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..Gary
Dretzka
..Leonard
Klady
..Emanuel
Levy
..David
Poland
..Doug
Pratt
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Pride
Be ... Calm
Weekend Estimates
The leading films in the marketplace expressed soothing sentiments but the anticipation was for a heated competition between two debuting titles. And while both films opened well, it was unquestionably the family friendly The Pacifier that prevailed over the return of Chili Palmer in Be Cool. The Pacifier's first weekend was estimated at $29.6 million while Be Cool took the second slot with $23.3 million.
The frame also saw a post-Oscar bump for Million Dollar Baby, a disappointing premiere for The Jacket and a handful of promising launches in limited and exclusive engagements.
Spoofing his muscular image, Vin Diesel provided excellent mileage for The Pacifier. Buoyed by a clever ad campaign the film established its dominance Friday with an $8.5 million gross that was close to $1 million ahead of its closest competition. Pundits had pegged its opening strength no better than $25 million but insiders at Disney said its tracking was closer to the final number.
Be Cool had been favored to lead the weekend by a slim margin though its final tally was close to tracking estimates. Critical response had been middling for the follow up to Get Shorty. However, the cast - including The Rock playing against type - received thumbs up.
The momentum of the debuts propelled the span to about $123 million for a slim 1% bump from the prior weekend. However, a year ago The Passion of the Christ was still commercially on fire with a $53.2 million second weekend and that resulted into a 14% better frame.
The third national premiere, the psychological thriller The Jacket, nipped into the 10th slot with about $2.7 million and a theater average of roughly $2,000. It was more bad news for Warner Independent that's been looking for a hit since it opened for business a year ago.
Heading into the weekend, the consensus was that only Million Dollar Baby and documentary award winner Born into Brothels would experience a noticeable bump from Oscar and that was clearly the case. Baby added 225 theaters and experienced a 16% boost to $8.6 million while Brothels expanded 11 screens and ballooned 54% with a $200,000 weekend. The rest of the field experienced 30% to 40% hits with Hotel Rwanda the most resilient of the runners up.
The hot button doc Gunner Palace on American soldiers in Iraq arrived on seven screens to a very good response of $50,000. The Israeli drama Walk on Water opened to a comparable gross but in 10 locations and Dear Frankie, the winning Scottish social comedy, fared well with $38,000 in five venues.
The Italian family epic The Best of Youth bowed on a single screen in New York to roughly $8,000. Youth had its first international exposure at Cannes in 2003 and has trickled out throughout Europe to solid niche response. Its two-part and six-hour running time have been difficult to overcome audience resistance despite 4-star reviews and its U.S. launch has been rescheduled several times for more than a year. The films played last year in Quebec and grossed about $350,000.
Weekend Estimates - March 4-6, 2005
Title The Pacifer * 3131 29.6 Be Cool * 3216 23.3 Hitch -39% 3438 138.3 Diary of a Mad Black Woman -49% 1703 37.2 Million Dollar Baby 16% 2350 77 Constantine -51% 2758 60.4 Cursed -60% 2805 15.2 Man of the House -61% 2422 14 Because of Winn-Dixie -50% 2506 27 The Jacket 1331 2.7 The Aviator -35% 1331 97.2 Sideways -38% 1057 66.3 Are We There Yet? -64% 1745 78.6 Finding Neverland -41% 643 49.6 Hotel Rwanda -30% 575 20.8 Son of the Mask -75% 1865 15.9 The Wedding Date -56% 785 30.4 Pooh's Heffelump Movie -60% 924 17 Bride and Prejudice -16% 179 2.77 Boogeyman -67% 995 45.84 Meet the Fockers -49% 816 275.33 Phantom of the Opera -23% 411 49.5 Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) * * * % Change (Last Year) * * * % Change (Last Week) * * * Also Debuting/Expanding Aliens of the Deep -33% 27 3.5 Downfall 10% 9 0.21 Walk on Water * 10 0.05 Gunner Palace * 7 0.05 Dear Frankie * 5 0.04 Best of Youth, Part 1 * 1 0.1 Top Worldwide Grosses: To March 3, 2005
Meet the Fockers 322,127,725 Ocean's Twelve 169,589,674 The Aviator 156,805,284 The Incredibles 140,050,285 Hitch 132,034,830 National Treasure 110,622,886 Constantine 108,970,197 The Phantom of the Opera 94,458,965 Million Dollar Baby 93,357,345 Alexander 91,498,437 Are We There Yet? 82,279,286 Howl's Moving Castle 78,491,471 White Noise 76,109,051 Lemony Snicket's 75,431,419 Closer 74,135,847 Hide and Seek 73,149,178 Finding Neverland 68,914,541 Coach Carter 67,256,456 Racing Stripes 66,489,398 Sideways 64,271,511 * does not include 2004 box office Domestic Market Share: To March 3, 2005
Distributor (releases) Percentage Sony (9) 20.30% Universal (8) 19.20% Warner Bros. (9) 18.00% Fox (6) 8.90% Miramax (6) 7.90% Paramount (5) 7.30% Buena Vista (8) 4.50% Fox Searchlight (4) 3.30% Lions Gate (5) 2.60% New Line (6) 1.70% Focus (3) 1.50% MGM (3) 1.40% Sony Classics (6) 1.10% Other * (61) 2.30% * none greater than 0.5% 100.00%
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