..Gary
Dretzka
..Leonard
Klady
..Emanuel
Levy
..David
Poland
..Doug
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
Weekend Finals
Resurrected!
The debut of Exorcist: The Beginning staked out an estimated $18.4 million to lead weekend movie going as the summer season crept closer to a conclusion. Along with an OK opening for the low brow comedy Without a Paddle business experienced a significant 17% boost from 2003 and the current season appears headed for a 7% increase from last year while admissions might be up only a single percentage point.
It used to be said of Dracula movies that "you can't keep or a good man down" or "he's not down for the Count." Exorcist: The Beginning challenged that contention with a truly plague-infested production history but despite commercial trepidation was the box office leader. Ironically, the swan song at Warner Bros. for Morgan Creek Productions was not only its best debut in its past dozen releases but exceeded the entire gross of its best performer Diabolique.
The wilderness adventure comedy Without a Paddle fought for second spot with The Princess Diaries 2 and came up a stroke behind with $13.2 million. Also making a national bow was the bygone canine cutie Benji in Benji Off the Leash that grossed roughly $1.3 million and is headed for better results in the video kennel.
Overall business should hit about $118 million for a 16% drop from last weekend. However, that's a 17% improvement from 2003 when the best debut - Jackie Chan in The Medallion - ranked fifth with $8.1 million and the other freshmen - My Boss's Daughter and Marci X - had more discouraging results.
With two weeks remaining in the summer season, it's clear that both 2004's highs were generally higher and nonetheless its lows were lower. That added up to a near stasis in attendance with increases in grosses keyed to boosts in the price of a movie ticket. As with society itself, the chasm between the haves and have nots has widened with summer and indeed all seasons rarely producing a mid-range success. DreamWorks will be the clear box office winner with four consecutive hits and the year's top grosser with Shrek 2. Only Fox can claim comparable success with the rest of the field experiencing a score card with both hits and misses.
The frame was also laden with regional and exclusive openers. The Arenas Group targeted Hispanic and art house audiences with its Mexican import Nicotina and fared reasonably well with a $410,000 gross from 98 locations. It was an encouraging response but this and past efforts have yet to generate a breakthrough success or anything that would sustain a continuing flow of product.
In Canada, Alliance Atlantis had an aggressive opening for its teen comedy Going the Distance that generated an OK result of $310,000 and there were fair results of $90,000 for Fida on the Bollywood circuit.
In exclusive engagements the best performer was the British frothy import Bright Young Things that grossed close to $50,000 from just three screens. There was a comparable gross for the reflective German war era Rosenstrasse but that film opening in 10 theaters. Magnolia opened a single screen on the non-fiction Ramones: End of the Century and its $20,000 tally could well bode for the type of result generated recently by the Metallica documentary.
A couple of politically oriented docs also bowed with Cinema Libre's Uncovered: The War on Iraq grossing $35,200 from seven engagements and Bush's Brain stirring up $11,700 from four outings in Texas. Continuing the outflow of Sundance acquisitions, Paramount Classics unveiled Mean Creek at four sites for $30,000 and will expand the picture to 10 markets next weekend.
Weekend Finals - Ending August 22, 2004
Title Exorcist: The Beginning 18,054,001 2803 18,054,001 Without a Paddle 13,528,946 2730 13,528,946 Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement 13,051,560 -43% 3490 61,217,735 Alien vs. Predator 12,409,624 -68% 3401 62,962,235 Open Water 11,413,017 1175% 2709 14,493,924 Collateral 10,156,357 -37% 3029 69,721,408 The Bourne Supremacy 6,469,275 -25% 2532 150,393,515 The Manchurian Candidate 4,017,560 -33% 1920 54,543,247 The Village 3,722,806 -48% 2249 107,049,072 Yu-Gi-Oh! 3,245,167 -66% 2411 15,514,005 Garden State 3,020,555 117% 652 6,510,004 Spider-Man 2 2,421,434 -31% 1343 365,173,462 I, Robot 2,408,877 -38% 1609 138,292,990 Napoleon Dynamite 1,787,873 2% 577 19,111,581 Little Black Book 1,517,423 -60% 1640 18,427,929 Benji Off the Leash! 1,512,000 876 1,551,028 The Notebook 774,126 -33% 621 76,295,611 Fahrenheit 9/11 596,499 -41% 446 116,761,122 De-Lovely 561,938 -19% 317 10,776,149 Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle 489,985 -65% 401 17,327,672 Maria Full of Grace 458,426 -7% 117 3,315,918 Nicotina 446,768 96 447 Shrek 2 422,786 -26% 435 436,471,036 Catwoman 386,319 -59% 444 39,050,726 Harry Potter & Prisoner of Azkaban 353,507 -22% 248 256,900,818 Going the Distance 333,126 153 333,126 Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story 282,594 -15% 283 113,005,058 Intimate Strangers 278,064 21% 82 962,068 A Cinderella Story 270,126 -69% 435 50,249,672 Garfield 248,958 -3% 293 74,405,479 Anchorman: Legend of Ron Burgundy 241,442 -63% 322 84,136,909 King Arthur 235,431 37% 287 51,003,407 The Day After Tomorrow 207,237 -10% 233 185,984,768 We Don't Live Here Anymore 192,472 90% 29 340,842 What the #$*! Do We Know 184,152 31% 37 2,165,576 The Door in the Floor 179,571 -29% 112 3,179,110 Nascar: The Imax Experience 178,551 -19% 56 17,830,552 Before Sunset 171,309 -27% 113 4,560,080 The Stepford Wives 150,371 -28% 206 59,176,740 Around the World in 80 Days 134,453 -29% 193 23,775,251 Bugs! 132,681 0% 31 12,362,206 Riding Giants 128,787 -2% 64 1,687,033 Space Station 113,589 -3% 8 53,979,933 Adrenaline Rush: The Science of Risk 111,945 -9% 17 7,758,253 Zatoichi 108,394 11% 55 819,842 Fida 98,297 30 98,297 Kyon? Ho Gaya Pyu 89,968 -48% 47 336,909 The Terminal 87,237 -43% 153 77,032,279 A Home at the End of the World 82,380 -36% 51 774,651 Camping Sauvage 77,672 -19% 51 3,642,327 Thunderbirds 67,185 -70% 168 6,768,055 Saints and Soldiers 63,375 -42% 27 396,534 Festival Express 61,887 -25% 26 525,167 Outfoxed: War on Journalism 58,029 29% 17 245,677 The Corporation 56,054 -14% 27 2,958,759 Mean Girls 54,919 -1% 79 85,974,306 Code 46 54,385 42% 21 142,603 Two Brothers 53,918 -36% 88 19,053,433 White Chicks 53,110 -62% 72 69,263,055 She Hate Me 49,594 121% 28 248,368 Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey 47,458 16% 8 7,250,677 Bright Young Things 46,926 3 46,926 Rosenstrasse 45,024 10 45,024 Control Room 40,060 -22% 32 2,301,502 Super Size Me 39,253 -18% 39 11,269,350 Troy 39,236 -19% 77 133,298,577 The Chronicles of Riddick 37,456 -62% 71 57,712,751 The Story of the Weeping Camel 35,412 -26% 24 1,434,170 Mujhse Shaadi Karogi 35,362 -44% 24 893,142 Donnie Darko - Director's Cut 33,626 97% 11 347,521 Raising Helen 33,097 -39% 65 37,451,587 Uncovered: The War on Iraq 31,481 7 31,481 The Clearing 31,149 21% 36 5,675,703 Mean Creek 29,170 4 29,170 T-Rex: Back to the Cretacious 26,770 -8% 5 49,058,593 Man on Fire 23,302 44% 31 77,894,965 Metallica: Some Kind of Monster 21,299 -45% 26 1,114,222 Touch of Pink 21,288 -42% 18 422,844 Ju-on: The Grudge 21,264 15% 9 138,721 End of the Century: The Ramones 18,422 1 18,422 Estimates
Title Exorcist: The Beginning 2803 18.4 Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement -42% 3490 61.5 Without a Paddle 2730 13.2 Alien vs. Predator -69%