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

Weekend Estimates Top Limited Grosses Market Share Big Teeth … No Strings Attached The animated Shark Tale swam to a hat trick as it led weekend movie going with an estimated $22 million. Overall business for the frame ebbed back as a pair of national releases - Team America: World Police and Shall We Dance? - opened to mid-range response that proved disappointing for the first film and up tempo for the second. Shark Tale has been the big fish in the multiplex pond since its debut and on Friday earned its fins as it passed the $100 million plateau. Unlike its summer brethren the film has been going against the stream that maintains the bigger they are, the harder they fall with weekly drops of about one-third and if it receives a sizeable Thanksgiving boost could well finish with a domestic tally close to $175 million. However, the primary attention for the weekend was the less than anticipated performance of the South Park creative duo's Team America. The outrageous all-marionette cast action-adventure satire received a full throttle promotional push and was expected to gross around $20 million and be competitive with Shark Tale. Industry tracking supported that assessment but the final reckoning was $12.3 million for a third place ranking behind the sophomore frame of Friday Night Lights. Industry pundits pointed to the puppet film's Restricted rating as eating away at the film's core audience. However, more significantly it appears that the film didn't translate beyond its base, with Saturday business virtually unchanged from opening day. It bodes ill for the film sustaining through Thanksgiving. Shall We Dance?, based on the popular 1997 Japanese warmity, was just a step behind with roughly $11.4 million. Initially planned as a summer opener, the adult targeted yarn had a positive $6,450 average and considering its prime appeal should hold well in the coming weeks. Overall business, buoyed by intense competition in niche sectors, still came shy of a $100 million cume. It was 9% down from last weekend and 15% behind the 2003 tally. Last year, the redo of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre debuted to a startling $28.1 million and Runaway Jury bowed in third spot with a disappointing $11.8 million. Both The Motorcycle Diaries and I Heart Huckabees continued to add screens and sustain strong response. The Quebec run of French Oscar-submission Les Choristes received a modest boost and Stage Beauty appeared to be holding its own as it grew from three to 21 locations. There was a true deluge of new entries targeted at alternative crowds but few emerged with crossover potential. The most potent of the group was the period drama Being Julia that arrived with about $130,000 from nine exposures and it's being touted as an Oscar contender for Annette Bening's title performance. Similarly, Venice award winner Vera Drake is seen as an Oscar certainty for stage vet Imelda Staunton. The potent social drama grossed roughly $40,000 from two Manhattan sites. The Sundance-preemed science-fiction allegory The Final Cut largely unspooled on digital screens with an unremarkable $220,000 from 117 playdates. Another fest premiere, the black comic Eulogy, was pretty much D.O.A. with a $42,000 tally from 22 engagements. Also on the casualty list were Stephen King's Riding the Bullet that came and went in 108 theaters with about a $100,000 in its chamber and the children's allegory The Dust Factory that had a paucity of fairy sprinkles with a $7,500 response from 22 assembly lines. While the response to the African American comedy Hair Show was a respectable $160,000 from 35 screens, there's little indication its set to go wider. The decision to open on such a limited basis is curious considering the recent mining of that audience with the much tougher sell of Woman Thou Are Loosed that opened and continues on 300 plus screens. Among other limited debuts there were modest results for the American indie P.S. with an $18,000 gross from four theaters; $11,000 for the powerful African drama Moolaade on two; and Untold Scandal, a Korean adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons, generated a tad more than $8,000 from two exposures. The documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession appeared to be cable ready as it limped to about $1,000 from its single screen outing. - by Leonard Klady

Weekend Estimates - October 15-17, 2004

Title	Distributor	Gross (average)	% change	Theaters	Cume
Shark Tale	DreamWorks	22.0 (5,580)	-30%	3948	118.8
Friday Night Lights	Uni	13.2 (4,770)	-35%	2764	38.8
Team America: World Police	Par	12.3 (4,830)	-	2539	12.3
Shall We Dance	Miramax	11.4 (6,450)	-	1772	11.4
Ladder 49	BV	8.6 (2,630)	-35%	3255	53.8
Taxi	Fox	7.8 (2,590)	-35%	3001	23.8
The Forgotten	Sony	6.1 (2,210)	-19%	2768	57.3
Raise Your Voice	New Line	2.7 (1,060)	-33%	2521	7.8
The Motorcycle Diaries	Focus	2.0 (7,990)	32%	250	6
Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow	Par	1.2 (980)	-49%	1208	35.9
Shaun of the Dead	Focus	1.1 (1,670)	-34%	672	11.2
I Heart Huckabees	Fox Searchlight	.95 (14,630)	5%	65	1.6
Napoleon Dynamite	Fox Searchlight	.88 (1,420)	-17%	619	40.4
Woman Thou Are Loosed	Magnolia	.69 (1,590)	-40%	434	5.1
Resident Evil: Apocalypse	Sony/Alliance	.67 (850)	-47%	787	50.1
Cellular	New  Line	.61 (820)	-36%	741	30.1
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films)		$92.10	-
% Change (Last Year)	-	-15%	-
% Change (Last Week)	-	-9%	-
Also Debuting/Expanding
Les Choristes	Alliance	.33 (7.050)	14%	47	0.81
Final Cut	Lions Gate	.22 (1,860)	-	117	0.22
Hair Show	Innovation	.16 (4,540)	-	35	0.16
Being Julia	Sony Class/Think	.13 (14,330)	-	9	0.13
Riding the Bullet	Innovation	.10 (910)	-	108	0.1
Stage Beauty	Lions Gate	87,200 (4,150)	114%	21	0.15
Eulogy	Lions Gate	42,000 (1,910)	-	22	0.04
Vera Drake	New Line	40,500 (20,250)	-	2	0.08
Ripoux 3	Christal	33,500 (1,1600)	-	21	0.03
P.S.	Newmarket	18,200 (4,550)	-	4	0.02
Moolaade	New Yorker	11,300 (5,650)	-	2	0.01
Untold Scandal	Kino	8,050 (4,025)	-	2	0.01
The Dust Factory	MGM	7,500 (340)	-	22	0.01
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession	IFC	1,130 (1,130)	-	1	0.01

Top Limited* Grosses: January 1 - October 7, 2004

Title	Distributor	Gross (millions)
Nascar: The Imax Experience	WB	18,847,966
De-Lovely	MGM	13,267,354
In America	Fox Searchlight	11,858,410
Super Size Me	IDP/Odeon	11,536,423
Girl with a Pearl Earring	Lions Gate	11,159,001
21 Grams	Focus	10,843,407
House of Sand and Fog	DmWks	10,094,363
Saved!	MGM	8,936,039
Bugs!	SK Film	8,766,867
Space Station	Imax	8,588,015
The Cooler	Lions Gate	6,900,809
The Triplets of Belleville	Sony Class/Alliance	6,536,791
Maria Full of Grace	NLC	5,964,457
The Clearing	Fox Searchlight	5,762,525
Before Sunset	WB	5,721,110
The Young Black Stallion	BV	5,192,531
What the #$*! Do We Know	IDP	5,163,023
Touching the Void	IFC	4,593,598
The Fog of War	Sony Classics	4,030,892
Good Bye, Lenin!	Sony Class/Seville	4,029,729
* none greater than 600 playdates does not include 2003 grosses

Domestic Market Share: January 1 - October 7, 2004

Distributor (releases)	Gross (millions)	Percentage
Sony (20)	1072.5	14.90%
Warner Bros. (27)	922.5	12.80%
Fox (16)	850.2	11.80%
DreamWorks (10)	818.2	11.40%
Buena Vista (23)	697.3	9.70%
Universal (14)	583.8	8.10%
Paramount (13)	407.1	5.70%
Newmarket (5)	406.3	5.60%
New Line (12)	339.4	4.70%
Miramax (18)	268.7	3.70%
Lions Gate (20)	222	3.10%
MGM (13)	197.9	2.80%
Fox Searchlight (9)	124.4	1.70%
Focus (8)	88.1	1.20%
Alliance (16)	49.5	0.70%
Other * (192)	150.9	2.10%
* none greater than .5%	7198.8	100.00%