..Gary
Dretzka
..Leonard
Klady
..Emanuel
Levy
..David
Poland
..Doug
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
Weekend Estimates
Gone .. But Not Forgotten
The eerie thriller The Forgotten led weekend movie going with an estimated $22.2 million. It was an impressive debut in an otherwise listless marketplace in which holdover titles were flagging and business continued to erode at a significant rate. Another bright spot was the trio of exclusive engagements for The Motorcycle Diaries that rang up a theater average of more than $50,000.
While the critics weren't generally kind to The Forgotten's 'what if' premise that recalled a stripe of thriller best identified with The Sixth Sense, the public at least was willing to give it a preferential status. Studio tracking was projecting that the film would perform in the mid-to-high teens but the absence of competition proved to be a lucky asset.
The frame also saw two other national bows of limited commercial potency. The youth targeted comedy First Daughter debuted fourth overall with a moribund $4.2 million and will have a tough slog to reach an eventual cume of $10 million. Considerably better but by no means a home run, the vampire spoof Shaun of the Dead had a limited wide release that rang up $3.3 million and a theater average of $5,400.
Overall box office should tally to slightly more than $70 million for an 8% decline from seven days earlier. And once again revenues were sharply down from 2003 by 23%. Last year's leaders were debuting titles The Rundown and Under the Tuscan Sun with respective grosses of $18.5 million and $9.8 million.
There is some immediate sense of marketplace turnaround with exhibition crossing its fingers that next weekend's bow of the animated Shark Tale and Ladder 49 will provide fuel for the fall. However, the degree of intensity may not live up to the ferocity the industry so dearly desires. Domestic box office passed $7 billion Friday and while that's 4% ahead of last year's tally, its behind the number of actual admissions.
Last weekend's trio of freshmen - including box office leader Sky Captain - experienced drops of between 42% and 54% and that's pretty much on par with the rest of the fare in local multiplexes.
Activity in specialized and regional arenas was highly competitive but new offerings generally did little to enliven box office sales. The exception was The Motorcycle Diaries based on the formative years of Ernesto "Che" Guevara that bowed in two Manahattan and a single L.A. screen and should tally better than $150,000. The film expands to the top 10 markets next weekend and could well prove to be a highlight of award's season.
John Waters' outré comedy A Dirty Shame followed its single screen debut with the addition of 132 engagements and a just OK $440,000 box office. On a comparable commercial level, the Hollywood vs. organized crime comedy The Last Shot tallied slightly more than $160,000 from 35 venues.
There was little of a lasting nature for the 65-screen launch of the supernatural romance Eternal in Quebec that grossed about $130,000 and limited release offerings rated fair to dismal. The non-fiction The Yes Men on latter day political merry pranksters averaged about $7,500 from three screens while the gay targeted The Raspberry Reich tallied about $5,100 from a single NYC venue.
Other debuts included a five-screen launch for the Hong Kong hit Infernal Affairs of $24,000; a $16,000 gross from four sites for the indie comedy Hollywood Buddha; just shy of $6,000 for the provocative French import Anatomy of Hell in two playdates; and dire consequences of $5,000 total from eight screens for the documentary The September Tapes.
Weekend Estimates - September 24-26, 2004
Title The Forgotten - 3104 22.2 Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow -54% 3170 25.9 Mr. 3000 -42% 2736 15.4 First Daughter - 2259 4.2 Resident Evil: Apocalypse -53% 2836 43.5 Cellular -46% 2763 25.1 Wimbledon -52% 2039 12.2 Shaun of the Dead - 607 3.3 Without a Paddle -31% 2319 53.6 Hero -27% 1713 49.1 Napoleon Dynamite -21% 1024 35.7 Collateral -38% 1287 98.1 The Bourne Supremecy -33% 1028 172.2 Garden State -33% 667 22.5 Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement -52% 1408 93.2 Anacondas -50% 1054 30.8 Vanity Fair -51% 835 14.9 Paparazzi -62% 730 15.3 Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) - - - % Change (Last Year) - - - % Change (Last Week) - - Also Debuting/Expanding A Dirty Shame - 133 0.48 The Last Shot - 35 0.16 The Motorcycle Diaries - 3 0.15 Eternal - 65 0.13 Infernal Affairs -- 5 0.02 Yes Men - 3 0.02 Hollywood Buddha - 4 0.02 Anatomy of Hell - 2 0.01 The Raspberry Reich - 1 0.01 September Tapes - 8 0.01 Top Worldwide Grosses: January 1 - September 23, 2004
Title Shrek 2 870,426,575 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 784,014,017 Spider-Man 2 762,549,595 The Passion of the Christ 623,489,009 Lord of Rings: Return of the King * 545,355,621 The Day After Tomorrow 538,919,169 Troy 491,800,423 The Last Samurai * 322,311,224 I, Robot 303,250,447 Van Helsing 294,977,186 The Bourne Supremacy 228,190,899 Fahrenheit 9/11 208,700,202 Something's Gotta Give * 200,716,230 50 First Dates 195,171,755 The Village 194,945,635 King Arthur 180,263,436 Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed 179,022,097 Along Came Polly 171,072,358 Starsky & Hutch 169,318,174 Garfield 167,646,962 * does not include 2003 box office Domestic Market Share: January 1 - September 23, 2004
Distributor (releases) Percentage Sony (19) 14.70% Warner Bros. (27) 13.20% Fox (14) 12.10% DreamWorks (9) 10.90% Buena Vista (21) 9.50% Universal (14) 8.20% Newmarket (5) 5.80% Paramount (13) 5.60% New Line (11) 4.70% Miramax (17) 3.80% Lions Gate (19) 3.20% MGM (12) 2.80% Fox Searchlight (8) 1.70% Focus (6) 1.10% Alliance (15) 0.70% Other * (181) 2.00% * none greater than .5% 100.00%
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