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Weekend Finals Domestic Market Share Worldwide Boxoffice 2003 Foreign Currency Queen of Da House The action was in the ‘hood and not the jungle as Touchstone’s Bringing Down the House opened to outstanding business estimated at $30.3 million and that propelled weekend movie going to more than $100 million. The teaming of Steve Martin and Queen Latifah crossed age; gender, class and color lines to easily out run the competition from both holdovers and new entries. In contrast, Sony’s grim war saga Tears of the Sun with Bruce Willis had to settle for cold seconds. The rumination of war ranked second with$17.1 million. It was a decent bow but the picture is unlikely to sustain itself in the coming weeks as a clutch of similar appeal pictures enter the marketplace. Both films debuted significantly better than industry tracking would have led one to believe. BDTH was pegged as opening in the low $20 million range while Tears was given a top end of $12 million. Overall business for the weekend should approach $110 million for a modest 8% boost from seven day earlier and a slim 1% rise from the comparable 3-day period in 2002 when The Time Machine bowed to $22.6 million. While this year’s new entries came on more forcefully than last year’s freshmen, there’s 20% less depth in terms of product. What’s particularly disappointing about the season is the general lack of dynamism of award contender titles. Only Chicago (albeit a late starter) appears to be benefiting on a national basis with the public. And while About Schmidt has performed in excess of expectations, the same cannot be said of The Hours or obviously niche oriented fare including Talk to Her and The Pianist - all films that appear to be stalled commercially and that desperately need significant Oscar recognition to reach a wider audience. Holdover movies generally experienced significant erosion with the exception of comic fare that included Old School and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. The season has been cruel and unrelenting for action and dramatic movies with such diverse titles as Biker Boyz, The Life of David Gale and Gods and Generals falling short of the commercial vitality to meet their respective bottom lines. Costs - particularly in the area of marketing, as noted by the MPAA’s Jack Valenti at ShoWest - seriously bite into the profits of most mid and upper range budget films and the current crop is no exception. Incoming exclusives and limited release titles generally seemed to hold out promise for the first time in months. Sony Classics ensemble drama Laurel Canyon shot out of the gate with close to $150,000 from 10 engagements but IFC similar appeal The Safety of Objects entered meekly with about $75,000 at 32 theaters. Lions Gate’s controversial, unrated and graphically violent Irreversible effectively played on curiosity and generated close to $60,000 in seven venues and Oscar foreign-language favorite Nowhere in Africa via Zeitgeist looks to come in with $20,000 from two Manhattan engagements. The latter film probably would have benefited in all respects had its release been timed closer to the announcement of nominees. Foreign Currency Two months into 2003, international movie tastes certainly reflect a decided penchant for American movies. The juggernaut for both the Lord of the Ring and Harry Potter franchises is well in evidence and early overseas returns for Chicago suggest it has even more Jazz off shore than domestically, especially if Oscar’s verdict is upbeat. Some markets - particularly Italy and Spain - have generated local successes but few of these titles suggest buoyant theatrical returns beyond their borders. The exceptions include the Chinese Hero (Miramax in North America) with a box office close to $50 million throughout Asia since its debut in early December and the stunt-action Taxi 3, a rare French franchise whose two prior incarnations have played well in major territories save the U.S. It’s grossed $35 million from three Franco countries to date.   Email Leonard Klady

Weekend Finals - March 7-9, 2003

		Title	Distrib	Weekend	% Change	Theaters	Cume	Wks
1	New	Bringing Down the House	BV	31,101,026	-	2801	31,101,026	1
2	New	Tears of the Sun	Sony	17,057,213	-	2973	17,057,213	1
3	2	Old School	DreamWorks	9,190,062	-35%	2707	50,768,507	3
4	5	Chicago	Miramax	6,844,634	-13%	2600	114,442,185	11
5	4	How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days	Par	6,688,675	-35%	2897	86,885,012	5
6	1	Cradle 2 the Grave	WB	6,355,475	-62%	2625	26,878,648	2
7	3	Daredevil	Fox	5,214,469	-53%	2778	91,536,021	4
8	6	The Jungle Book 2	BV	4,258,002	-39%	2553	39,521,501	4
9	7	Shanghai Knights	BV	2,688,514	-47%	1905	54,749,445	5
10	8	The Life of David Gale	Uni	2,124,235	-53%	1872	17,112,765	3
11	12	The Hours	Par	1,475,801	-28%	962	35,303,458	11
12	9	Gods and Generals	WB	1,377,431	-53%	1233	11,122,627	3
13	14	About Schmidt	New Line	1,376,030	-26%	845	60,007,505	13
14	10	The Recruit	BV	1,359,539	-50%	1071	50,281,018	6
15	16	The Pianist	Focus/TVA	1,358,359	-4%	565	16,264,977	10
16	15	Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	New Line	1,227,603	-24%	703	332,075,527	13
17	18	The Quiet American	Miramax	1,153,381	3%	381	7,291,271	16
18	13	Final Destination 2	New Line	1,034,114	-45%	881	44,616,117	6
19	17	Kangaroo Jack	WB	772,413	-43%	1110	64,691,137	8
20	20	The Gangs of New York	Miramax	518,916	-26%	378	75,469,504	12
21	19	Deliver Us From Eva	Focus	456,084	-52%	365	16,780,282	5
22	11	Dark Blue	MGM	367,038	-84%	1127	8,687,105	3
23	22	Adaptation	Sony	358,183	-27%	234	20,624,783	13
24	21	Catch Me If You Can	DreamWorks	338,851	-42%	295	162,459,578	11
25	25	The Lion King (Large Format)	BV	334,049	-15%	66	13,830,816	11
26	26	Talk to Her	Sny Class/Seville	271,290	-24%	146	7,095,006	16
27	34	Just Married	Fox	268,638	60%	419	54,971,072	9
28	37	City of God	Miramax	241,284	49%	67	2,006,001	8
29	23	Darkness Falls	Sony	227,474	-49%	194	31,830,509	7
30	31	Far from Heaven	Focus	220,198	5%	105	14,940,014	19
31	33	Maid in Manhattan	Sony	192,463	-5%	209	93,382,556	13
32	29	Rabbit-Proof Fence	Miramax	183,670	-22%	115	5,177,741	15
33	24	Biker Boyz	DreamWorks	181,974	-57%	234	21,386,547	6
34	30	Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets	WB	180,026	-19%	360	261,370,976	17
35	35	Space Station	Imax	176,595	6%	41	33,596,096	47
36	28	The Guru	Uni	160,462	-40%	97	2,703,597	6
37	39	Bowling for Columbine	MGM/Alliance	155,490	9%	106	18,294,936	22
38	New	Laurel Canyon	Sony Classics	149,099		10	149,099	1
39	32	Frida	Miramax	147,333	-27%	113	24,527,488	19
40	36	Spider	Odeon/Sony Class	146,422	-12%	35	409,027	11
41	38	Antwone Fisher	Fox Searchlight	118,639	-20%	155	20,680,728	12
42	42	Drumline	Fox	115,921	-8%	132	55,929,829	14
43	43	Russian Ark	Wellspring/Seville	105,861	-5%	23	1,241,171	13
44	51	Help! I'm a Fish	TVA	91,374	58%	34	314,192	2
45	41	The Hot Chick	BV	91,050	-29%	145	34,857,447	13
46	New	The Safety of Objects	IFC	86,250		32	86,250	1
47	27	Poolhall Junkies	Gold Circle	76,534	-75%	119	504,507	2
48	58	The Wild Thornberrys	Par	74,437	86%	177	39,291,877	12
49	40	My Big Fat Greek Wedding	IFC	64,588	-51%	170	241,349,713	46
50	44	He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not	IDP/Seville	63,746	-24%	24	430,532	4
51	46	Die Another Day	MGM	60,827	-26%	116	160,811,742	16
52	New	Irreversible	Lions Gate	60,086		7	60,086	1
53	47	25th Hour	BV	50,376	-35%	39	12,837,540	12
54	68	Amandla!	Artisan	44,260	63%	7	109,041	3
55	59	The R.M.	Halestorm	42,547	12%	21	527,847	6
56	74	Rivers and Tides	Roxie	42,231	138%	9	1,047,303	37
57	49	Two Weeks Notice	WB	41,366	-38%	73	92,635,436	12
58	52	The Ring	DreamWorks	40,258	-19%	73	129,054,707	21
59	48	Lost in La Mancha	IFC	38,996	-46%	18	485,789	6
60	60	Seraphin, un homme et son peche	Alliance	36,743	-1%	26	6,607,239	15
61	55	The Crime of Padre Amaro	IDP/Sony	35,508	-25%	39	5,631,307	16
62	63	Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure	WGBH	35,307	10%	9	14,138,394	108
63	54	All the Real Girls	Sony Classics	30,961	-36%	18	190,476	4
64	56	Friday After Next	New Line	30,786	-27%	49	33,215,586	16
65	50	National Security	Sony	28,627	-56%	48	35,810,564	8
66	61	Gerry	Thinkfilm	26,142	-28%	13	136,759	4
67	45	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind	Miramax	24,425	-71%	29	15,938,738	10
68	57	Todo el Podor	Venevision	23,049	-44%	15	76,593	2
69	62	8 Mile	Uni	22,540	-36%	46	116,724,075	18
70	73	Open Hearts	Newmarket	21,647	18%	13	69,662	3
71	80	T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous	Imax	20,964	24%	3	42,372,839	229
72	53	Narc	Par	20,841	57%	81	10,436,957	12
73	79	Star Wars, Episode 1	Fox	20,531	23%	5	310,564,337	42
74	67	Manna from Heaven	Five Sisters	20,400	-27%	9	294,207	32
75	64	Decalage horaire (Jet Lag)	Lions Gate	19,342	-40%	20	150,865	3
76	70	Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary	Sony Classics	18,085	-24%	6	140,274	7

Weekend Estimates - March 7-9, 2003

Title	Distributor	Gross (average)	% change	Theaters	Cume
Bring Down the House	BV	31.1 (10.940)	-	2861	31.1
Tears of the Sun	Sony	17.1 (5,740)	-	2973	17.1
Old School	DreamWorks	9.3 (3,430)	-34%	2707	50.9
Chicago	Miramax