial $350 to $400 million too high. Or, to view it with another perspective, there’s a difference of 4.5% and the true gross of Spider-Man domestically is not $407 million bit $392 million.
Weekend Finals - January 10-12, 2003
Just Married 17,548,993 2764 17548993 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 14,755,306 2477 283,421,517 Catch Me If You Can 14,630,444 3225 119,370,261 Two Weeks Notice 6,833,423 2755 78,993,281 About Schmidt 6,403,691 865 21,597,264 Chicago 5,690,875 362 17,171,239 Maid in Manhattan 5,144,633 2926 83,850,874 The Gangs of New York 4,829,938 2340 54,925,876 Antwone Fisher 3,783,122 2006 10,434,944 The Wild Thornberrys 2,844,770 2608 35,165,937 25th Hour 2,832,622 490 3,546,790 Narc 2,825,807 822 3,175,704 Drumline 2,803,256 1534 51,359,523 Adaptation 2,636,924 192% 560 9,187,001 Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets 2,408,476 -48% 1550 255,449,301 My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2,102,547 -21% 1212 230,876,712 The Hot Chick 1,718,807 -53% 1601 32,543,830 Die Another Day 1,489,564 -49% 1180 156,156,363 Star Trek: Nemesis 1,038,702 -59% 1777 41,614,360 The Pianist 1,014,523 39% 161 2,348,613 The Lion King (Large Format) 930,921 -32% 66 7,207,036 The Hours 907,621 156% 45 2,196,461 Treasure Planet 544,843 -53% 759 36,560,387 Far from Heaven 498,551 -12% 291 11,971,502 Frida 381,650 -19% 237 21,900,693 Analyze That 374,326 -66% 502 31,507,422 Talk to Her 371,234 -33% 65 2,783,827 Bowling for Columbine 337,941 -16% 204 15,937,592 Empire 328,860 -55% 324 17,188,725 Rabbit-Proof Fence 321,667 -12% 94 2,144,138 The Santa Clause 2 301,055 -63% 550 138,695,452 Seraphin, un homme et son peche 269,906 -32% 77 5,462,218 Nicholas Nickelby 236,691 74% 100 511,574 Sweet Home Alabama 231,346 -31% 267 126,445,741 8 Mile 216,110 -29% 325 115,630,575 The Ring 169,259 -28% 195 127,479,991 The Crime of Padre Amaro 159,104 -5% 95 4,786,995 Pinocchio 117,797 -78% 459 3,627,416 Friday After Next 98,379 -52% 143 32,740,084 Evelyn 96,189 -36% 107 1,199,067 Real Women Have Curves 96,126 -18% 94 5,497,354 Space Station 87,234 -46% 36 30,777,193 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind 81,812 -6% 5 308,027 The Emperor's Club 78,110 -26% 168 13,954,465 Tuck Everlasting 74,695 -32% 158 19,032,871 Ghost Ship 72,962 -51% 129 30,003,939 Signs 66,178 -33% 90 227,857,344 The Quiet American 63,574 7 407,310 Jonah: A Veggies Tale Movie 58,480 -35% 172 25,486,880 Russian Ark 55,786 63% 3 263,774 Kaante 47,116 -29% 25 1,002,006 I Spy 45,621 -41% 102 33,508,254 Intacto 43,491 13% 27 145,177 Star Wars, Episode 1 41,050 -53% 10 310,349,656 Barbershop 33,758 -42% 41 75,769,885 Jackass the Movie 33,502 -32% 94 64,267,897 Spy Kids 2 31,133 -30% 65 85,846,429 Cirque du Soleil - Journey of Man 30,015 -34% 5 14,746,730 Standing in Shadow of Motown 27,456 -38% 48 1,383,016 Personal Velocity 25,968 -29% 25 742,983 Auto Focus 24,137 54% 31 2,039,262 Brown Sugar 24,003 2% 42 27,338,916 The Tuxedo 22,675 -38% 52 50,547,998 Secretary 22,368 10% 22 3,908,468
Weekend Estimates - January 10-12, 2003
Title Just Married 2764 18 Lord of the Rings: Two Towers 3477 283.5 Catch Me If You Can 3225 119.4 Two Weeks Notice 2755 78.7 About Schmidt 865 21.4 Chicago 362 17 Maid in Manhattan 2926 83.7 The Gangs of New York 2340 54.7 Antwone Fisher 1006 10.5 Drumline 1540 51.2 25th Hour 490 3.4 Narc 822 3.1 Adaptation 560 9.3 The Wild Thornberrys 2608 34.8 Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets 1550 255.2 My Big Fat Greek Wedding 1212 230.7 The Hot Chick 1601 32.5 Die Another Day 1180 156.1 Star Trek: Nemesis 1777 41.7 The Pianist 161 2.3 The Hours 45 2.2 The Lion King (Large Format) 66 7.1 Far from Heaven 294 12 Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) - - % Change (Last Year) - - % Change (Last Week) - - Also Debuting/Expanding Talk to Her 67 2.7 Bowling for Columbine 204 15.5 Nicholas Nickleby 100 0.5 Le Fils 2% 0.01
Spider-Man