..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

Closer … and No Cigar In movie parlance, December - but especially the first week of the month - is the cruelest of the year. Thoughts of sugar plums dance in the mind and the multiplex slips lower on one's holiday check list. This was once again aptly reflected as movie going plunged some 47% on the heels of a bountiful Thanksgiving to record the lowest returns of the past five years. While the span was absent of a single debuting wide release, both the limited national bow of Closer and the exclusive run of House of Flying Daggers had excellent bows with respective theatre averages of $16,400 and $25,000. The frame was once again dominated by family fare with National Treasure holding onto first place with an estimated $16.9 million and sailing past a $100 million milestone on Saturday. It was followed by Christmas with the Kranks, The Polar Express and The Incredibles. Closer, the searing look at contemporary relationships, received mixed but generally thoughtful reviews and its potent ensemble generated a sterling $7.8 million. Sony had considered both opening the picture wide or going out on a very exclusive basis. It finally settled on 476 playdates, reckoning that the absence of new titles and paucity of adult fare would work in the picture's favor. The result certainly bore out that rationale even if exit response by CinemaScore rendered an overly harsh D+ rating. Overall business limped toward the imminent Yule onslaught with about an $88 million tally. It was a not unexpected steep drop from the prior holiday period and additionally lagged behind 2003 by about 10%. Last year, The Last Samurai entered the marketplace with $24.3 million and Honey's opening charted second with $12.9 million. The majors have been loath to force film goers to decide between a trip to the cinema and working on Santa's gift basket and one can't argue the point too strenuously. Invariably when high profile films have bowed in early December, the result has been disappointing and the instances of picture's rallying after soft starts is a true rarity in the present marketplace. Still, the record for movies targeted to a niche, younger crowd have proven to have traction and might have welcomed the arrival of next week's Blade Trinity at this juncture. However, both mainstream and niche fare hunkered down for the commercial body blow. Films playing the award card including Finding Neverland, Sideways and Kinsey decided to put their expansions on hiatus and weather the attendance downturn. And while there was obvious erosion for the very limited runs of Bad Education and A Very Long Engagement, both movies continued to maintain very strong response and continued media interest. The frame also included a 226 theater break for the drama I Am David that faltered with a lackluster response of about $150,000. Equally uninspired were a number of exclusive premieres including single screen results of $3,800 on the chess documentary Game Over and a scary $1,100 return for the Asian horror import A Tale of Two Sisters. There was considerably better response for the critically acclaimed Chinese historical actioner House of Flying Daggers that arrived on 15 screens and grossed about $360,000. However, in light of the spectacular numbers generated by Hero (also directed by Dagger's director Zhang Yimou) that opened nationally during another traditionally slow period, one wonders whether the current film might have benefited from a more aggressive entry into the marketplace. - by Leonard Klady