..Gary
Dretzka
..Leonard
Klady
..Emanuel
Levy
..David
Poland
..Doug
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
Weekend Finals
S.W.A.T. & Switch S.W.A.K. at B.O
Acronyms are in off and on the screen.
Sony's S.W.A.T. took the biggest box office bite for the weekend with an estimated $37.4 million but Buena Vista's age swamp romp Freaky Friday had more than leftovers on its platter in second spot with approximately $22.7 million and $33.6 million with its Wednesday and Thursday business tossed into the stew.
The two films, plus excellent holds on several continuing runs, should tally to just shy of $140 million overall for a modest 5% decline from last weekend. Business is also slightly down by 2% from 2002 when Sony unleashed xXx to $44.5 million and Miramax's Spy Kids 2 debuted was third overall with $16.7 million.
The late summer bow of the cop drama inspired by the 1970s TV series had more ootz than anticipated. Heading into the weekend, studio execs were confident the action-packed antics would deliver roughly $25 million. Similarly, Disney's retread of its non-classic 1977 movie (Jodie Foster fresh from her Oscar nominated perf in Taxi Driver) got an unexpected boost from a slew of reviews that essentially said it's better than I expected.
Sophomore sessions delivered not unexpected results with American Wedding folding in half and Gigli turning into vapor. Only From Justin To Kelly has experienced a more radical decline than the Ben and Jen romantic opus this season.
With another modest decline for Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney now is well within reach of delivering the summer's top two grossing titles and, despite the staying power of Seabiscuit, Universal will wind up with cold seconds when the seasonal count is totaled.
Specialized venues were also brisk with Searchlight's Le Divorce connecting in upscale engagements. The sophisticated dramatic farce was eyeing about $550,000 from 34 locations. Also very strong was Artisan's non-fiction Step Into Liquid with a solid $155,000 footprint from five for the highly emotional surfing tale.
Also bowing in regional and niche venues was the Bollywood Koi … Mil Gaya, a science-fiction themed extravaganza that generated about $220,000 from 55 theaters. However, the 20 screen Quebec bow of Cannes curtain raiser Fanfan la Tulipe delivered a wilting $28,000 for the swashbuckling costumer.
The past week saw announcements of two new specialized labels emanating from major distributors. The long-gestating niche division at Warner Bros. was formally unveiled with ex-Miramax, ex-Sony Mark Gill handling the reins for a to be defined operation.
The company has kicked the tires before, almost cementing a deal with Sundance's Geoff Gilmore three years ago that would have launched with The Dish in 2000. The difference this time around came from co-chair Alan Horn's resolve to establish an alternative label. However, Warners Independent (Motion) Pictures initially appears to be a service arm for the eccentric movies of WB based production outlets such as Section 8 and Castle Rock and an outlet for the studio's more accessible foreign titles such as the German Goodbye! Lenin (already acquired by Sony Classics) or Chouchou from France.
Considerably more mystifying was the out of left field announcement that DreamWorks was establishing the specialized shingle Go Fish for the many movies it sees, admires but are too niche-y for the mainstream. The immediate industry response was a collective head scratch and the observation that the company has continued to fall short of producing a full slate of mainstream pictures. The initial releases for the Fish-ing expedition are a pair of Japanese anima movies.
Slicing the Pie of Market Share
This weekend's international market share (an infrequent and arduous task) chart again reflects the impossibility of creating something with the statistical accuracy one associates with what can be generated on the domestic front.
Let's simply call the chart reflective and provide a few caveats.
Box office data has evolved in this modern age to a point where info is available from virtually every corner of the globe. Still, accurate, comprehensive and timely stats lag behind in three of the largest nations - Russia, India and China. As a result millions of box office dollars aren't incorporated into this market share chart.
However, of a far more thorny nature is a thin line that often separates a film's distributor and right's owner. Warner Bros., the clear leader overseas, would have an even healthier percentage if such titles as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and My Big Fat Greek Wedding were incorporated in its box office in the selected territories where those films are distributed by WB International. In the case of the former, the rights are controlled by New Line, part of the Time-Warner empire.
Split rights based on financing are evident for virtually every major release and increasingly the separation is not a clean domestic/international divide. Johnny English is controlled by UIP with the sole exception of France where Studio Canal retains rights; much of Adaptation's foreign activity is via Sony and a virtual equal amount is generated by Intermedia; and Buena Vista International has the lion's share of Bruce Almighty territories overseas save for such countries and territories as Scandanavia, Greece and Israel.
In conclusion, it is accurate to state that compiling this chart is apt to make a grown man weep.
Weekend Finals - August 8-10, 2003
Title Weekend S.W.A.T. 37,062,535 3202 37,062,535 Freaky Friday 22,203,007 2954 33,100,977 American Wedding 15,957,955 3175 65,213,715 Pirates of the Caribbean 13,022,470 3170 232,750,629 Seabiscuit 11,957,955 2428 69,509,360 Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over 9,794,079 3388 87,100,407 Bad Boys II 6,040,845 2449 123,093,425 Lara Croft: The Cradle of Life 5,221,055 3036 53,719,839 Finding Nemo 2,512,275 1502 324,916,113 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines 1,624,345 1275 145,987,605 League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1,542,272 1326 62,179,376 Johnny English 1,055,340 902 26,006,685 Whale Rider 928,293 434 12,837,852 Bend It Like Beckham 915,047 849 30,106,873 28 Days Later 890,918 647 42,074,271 Legally Blonde 2 861,960 1207 86,883,446 Swimming Pool 835,809 259 6,546,260 Gigli 678,640 2215 5,660,084 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle 558,116 673 95,438,695 Le Divorce 516,834 34 516,834 Dirty Pretty Things 410,636 62 1,259,339 Bruce Almighty 410,095 378 239,308,750 The Italian Job 391,601 217 96,174,082 The Matrix Reloaded 363,314 101 277,767,531 Daddy Day Care 344,736 324 101,954,069 La Grande Seduction 307,850 70 4,173,185 Winged Migration 307,524 155 6,584,146 2 Fast 2 Furious 289,910 302 125,882,195 The Hulk 287,045 307 130,784,760 Koi … Mil Gaya 274,851 55 274,851 Camp 223,768 43 396,338 The Secret Lives of Dentists 190,587 23 372,639 Northfork 160,042 71 819,913 Space Station 157,996 21 42,236,252 Step Into Liquid 135,985 5 135,985 I Capture the Castle 126,084 42 770,491 Spellbound 122,364 75 4,976,508 Ghosts of the Abyss 117,105 30 13,724,834 The Magdalene Sisters 112,946 16 505,289 Capturing the Friedmans 97,449 62 2,680,454 T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous 86,214 10 45,443,150 And Now Ladies & Gentlemen 77,954 22 149,145 X2: X-Men United 72,826 115 214,728,327 Rugrats Go Wild 65,644 146 38,552,666 Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas 64,834 182 25,851,019 Identity 61,405 66 52,104,586 Buffalo Soldiers 60,987 21 142,294 How to Deal 59,282 166 14,108,518 Lizzie McGuire: The Movie 58,804 130 42,672,630 Chicago 55,106 108 170,547,681 Holes 53,451 114 67,325,559 Respiro 49,001 21 952,710 Dumb and Dumberer 48,506 91 26,214,846 Masked and Anonymous 47,894 23 194,410 Nowhere in Africa 42,349 43 6,514,629 Anger Management 40,836 76 135,560,942 Wrong Turn 37,914 66 15,265,241 The Holy Land 37,660 13 242,527 Bringing Down the House 33,462 43 132,675,402 Fanfan la Tulipe 32,686 19 32,686 Haunted Castle 30,147 3 6,817,345 The Housekeeper 28,814 18 298,818 Mambo Italiano 27,595 13 2,408,516 L'Auberge Espagnole 26,471 28 3,630,461 Les Invasions barbares 23,912 12 4,466,092 Lucia, Lucia 23,712 26 229,669 Alex & Emma 23,290 48 14,208,384 Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure 22,780 8 15,093,349 The Man on the Train 21,558 26 2,408,472 Owning Mahowny 21,168 17 772,844 Thrill Ride 17,046 3 18,631,950 Weekend Finals - August 8-10, 2003