..Gary
Dretzka
..Leonard
Klady
..Emanuel
Levy
..David
Poland
..Doug
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
Weekend Estimates
The Wails of September
Movie going continued to rebound with record September business led by Sony's vampire thriller Underworld with an estimated $22.9 million. Second and third ranked films also featured new entries in Paramount's The Fighting Temptations and New Line's family film Secondhand Lions. Even Focus Film's reissue of Scarface proved potent in 13 situations.
Still, volume largely trumped individual potency as the Sharon Stone thriller Cold Creek Manor returned tepid results and the latest Woody Allen offering, Anything Else wilted in the heat of competition.
Overall business expanded to slightly more than $107 million, compared to about $81 million generated in 2002 when Barbershop led the field with $12.8 million and the top newcomer was The Banger Sisters at $10 million followed by Ballistic and The Four Feathers. It's a 33% increase from last year and 25% better than last weekend's business.
I believe it was Hammer's Dracula A.D. 1972 that had the ad line that "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down." However, even if Underworld has a distaff vampire unrelated to the Count, you get the picture. Horror movies are enjoying a current vitality regardless of their pedigree and certainly irrespective of providing more than a modest twist to venerable characters and situations.
Last weekend's excellent bow of Cabin Fever - one of the more inventive recent chillers - nonetheless experienced a sharp second weekend drop. That's pretty much been standard, too, and has to be worrisome for upcoming scare titles leading up to Halloween when attendance tends to be soft and competition fierce.
It was a close race for second spot (see How Can You Tell I'm Lion below) with the musical The Fighting Temptations nosing out Secondhand Lions by about $100,000 with $12.4 million. The spread widens considerably when you toss in the fact that Lions played in close to 1,000 more theaters and underscores the continuing problem faced by all family fare that doesn't carry the Disney imprimatur.
The Mouse House's Touchstone label was having its own problems with Cold Creek Manor, a predictable thriller that generated no more than an OK gross of $8.4 million.
And DreamWorks decision to give Woody Allen's Anything Else a wider than usual launch proved to be just about a total wash as evidenced by its $1.8 million return. Allen has moved on to Fox Searchlight for his next film.Activity in niche and limited releases was generally soft although the U.S. launch of Mambo Italiano had room for optimism and the Scarface DVD promo proved quite effective.
Mambo, a hybrid indie comedy with gay and ethnic appeal set in Montreal, grossed $770,000 for the weekend. It previously rang up about $3 million in Quebec via producer/distributor Equinox that added 130 theaters in English Canada this weekend. IDP's 42 playdates on the west coast accounted for about $180,000 of the weekend tally.
Scarface, originally released in 1983 by Universal, was given a locked one-week run to tub thumb its DVD release and based on the results some exhibs will be pleading to keep it on screen longer. Certainly if it's deemed a successful promotional tool, more such limited theatrical revivals will be in the offing.
Among the handful of exclusives, Videograph's offbeat comedy horror item Bubba Ho-Tep was the surprise with about $36,000 from two engagements. It should kick start the yarn involving Elvis (yes, he's still alive) and a malevolent mummy. Also upbeat was the $17,300 generated by the French documentary To Be and To Have on two screens.
The rest of the entries were no better than fair and included John Sayles' social drama Casa de los Babys with $37,200 from 9 theaters and the Berlin Golden Bear winner In This World - the second Sundance Film Series offering - with $26,500 from 10 venues.
The race for second spot (and not the lion's share) between The Fighting Temptations and Secondhand Lions is a reminder how weekend box office estimates rather than Monday's final figures have become the news story and focus for studio reporting.
In the long run it will make little difference how either film ranked on opening weekend but judging from the vigorous inflation being applied to each film by their distributor that argument falls on deaf ears. According to the respective studios, Temptations grossed $13.2 million and Lions did $12.88 million. MCN estimates fall outside the typical +/- 5% statistical norm for margin of error.
For virtually all media outlets, the studio reported estimates are not verified or counter checked and, as they are estimates, it's difficult to separate bad calculations from numbers being spun for a presumed commercial advantage. The latter excess has bothered several distribution execs and even prompted Phil Barlow at Disney to devise a chart that would include estimates from all studios of the top ranked pictures. However, before it could be taken the next step, both Variety and the Hollywood Report rejected it when it was proposed about seven years ago. When I I was reporting weekend box office at Variety, my entreaty to print "our" estimates was also deep sixed though I was able to question reported numbers in the written analysis.
For those who never spend time in the schoolyard in the Second Grade, the answer to the riddle is: Because you paws too long.
Weekend Finals - September 19-21, 2003
Title Weekend % Change Theaters Cume Underworld 21,753,759 - 2915 21,753,759 Secondhand Lions 12,139,832 - 3013 12,139,832 The Fighting Temptations 11,758,655 - 2026 11,758,655 Once Upon a Time in Mexico 11,007,367 -53% 3282 40,951,922 Cold Creek Manor 8,190,574 - 2035 8,190,574 Matchstick Men 7,552,427 -42% 2711 24,233,745 Cabin Fever 3,909,896 -45% 2105 14,722,225 Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star 3,783,655 -25% 2083 17,302,664 Pirates of the Caribbean 3,480,968 -23% 1746 292,495,912 Lost in Translation 2,622,737 184% 183 3,957,342 Freaky Friday 2,540,613 -37% 1850 105,099,613 Anything Else 1,673,125 - 1033 1,673,125 Seabiscuit 1,622,465 -41% 1417 116,026,970 Open Range 1,411,028 -48% 1465 55,762,861 S.W.A.T. 1,236,611 -54% 1278 114,708,025 Jeepers Creepers 2 1,007,970 -67% 1358 33,591,118 Mambo Italiano 667,896 - 178 3,227,625 American Wedding 549,780 -52% 561 103,376,280 Uptown Girls 538,666 -62% 676 36,287,727 American Splendor 510,330 -39% 260 4,640,236 Thirteen 467,086 -3% 243 3,212,979 Freddy vs. Jason 460,095 -67% 631 81,315,226 Finding Nemo 419,862 -34% 480 335,258,448 Whale Rider 390,728 -38% 341 19,699,291 Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over 387,595 -26% 567 110,112,768 The Italian Job 308,766 -61% 420 105,284,126 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines 305,453 204% 335 149,891,208 Dirty Pretty Things 297,813 -33% 201 6,994,938 The Magdalene Sisters 284,155 -21% 227 4,067,882 The Medallion 254,821 -69% 307 21,701,977 My Boss's Daughter 248,888 -58% 383 15,267,983 Scarface (reissue) 242,821 - 13 242,821 Le Divorce 213,852 -51% 252 8,767,532 Bruce Almighty 213,745 -22% 225 241,976,935 Bad Boys II 204,461 -61% 229 137,607,187 Step Into Liquid 191,816 -27% 91 2,898,173 Pere et fils 150,300 - 49 150,300 Daddy Day Care 145,743 -5% 207 103,762,638 League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 136,713 -34% 215 66,101,373 The Matrix Reloaded 133,897 -31% 196 280,872,150 The Secret Lives of Dentists 123,420 -49% 120 3,286,081 Winged Migration 117,218 -36% 118 8,995,136 La Grande Seduction 112,998 12% 50 6,123,457 The Order 100,868 -91% 296 7,399,305 The Book of Mormon Movie 92,634 -19% 38 282,376 Bend It Like Beckham 89,497 -38% 117 32,337,580 Swimming Pool 84,669 -55% 93 9,942,554 Gaz Bar Blues 80,911 6% 23 332,440 Lara Croft: The Cradle of Life 68,828 -66% 114 65,077,515 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle 67,087 -38% 120 100,785,217 28 Days Later 61,131 -58% 136 44,900,469 Johnny English 58,910 -34% 90 27,972,410 The Hulk 57,950 -37% 95 132,122,995 Space Station 55,235 -6% 18 43,587,357 Legally Blonde 2 54,255 -37% 132 90,134,526 2 Fast 2 Furious 52,465 -34% 82 127,083,765 Ghosts of the Abyss 50,197 -27% 22 14,589,457 Party Monster 50,065 -27% 9 375,486 Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas 45,211 -23% 117 26,428,185 Demonlover 39,284 - 8 39,284 Casa de los Babys 36,456 - 9 36,456 Bubba Ho-Tep 35,636 - 2 35,636 Spellbound 32,439 -20% 36 5,580,404 Red Betsy 29,884 22 29,884 T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous 26,468 2% 8 46,021,695 Kuch Naa Kaho 24,278 -53% 28 224,831 Les Invasions barbares 21,352 76% 13 4,958,643 Camp 20,795 -62% 31 1,604,886 To Be and To Have (Etre et avoir) 20,528 - 3 203,184 Hawayein 19,659 -29% 5 409,978 Passionada 18,396 -61% 18 523,524 Haunted Castle 17,825 3% 3 7,157,880 Dummy 17,803 -41% 5 58,736 Weekend Estimates - September 19-21, 2003
Title Underworld - 2915 22.9 The Fighting Temptations - 2026 12.4 Secondand Lions - 3013 12.4 Once Upon a Time in Mexico -52% 3289 41.2 Cold Creek Manor - 2035 8.4 Matchstick Men -39% 2711 24.6 Dickie Roberts:
Former Child Star-22% 2083 17.5 Cabin Fever -56% 2105 14.6 Pirates of the Caribbean