January 25, 2004
January 19, 2004
January 11, 2004
January 4, 2004
Dec 28, 2003
Dec 21, 2003
Dec 14, 2003
Dec 7, 2003

 


..Gary Dretzka
..Leonard Klady
..Emanuel Levy
..David Poland
..Doug Pratt
..Ray Pride



Weekend Finals
2003 Canada Grosses & Market Share
2003 International Boxoffice Grosses
 2003 Domestic Boxoffice

Super Sunday … and Other Ironies

It wasn't The Perfect Score, only some movies got The Big Bounce and Sony definitely Got Served. Distributors and exhibitors girded themselves for the Patriots vs. Carolina and weighed the Super Bowl's likely impact upon new movies and Oscar contenders. There was a lot to digest and assess.

Sony's opening of the youth musical You Got Served led the pack with an estimated $16.2 million, a record gross for a film debuting on Super Bowl weekend. As with the Christmas release of Honey, the film was more potent than anticipated, reaching out beyond the African American niche audience with popular music and contemporary dance.

Conversely, The Perfect Score fell below expectations with an estimated $5.2 million to rank sixth overall. Again, though targeted to teens and early 20s, it played up crime genre elements that made it a distant second choice. The results were even more dire for the third national debut - The Big Bounce - that eked out a 12th place finish of $3.4 million.

The trio, plus Oscar buzz did little to energize the marketplace. The weekend tally will be just shy of $100 million, a slight 3% decline from last weekend. It's also 16% off 2003's pace when new pictures - The Recruit, Final Destination 2, Biker Boyz - took the top spots with respective grosses $16.3 million, $16 million and $10 million. And, compared to Super Bowl weekend 2003, when Darkness Falls bowed, business was down by 2%.

The collision of a later date for the football clash and the earlier unveiling of Academy nominees resulted in a mixed commercial bag. Some individual results were good but there was clearly not the sort of utz to business that's traditionally been evident.

Fox's relaunch of Master and Commander sailed to an OK response, posting a $2,000 average and WB's decision to expand Mystic River last weekend looks savvy in retrospect, climbing by 34% to $4.5 million. Lost in America, Monster and Girl with a Pearl Earring all added screens and got box office boosts but multiple nominations for In America, 21 Grams and House of Sand and Fog haven't translated into commercial upturns and appeared to have no discernable impact for The Last Samurai. The verdict has to be that Super Bowl took a sizable bite out of the traditional Oscar bump and calendar considerations are likely for 2005.

The weekend also featured upbeat sneak previews for Disney's inspirational ice hockey yarn Miracle that combined macho and hunk appeal. It attracted a 55%-45% male-female crowd and overall capacities of 80% according to a company spokesman.

Regional and niche debuts were sparse with the launch of the horror sequel Ginger Snaps: Unleashed in Canada generating a fair $94,000 and TLA's gay-themed Latter Days grossing a solid $56,000 from four exclusives.


A Few Notes on Global Market Share

To paraphrase Churchill, never has so much been owed to so few. Whether you're in Jamaica or Jakarta, in most corners of the world the movie going options are dominated by American titles. Worldwide, Disney (Buena Vista, Miramax) and Time-Warner companies (Warner Bros., New Line) accounted for close to 45% of global box office. In fact American companies hogged 88% of the big pie.

The flip side was that the only non-U.S. company to generate better than a 1% market share was Japan's Toho and its revenues are virtually all at home. The same holds for Korea's CJ Entertainment and Cinema Services and to only a slightly less degree France's Studio Canal. American movies may not be winning hearts and minds but they certainly dominate how people spend dollars, drachmas, euros, yen and pesetas.


- by Leonard Klady


Weekend Finals - January 30 - February 1, 2004

 Title Distrib Weekend % Change Theaters Cume
Wks
1
New
 You Got Served Sony 16,123,105 1933 16,123,105
1
2
1
 The Butterfly Effect New Line 9,556,280 -44% 2605 31,735,064
2
3
2
 Along Came Polly Uni 9,310,060 -43% 3052 66,002,555
3
4
5
 Lord of the Rings: Return of the King New Line 5,310,803 -22% 2256 345,331,815
7
5
New
 The Perfect Score Par 4,873,819 2208 4,873,819
1
6
4
 Big Fish Sony 4,533,655 -36% 2280 55,316,067
8
7
10
 Mystic River WB 4,378,417 30% 1370 64,858,601
17
8
6
 Cheaper by the Dozen Fox 4,285,230 -33% 2396 128,034,055
6
9
3
 Win a Date with Tad Hamilton DreamWorks 4,211,395 -43% 2808 13,107,536
2
10
7
 Cold Mountain Miramax 4,074,047 -19% 2500 78,375,713
6
11
13
 Monster Newmarket 3,369,353 64% 668 10,454,638
6
12
9
 Something's Gotta Give Sony 3,353,974 -16% 1601 111,884,639
8
13
New
 The Big Bounce WB 3,336,374 2304 3,336,374
1
14
11
 Calendar Girls BV 2,520,998 6% 963 25,005,759
7
15
22
 Lost in Translation Focus 2,156,557 188% 632 37,437,901
21
16
26
 Master and Commander Fox 2,106,759 492% 1118 87,568,647
12
17
8
 Torque WB 1,489,491 -67% 1541 19,728,619
3
18
25
 Girl with a Pearl Earring Lions Gate 1,354,893 150% 391 4,171,889
8
19
12
 The Last Samurai WB 1,203,487 -45% 808 107,459,807
8
20
14
 My Baby's Daddy Miramax 774,147 -62% 729 16,773,663
4
21
21
 In America Fox Searchlight 758,775 -4% 292 10,049,016
10
22
16
 Peter Pan Uni 660,545 -46% 738 46,401,825
6
23
20
 21 Grams Focus 632,239 -27% 320 13,125,984
11
24
18
 The Cooler Lions Gate 587,013 -36% 306 5,958,455
10
25
24
 House of Sand and Fog DreamWorks 430,653 -36% 350 10,967,441
7
26
15
 Disney's Teacher's Pet BV 386,110 -73% 640 6,030,302
3
27
19
 Mona Lisa Smile Sony 306,953 -65% 440 62,964,117
7
28
17
 Paycheck Par 267,567 -77% 620 53,147,310
6
29
31
 The Triplets of Belleville Sony Class/Allian 264,246 27% 67 2,435,198
11
30
27
 The Young Black Stallion BV 256,352 -19% 51 4,188,018
6
31
28
 Elf New Line 205,837 -22% 306 172,696,490
13
32
37
 The Fog of War Sony Classics 183,365 18% 37 918,372
7
33
29
 The Haunted Mansion BV 177,260 -25% 244 73,063,644
10
34
33
 The Company Sony Classics 174,054 -2% 55 1,110,618
6
35
34
 Brother Bear BV 135,690 -21% 270 84,449,553
15
36
41
 The Station Agent Miramax/Alliance 133,696 18% 79 5,453,582
18
37
32
 Love Actually Uni 113,880 -43% 146 59,077,025
13
38
35
 The Missing Sony 110,353 -31% 211 26,696,673
10
39
30
 Khakee Eros 110,032 -48% 49 428,065
2
40
43
 Stuck on You Fox 106,441 -4% 212 33,452,925
8
41
36
 The Cat in the Hat Uni 101,740 -36% 163 100,585,590
11
42
39
 Honey Uni 101,353 -18% 164 29,996,330
8
43
42
 The Gospel of John Thinkfilm 95,624 -15% 70 3,434,428
19
44
23
 Chasing Liberty WB 84,925 -88% 170 12,007,946
4
45
New
 Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed Seville 80,372 53 80,372
1
46
38
 Matrix Revolutions WB 75,724 -44% 177 139,076,032
13
47
45
 Touching the Void IFC 74,136 -24% 5 205,513
2
48
40
 The School of Rock Par 73,388 -37% 117 81,049,813
18
49
95
 The Book of Mormon Movie Mormon Movie 69,853 820% 26 1,219,338
21
50
51
 My Architect New Yorker 68,085 17% 10 672,118
11
51
Re
 La Grande Seduction Alliance 62,226 29 6,833,602
30
52
68
 Japanese Story IDP 61,495 220% 17 189,209
5
53
48
 The Corporation Mongrel 60,797 -20% 7 305,810
3
54
New
 Latter Days TLA 57,242 4 57,242
1
55
52
 Space Station Imax 54,822 -1% 16 46,880,550
94
56
64
 The Barbarian Invasions Alliance/Miramax 51,495 133% 20 6,140,649
40
57
Re
 Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey Giant Screen 49,776 30% 16 5,564,757
68
58
49
 Gothika WB 44,932 -40% 73 58,954,156
10
59
88
 City of God Miramax 40,990 601% 11 4,860,067
55
60
50
 Timeline Par 39,018 -44% 98 19,439,415
10
61
54
 Wooly Boys MAC Releasing 38,839 -21% 5 98,044
2
62
47
 Radio Sony 36,604 -57% 77 52,333,738
15
63
53
 Runaway Jury Fox 34,575 -32% 63 49,360,301
15
64
44
 Love Don't Cost a Thing WB 33,631 -67% 71 21,585,256
8
65
58
 Bugs! SK Film 32,588 -22% 14 4,659,827
47
66
63
 To Be and To Have New Yorker 31,310 40% 10 646,891
20
67
59
 Looney Toons: Back in Action WB 30,502 -22% 83 20,991,364
12
68
60
 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre New Line 30,460 8% 39 80,466,854
15
69
56
 Scary Movie 3 Miramax 29,591 -37% 78 109,938,950
15
70
46
 Bad Santa Miramax 27,656 -67% 71 59,429,410
10
71
57
 Alexander's Project Alliance 26,841 -38% 22 591,814
7
72
61
 The Statement Sony Class/Think 23,486 -11% 15 533,721
8
73
55
 The Battle of Algiers (reissue) Rialto 21,246 -55% 3 316,016
4

 

 

Estimates - January 30 - February 1, 2004

Title
Distributor
Gross (average)
% change
Theaters
Cume
You Got Served
Sony
17.1 (8,870)
 - 1933 17.1
Along Came Polly
Uni
10.2 (3,330)
 -38% 3052 66.9
The Butterfly Effect
New Line
9.7 (3,730)
 -43% 2605 31.9
Lord of the Rings: Return of King
New Line
5.5 (2,450)
 -19% 2256 345.5
The Perfect Score
Par
5.2 (2,360)
 - 2208 5.2
Big Fish
Sony
4.7 (2,050)
 -34% 2280 55.5
Mystic River
WB
4.5 (3,300)
 34% 1370 65
Cheaper By the Dozen
Fox
4.4 (1,850)
 -31% 2396 128.1
Cold Mountain
Miramax
4.3 (1,740)
 -13% 2500 78.6
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton
DreamWorks
4.3 (1,530)
 -41% 2808 13.2
Something's Gotta Give
Sony
3.5 (2,190)
 -13% 1601 112
The Big Bounce
WB
3.4 (1,470)
 - 2304 3.4
Monster
Newmarket
3.3 (5,030)
 62% 662 10.4
Master and Commander
Fox
2.2 (1,990)
 523% 1118 87.7
Calendar Girls
BV
2.2 (2,260)
 -9% 963 24.7
Lost in Translation
Focus
2.1 (3,350)
 192% 632 37.4
Torque
WB
1.5 (960)
 -67% 1541 19.7
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Lions Gate
1.2 (3,150)
 127% 391 4
The Last Samurai
WB
1.2 (1,470)
 -45% 808 107.5
My Baby's Daddy
Miramax
.82 (1,120)
 -60% 729 16.8
In America
Fox Searchlight
.74 (2,540)
 -7% 291 10.1
Peter Pan
Uni
.67 (890)
 -45% 755 46.4
21 Grams
Focus
,63 (1,910)
 -26% 320 13.1
The Cooler
Lions Gate
.59 (1,950)
 -35%