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Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Critical response
may have been cutting but the heat to see Kill Bill Vol. 1
was sufficient to elevate the splatter spectacle to an estimated
$21.9 million and easily lead the weekend box office movie going
frame. Mixed reviews damped the bow of Intolerable Cruelty
but weren't an impediment for the family friendly Good Boy!
and hosannas for Mystic River translated into boffo returns
in its exclusive debut.
Overall weekend
business approached $108 million for a modest 2% upturn from 2002
when the second weekend of Red Dragon led with $17.7 million
and freshmen entries Brown Sugar and The Transporter
ranked third and forth with $10.7 million and $9.1 million.
Sales also shot up 18% from last weekend and, though it lacked
a top 10 charter, Sony grossed just enough to push its 2003 box
office past $1 billion.
The highly
anticipated Kill Bill Vol. 1 arrived in theaters with roughly
the commercial appeal that tracking studies had predicted. However,
Saturday business declined 3% from opening day and that has to
be worrisome in the long run - and specifically next weekend when
the new, also highly anticipated, Texas Chainsaw Massacre
opens. Much has been writ about the gamble of bisecting Bill and
much more will be scribbled about the efficacy of that commercial
strategy as its international performance is scrutinized and Vol.
2 is unleashed in February.
MGM's talking
dog Good Boy was a wag ahead of Intolerable Cruelty
with a sturdy $13.1 million. Studio reps were elated that an aggressive
campaign was sustained despite poor tracking and anticipate buoyant
results being one of the few kid pictures in the marketplace.
Cruelty, with
an estimated $12.7 million, has a more troublesome future. Recent
films by the Coen Brothers have been notable for sustained
runs but their new outing's mixture of mainstream and quirky elements
leans toward the former. That's likely to translate into a shorter
commercial burst and ultimately a disappointing box office.
The weekend's
other national launch was Artisan's pre-Halloween House of
the Dead that charted sixth with a respectable but unremarkable
$5.3 million.
Fueled by
non pareil reviews, Clint Eastwood's grim social thriller
Mystic River flowed to an exceptional $610,000 from a mere
13 locations. Already critically trumpeted at Cannes, the film
bowed Wednesday and grossed $180,000 entering the weekend. Warner
Bros. will add about 1,400 theaters this Wednesday and are confident
they can make the movie commercial and a major Oscar contender.
The weekend's
other niche entries had indifferent returns including a $13,500
box office for IFC's Girls Will Be Girls at two sites and
French import The Flower of Evil from Palm generating $11,200
also at two venues. The Sundance Series' third offering, Dopamine,
offered no respite to the programs lackluster performance with
an opening salvo of $23,500 from 10 screens. Neither increased
advertising nor thumbs up reviews has had significant impact for
the Sundance effort and while it's committed to another quartet
of movies in 2004, a serious overhaul will be mandatory.
Among holdover
titles, there were tuneful returns for The School of Rock
with a second place finish of $15.2 million and a not too corrosive
23% b.o. decline. Upbeat word-of-mouth has been a definite asset
and should sustain the picture through the highly competitive
weeks ahead.
Beautiful
Screener … the endless debate
A comment
noting that roughly 20% of the members of the Motion Picture Association
of America live outside Los Angeles and New York City prompted
several responses from studio reps.
Though the
specifics of frequency could not be precisely gauged, most of
the majors do screen their Oscar contenders in San Francisco,
Chicago and London and some also do courtesy viewings in Miami,
Paris and Sydney. Now it should be noted that the studios also
have offices in those centers and in some instances also will
show movies produced by their specialized divisions.
However, the
non-aligned companies don't have the same resources and just scanning
last year's best picture nominees reveals that the overseas rights
owners of the final five were either independents or studio affiliates.
Warner Bros. did distribute the second installment of The Lord
of the Rings in many of the major international territories
and Buena Vista handled both The Hours and Chicago in
most foreign countries for Miramax. That leaves Studio Canal's
The Pianist and Initial Entertainment's The Gangs of
New York to ponder whether their Oscar nomination tally would
have been quite so buoyant in a non-screener universe.
- by Leonard
Klady
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