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

April 10, 2005 Weekend Estimates Top Domestic Grosses Market Share Spring Break In an otherwise arid movie going period, Sahara swept up an estimated $18.4 million to emerge as top choice at the box office. It was a swing and a miss commercially for the bow of Fever Pitch that ranked third with $13.2 million and the best news was in the niches where Kung Fu Hustle generated a very potent $39,000 average from seven engagements. The bottom line sank dramatically. Overall business was the lowest thus far in 2005 and theater owners are crossing their fingers that lamb-entable early April will in fact exit like a lion. The week was anticipated to be a tight race between the debuts of the adventure yarn Sahara and the romantic-comedy with Red Sox, Fever Pitch. The latter film appeared well on its way to bagging the b.o. Pennant based on Friday matinees and upbeat reviews that its older appeal audience might have read. But the elation was short lived and Sahara left its competitor choking dust. Sahara, based on the Clive Cussler novel, had a tortuous production history that sent its budget soaring to a cost rumored to be as high as $150 million. While its weekend tally was better than anticipated, the picture had to gross close to $40 million to provide its production company Crusader Entertainment with the juice to recoup its investment. It might still surprise pundits if its overseas box office more than doubles its domestic performance. Fever Pitch also looks like a commercial grounder. It slipped in just behind the second weekend gross of Sin City that's been playing better than expected considering its single quadrant appeal. However, with the possible exception of Japan, its second act prospects internationally bode even worse than a Red Sox miracle. Overall business was at its lowest in a year that can already be characterized as depressed. The weekend tally should scrape up slightly more than $85 million for an 18% decline from the prior frame and an even more dire 26% drop from 2004. Last year's box office leader The Passion of the Christ grossed about $15 million but a significantly larger number of films in theaters were posting better than $500,000 during the three-day span. The current box office is trailing last year's record by about 7%. One of the first quarter's plus notes, The Pacifier, crossed $100 million on Sunday. The season has certainly had its share of unexpected hits but they've just been less plentiful than in year's past. Asian box office star Stephen Chow finally received a North American embrace reflective of his foreign dynamism with Kung Fu Hustle generating about $270,000 from seven well-appointed screens. The antic mix of action and comedy still has many hurdles to clear as it expands but it's already his biggest hit in the Far East where it's grossed more than $65 million. The rest of the freshmen entries in limited and regional release proved unexceptional. The Bollywood circuit Lucky grossed a tepid $110,000 from 44 screens while the American indie Winter Solstice eked out close to $20,000 from five locations. There were also disappointing returns for the Canadian Rockyesque Saint Ralph that bowed in 14 theaters to a weekend tally of about $37,500. The specialized allure of the three parter Eros provided a not terribly sexy $55,000 from 12 venues and the good intentioned Smile proved expressionless with a bit more than $19,000 from 60 playdates that translated to a less than happy face $320 average. - by Leonard Klady

Weekend Estimates - April 8-10, 2005

Title	Distributor	Gross (average)	% change	Theaters	Cume
Sahara	Par	18.4 (5,840)	-	3154	18.4
Sin City	Miramax	13.4 (4,160)	-54%	3230	50
Fever Pitch	Fox	13.2 (4,040)	-	3267	13.2
Guess Who	Sony	7.3 (2,390)	-42%	3064	51.3
Beauty Shop	MGM	7.0 (2,630)	-46%	2659	26.3
Robots	Fox	4.6 (1,710)	-53%	2713	111
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous	WB	4.0 (1,320)	-51%	3011	37.3
The Pacifer	BV	3.1 (1,310)	-46%	2375	100.6
The Ring Two	DreamWorks	2.9 (1,200)	-49%	2407	72.3
The Upside of Anger	New Line	2.5 (2,130)	-39%	1151	12.2
Hitch	Sony	1.7 (1,140)	-42%	1478	173.8
Ice Princess	BV	1.4 (970)	-50%	1419	20.8
Hostage	Miramax	1.2 (930)	-49%	1269	32.2
Million Dollar Baby	WB	.77 (900)	-48%	857	97.9
Melinda and Melinda	Fox Searchlight	.53 (1,800)	-5%	294	2.5
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films)		$81.80	-	-	-
% Change (Last Year)	-	-26%	-	-	-
% Change (Last Week)	-	-18%	-	-	-
Also Debuting/Expanding
Millions	Fox Searchlight	.43 (2,450)	-11%	176	2.1
Downfall	Newmarket	.32 (1,850)	-40%	173	3.8
Kung Fu Hustle	Sony Classics	.27 (39,020)	-	7	0.27
Lucky	Eros	.11 (2,460)	-	44	0.11
Eros	WIP	55,400 (4,620)	-	12	0.06
Saint Ralph	Alliance	37,500 (2,680)	-	14	0.04
Winter Solstace	Par Classics	19,400 (3,890)	-	5	0.02
Smile	Innovation	19,300 (320)	-	60	0.02
Chrystal	First Look	16,200 (4,060)	-	4	0.02
Les Etats-Unis d'Albert	Christal	8,700 (1,740)	-	5	0.01

Top Limited Releases - Jan 1 - Mar 31, 2005

Title	Gross	Percentage
Bride and Prejudice	Mrmx	5,767,756
Beyond the Sea	Lions Gate	5,307,776
The Upside of Anger	NLC	4,578,771
Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior	Magnolia/Alliance	4,457,136
A Very Long Engagement	WIP	4,318,390
Being Julia	Sony Class/Think	4,212,096
Aliens of the Deep	BV	3,996,885
Kinsey	Fox Searchlight	3,929,716
Bad Education	Sony Class/Seville	3,661,478
The Merchant of Venice	Sony Classics	3,279,268
Born into Brothels	Thinkfilm	2,543,138
Downfall	Newmarket	2,519,920
The Work and the Glory	Excel	2,154,612
Space Station	Imax	1,768,443
The Sea Inside	NLC	1,697,312
Vera Drake	NLC	1,669,563
Ma Vie en Cinemascope	Alliance	1,579,858
The Woodsman	Newmarket	1,445,149
Les Choristes	Alliance/Mrmx	1,378,912
Maman Last Call	Christal	1,360,563
* no more than 588 playdates

Top Domestic Grosses: January 1 - April 7, 2005

Title	Distributor	Gross
Hitch	Sony	172,062,377
Meet the Fockers *	Uni	145,323,520
Robots	Fox	106,388,462
The Pacifier	BV	97,449,980
Million Dollar Baby *	WB	96,281,440
Are We There Yet?	Sony	80,856,111
Aviator *	Mrmx/WB	77,877,109
Constantine	WB	73,893,618
The Ring Two	DmWks	69,411,889
Coach Carter	Par	67,014,819
White Noise	Uni/TVA	56,386,759
Be Cool	MGM	54,827,188
Hide and Seek	Fox	50,910,541
Sideways *	Fox Searchlight	50,218,949
Diary of a Mad Black Woman	Lions Gate	50,141,311
Racing Stripes	WB	48,794,808
Boogeyman	Sony	46,476,484
In Good Company	Uni	45,607,978
Guess Who	Sony	44,003,228
The Phantom of the Opera *	WB	37,463,207
* no more than 588 playdates

 

Domestic Market Share: To April 7, 2005

Company (releases)	Box Office	Percentage
Sony (11)	391.5	18.10%
Warner Bros. (11)	346.5	16.00%
Universal (8)	278.4	12.90%
Fox (7)	241.9	11.20%
Miramax (10)	201.9	9.30%
Buena Vista (10)	186.9	8.60%
Paramount (5)	105.3	4.80%
MGM (5)	97.2	4.50%
DreamWorks (2)	71.1	3.30%
Lions Gate (5)	60.8	2.80%
Fox Searchlight (6)	58.2	2.70%
New Line (7)	37.4	1.70%
Focus (3)	21.6	1.00%
Sony Classics (9)	18.7	0.90%
Other * (82)	48	2.20%
* none greater than .06%	2165.4	100.00%