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

Weekend Estimates Rabbit Punch There was no second coming despite the preponderance of sequels on the marquee during the Easter holiday frame. The debuts of Guess Who and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous topped the box office but without the box office dynamism of such recent entries as Robots, Ring Two or The Pacifier. The result was a double-digit decline in movie going with the few targeting the pew. The weekend, according to industry tracking, belonged to the Miss Congeniality sequel and Warner Bros. accordingly decided to debut the film on Thursday ahead of the pack. Its $3 million bow provided every confidence that it would ring up about $25 million for the four days but that scenario would quickly evaporate. Conversely, the ad hoc switcheroo on Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was expected to rank third overall with a gross in the neighborhood of $15 million. Instead it exceeded expectations with audiences provides these ayes to an estimated $21.6 million fueled by a young multi-ethnic crowd. Miss Congeniality 2 barely nosed into second with $14.4 million for the 3-days and The Ring Two's sophomore session recorded about $14.3 million. Overall business declined by roughly 13% from seven days earlier with a tally around $102 million. It was also down by some 16% from calendar 2004 and 14% from last year's Easter period. In general, the leading holdover titles experienced 33% declines and the sturdier fare in the marketplace skewed more adult or niche in appeal. Several films including The Upside of Anger and Downfall continued to maintain momentum in slow rollouts with the former titled primed for its national debut next weekend. Fox Searchlight boosted its exposure on Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda and scored $810,000 from 95 venues. Its Brit import Millions also added screens and kept a sturdy $6,700 average at 77 locations. The frame also had a healthy number of regional and limited openers including a ho-hum $120,000 gross from a 32 screen launch of La Vie avec mon pere in Quebec. Also virtually under the radar was the 45 playdates of the distaff action spoof D.E.B.S. that failed to graduate with $58,000 report card. On the plus side, the relatively nascent Tartan Films had its best ever bow with the critically acclaimed Korean revenge opus Old Boy grossing around $61,000 from five theaters. Similarly, the Sundance-preemed The Ballad of Jack and Rose generated $60,000 from four screens. Other openers included an upbeat response of $22,000 for three exposures of the Israeli Nina's Tragedies and a sweet bouquet of $10,300 for the wine doc Mondovino at a single Manhattan site. A-M-C … See you later! There was more than a ripple last week when the AMC circuit rather abruptly decided to close down its Los Angeles film booking office and move its entire operation to headquarters in Kansas City. Local reps for the theater chain were given the option of headin' out to Missour,i but many weren't ready to quickly uproot on this cattle drive. Most of the national theater chains - including Regal and Loews - have L.A. offices for the strategic and political edge of being close to studio distribution. Even Canada's Famous Players chain has a SoCal office. Response from key distributors was less than enthusiastic, tinged by shakeups in AMC's booking department that will see long standing alliances broken and new relationships established. The majors won't be adding K.C. to their travel itinerary and one division chief said he's been told that the circuit's new head booker, Sonny Gurley, is committed to spending a week in Los Angeles every month to deal with the circuit's needs. - by Leonard Klady

Weekend Estimates - March 25-27, 2005

Title	Distributor	Gross (average)	% change	Theaters	Cume
Guess Who	Sony	21.6 (6,870)	-	3147	21.6
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous	WB	14.4 (4,450)	-	3233	17.5
The Ring Two	DreamWorks	14.3 (4,290)	-59%	3341	58.5
Robots	Fox	13.1 (3,820)	-38%	3431	87.5
The Pacifer	BV	8.4 (2,720)	-33%	3102	86.4
Hitch	Sony	4.2 (1,890)	-35%	2233	166.4
Hostage	Miramax	3.9 (1,990)	-34%	1977	26
Ice Princess	BV	3.7 (1,500)	-45%	2501	13.3
Be Cool	MGM	2.8 (1,460)	-53%	1883	52.3
Million Dollar Baby	WB	2.5 (1,470)	-37%	1710	94.1
The Upside of Anger	New Line	1.2 (7,510)	-32%	167	4
Constantine	WB	1.2 (1,220)	-47%	1005	72.7
Diary of a Mad Black Woman	Lions Gate	1.0 (1,290)	-57%	802	49.4
Melinda and Melinda	Fox Searchlight	.81 (8,520)	993%	95	1.04
Sideways	Fox Searchlight	.63 (1,530)	-32%	413	70.5
Bride and Prejudice	Miramax	.53 (2,040)	-17%	261	5.6
Millions	Fox Searchlight	.52 (6,750)	156%	77	0.9
Downfall	Newmarket	.51 (3,990)	-14%	128	2
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films)		$95.30	-	-	-
% Change (Last Year)	-	-16%	-	-	-
% Change (Last Week)	-	-13%	-	-	-
Also Debuting/Expanding
La Vie avec mon pere	Christal	.12 (3,870)	-	32	0.12
Old Boy	Tartan	61,500 (12,300)	-	5	0.06
The Ballad of Jack and Rose	IFC	60,000 (15,010)	-	4	0.06
D.E.B.S.	Miramax	58,200 (1,290)	-	45	0.06
Nina's Tragedies	Wellspring	22,400 (5,600)	-	4	0.02
Mondovino	Thinkfilm	10,300 (10,300)	-	1	0.01

DomesticGrosses: Jan 1 - March 17, 2005

Hitch	Sony	152,845,138
Meet the Fockers *	Uni	143,855,120
Million Dollar Baby *	WB	86,037,879
Are We There Yet?	Sony	79,835,019
The Aviator *	Mrmx/WB	75,424,502
Constantine	WB	68,056,792
Coach Carter	Par	66,364,794
The Pacifier	BV	59,740,454
White Noise	Uni/TVA	56,247,853
Hide and Seek	Fox	50,557,998
Racing Stripes	WB	47,908,253
Sideways *	Fox Searchlight	47,703,759
Boogeyman	Sony	46,277,460
In Good Company	Uni	45,438,314
Diary of a Mad Black Woman	Lions Gate	45,264,893
Robots	Fox	45,041,802
Be Cool	MGM	41,403,036
The Phantom of the Opera *	WB	36,892,679
Lemony Snicket's … Unfortunate Events	Par	32,885,212
The Wedding Date	Uni/Equinoxe	31,152,875
* does not include 2004 box office

 

Domestic Market Share: To March 17, 2005

Distributor (releases)	Gross	Percentage
Sony (9)	324.5	18.80%
Warner Bros. (10)	294.4	17.10%
Universal (8)	275.9	16.00%
Fox (7)	178.2	10.40%
Miramax (8)	141.5	8.20%
Buena Vista (9)	126.7	7.40%
Paramount (5)	104.3	6.00%
MGM (4)	63.2	3.70%
Lions Gate (5)	55.9	3.20%
Fox Searchlight (5)	51.6	3.00%
New Line (7)	27.2	1.60%
Focus (3)	21.6	1.20%
Sony Classics (7)	17.3	1.10%
Other * (69)	39	2.30%
* none greater than 0.6%	1721.3	100.00%