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

April 17, 2005 Weekend Estimates Top Domestic Grosses Market Share Not With A Whimper .. But A Bang The past played a major part in weekend film going as The Amityville Horror ascended to the top of the charts with an estimated $23.1 million. The haunted house chiller that originally shocked audiences back in 1979 via Filmways - the company that rose from the ashes of American International and scattered to the wind a short time later - remains one of the top grossing independent releases. The new Amityville is the last major release of MGM as a free-standing production-distribution entity and provided Leo with one last commercial roar on his 81st birthday. The company will still exist in some form as part of Sony Entertainment but its crawl into the lair has elicited an unusual amount of nostalgia for a long faded past. The remake was the sole national debut and, despite posting strong numbers and the resilient holds of Sahara and Fever Pitch, ticket sales continued to decline. Overall business clawed to roughly $82 million to register a 6% decline from last weekend and trail the comparable 2005 frame by 24%. A year ago the debut of Kill Bill, Vol. 2 topped the box office with $25.1 million followed by the bow of The Punisher with $13.8 million. Both Sahara and Fever Pitch experienced roughly 30% erosion to finish in place and show positions with respective grosses of $12.5 million and $8.7 million. Other holdover titles displayed relative strength but the paucity of new releases resulted in a continued lethargy in the marketplace. Next weekend's bow of The Interpreter along with A Lot Like Love and King's Ransom are expected to is expected to boost business but whether it can surpass the prior year's gross remains in question. Also expanding next weekend is Kung Fu Hustle, the Chinese action-comedy that set box office records in Asia earlier this year. Its current exploitation on seven screens generated an impressive $31,700 average and hopes are high that its roll out to 2,000 theaters can replicate recent Eastern successes such as Crouching Tiger and Hero. Activity in the niches was fierce but the best performers had to be tagged encouraging rather than outstanding. There was a rather unusual configuration of three sports related documentaries on view with Down and Derby aggressively setting out with 58 playdates that generated a disappointing $48,000. Up a notch was the courtly Year of the Yao with just shy of $30,000 from 12 venues and the baseball controversy Up for Grabs tallied $7,400 on a single screen from home team fans in San Francisco. Best of the incoming titles was Todd Solondz offbeat drama Palindromes with a sturdy $59,000 b.o. from seven engagements. There was also considerable heat for David Duchovny's House of D despite generally poor reviews. The film grossed about $31,000 from two screens. In Quebec, the French musical hit Podium failed to translate with a $20,000 box office from 16 outings. The offbeat saga of a contemporary remixer It's All Gone Pete Tong - named best Canadian film at the Toronto fest - bowed on a single Manhattan screen with a tuneful $18,800. The film has yet to open commercially in Canada. - by Leonard Klady

Weekend Estimates - April 15-17, 2005

Title	Distributor	Gross (average)	% change	Theaters	Cume
The Amityville Horror	MGM	23.1 (6,960)	-	3323	23.1
Sahara	Par	12.5 (3,960)	-31%	3154	35.8
Fever Pitch	Fox	8.7 (2,670)	-30%	3275	23.9
Sin City	Miramax	6.7 (2,250)	-52%	3002	61.4
Guess Who	Sony	5.0 (1,680)	-28%	2999	52.7
Beauty Shop	MGM	3.7 (1,640)	-46%	2260	31.2
Robots	Fox	3.5 (1,420)	-24%	2476	115.7
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous	WB	2.9 (1,160)	-31%	2625	41.6
The Pacifer	BV	2.4 (1,150)	-24%	2068	103.7
The Upside of Anger	New Line	1.9 (1,650)	-23%	1166	15
The Ring Two	DreamWorks	1.4 (740)	-51%	1917	74.4
Hitch	Sony	1.2 (1,000)	-30%	1204	175.4
Ice Princess	BV	.88 (770)	-42%	1138	22.1
State Property 2	Lions Gate	.82 (4,060)	-	202	1.15
Hostage	Miramax	.76 (810)	-37%	934	33.4
Millions	Fox Searchlight	.65 (2,590)	49%	251	2.9
Million Dollar Baby	WB	.59 (650)	-16%	902	98.7
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films)		$81.39	-	-	-
% Change (Last Year)		-22%	-	-	-
% Change (Last Week)		-6%	-	-	-
Also Debuting/Expanding
Melinda and Melinda	Fox Searchlight	.41 (1,360)	-21%	302	3
Kung Fu Hustle	Sony Classics	.22 (31,710)	-20%	7	0.6
Palindromes	Wellspring	59,300 (8,480)	-	7	0.06
Down and Derby	Innovation	48,200 (830)	-	58	0.05
House of D	Lions Gate	31,500 (15,750)	-	2	0.03
The Year of the Yao	New Line	29,600 (2,470)	-	12	0.03
Podium	Christal	20,260 (1,270)	-	16	0.02
It's All Gone Pete Tong	Matson	18,800 (18,800)	-	1	0.02
Up for Grabs	LZF	7,400 (7,400)	-	1	0.01

 

Title	Distributor	Gross
Meet the Fockers	Uni	367,382,327
Hitch	Sony	339,219,090
Constantine	WB	197,451,080
Robots	Fox	197,209,231
The Aviator	Miramx/Initial	184,679,990
Million Dollar Baby	WB/Lakeshore	183,596,027
Ocean's Twelve	WB	175,758,525
The Incredibles	BV	143,673,244
National Treasure	BV	136,407,079
The Ring Two	DmWks/UIP	133,289,957
The Pacifier	BV	110,470,113
Hide and Seek	Fox	106,010,641
The Phantom of the Opera	WB/Odyssey	102,982,795
Alexander	WB/I.S.Film	95,328,716
Are We There Yet?	Sony	94,407,542
Howl's Moving Castle	Toho	88,122,439
Closer	Sony	85,223,615
Sideways	Fox Searchlight	84,710,109
Finding Neverland	Miramax	84,088,316
Lemony Snicket's … Unfortunate Events	Par	83,959,647
* does not include 2004 box office

Top Domestic Grosses: January 1 - April 14, 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 14, 2005

Company (releases)	Box Office	Percentage
Sony (11)	402.7	17.70%
Warner Bros. (12)	353.6	15.50%
Universal (8)	278.9	12.30%
Fox (8)	263.1	11.60%
Miramax (10)	222.1	9.80%
Buena Vista (10)	193.1	8.50%
Paramount (6)	128.7	5.60%
MGM (5)	105.9	4.70%
DreamWorks (2)	74.7	3.30%
Lions Gate (6)	61.3	2.70%
Fox Searchlight (6)	59.6	2.60%
New Line (7)	40.9	1.80%
Focus (3)	21.6	0.90%
Sony Classics (9)	19.4	0.80%
Other * (82)	50.9	2.20%
* none greater than .06%	2276.5	100.00%