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

May 8, 2005 Weekend Finals Market Share Anyone Seen My Keys?? The epic sweep of the Crusades largely resided beneath a Persian carpet as Kingdom of Heaven crawled to the top of weekend film going with an estimated $19.5 million. Business was also on the soft side for the cheap thrills of House of Wax that resided in second place with $12.4 million and there was marginally better news for the more sober sided entertainment of Crash that ranked fourth with $8.8 million. It all added up to an epic decline at the box office that has the industry doing some serious soul searching. While domestic response to Kingdom of Heaven was disappointing, results internationally were buoyant with overseas estimates cutting a mighty swath of about $56 million. The film bowed in 97 territories with only Japan and China missing from the worldwide assault. The picture was the top attraction in all major markets with Germany posting the heftiest gross of $7 million, followed by Spain ($5.2 million), the U.K. ($4.8 million), South Korea (S4 million), Mexico ($2.8 million), Russia ($2.2 million) and Australia ($2 million). The picture had been put under an industry microscope as it entered the fray. And even considering such factors as subject matter and a depressed marketplace was expected to post a $25 million plus opening. But, as with other recent high profile films, it fell short of expectations. Armchair quarterbacking has attempted to compare star Orlando Bloom's appeal to that of Brad Pitt or Colin Farrell of Troy and Alexander. However, it seems unlikely that star power was a key factor to the film's tepid debut. The past decade has been dominated by selling the sizzle and the experience of the past year has execs at all the majors questioning the degree that advertising and marketing can compensate for movies that cannot sustain their hype. While costs are always a primary concern, there's actually been serious examination about content and craft and that's a discussion worth continuing. The bow of House of Wax was also tamer than had been anticipated but the chiller was never viewed as better than programmer fare with rich ancillary potential. Considerably better was the opening of the ensemble drama Crash with a per theater average of roughly $4,700. While hardly a runaway success, the effort to reach beyond an art house crowd was largely achieved and paves the way for the picture to be an alternate choice in a marketplace that is ramping up for a summer of amusement ride events. Once again ticket and box office figures were on the ebb with the frame headed toward an $86 million tally. Sales dipped 6% from seven days earlier and experienced a seismic 25% decline from 2004. A year ago Van Helsing had a comparatively hefty $51.7 million premiere and no one particularly wants to comparative shop that result with current returns. Holdover titles were also tasking harder than usual hits with most movies experiencing 40% to 50% declines. Last week's freshmen Hitchhiker's Guide and XXX: State of the Union both experienced erosions of 56 percent. The situation in niche and specialized isn't much of an alternative either. None of the incoming entries displayed significant potency. The comedy Jiminy Glick in LaLa Wood raised more hackles than yucks as it sputtered to little more than $40,000 from 47 screens. Other limited bows included the boxing meller Fighting Tommy Riley with an unfavorable $8,750 decision from five bouts and Danish import Brothers grossing $7,400 from two engagements. - by Leonard Klady

Weekend Finals - May 6-8, 2005

		Title	Distrib	Weekend	% Change	Theaters	Cume	Wks
1	New	Kingdom of Heaven	Fox	19,635,996		3216	19,635,996	1
2	New	House of Wax	WB	12,077,236		3111	12,077,236	1
3	1	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	BV	9,792,648	-54%	3133	35,782,098	2
4	New	Crash	Lions Gate	9,107,071		1864	9,107,071	1
5	2	The Interpreter	Uni	7,822,950	-44%	2814	54,403,865	3
6	3	XxX: State of the Union	Sony	5,520,628	-57%	3480	20,902,584	2
7	5	Sahara	Par	3,427,881	-40%	2516	61,664,541	5
8	4	The Amityville Horror	MGM	3,347,651	-57%	2478	60,308,453	4
9	6	A Lot Like Love	BV	3,156,096	-38%	2153	18,912,009	3
10	7	Fever Pitch	Fox	2,227,184	-37%	1541	39,248,456	5
11	8	Kung Fu Hustle	Sony Classics	1,197,805	-64%	904	14,725,074	5
12	10	Guess Who	Sony	1,186,321	-45%	1127	67,130,114	7
13	9	Robots	Fox	1,108,031	-51%	1306	124,758,041	10
14	11	Sin City	Miramax	861,023	-57%	1002	72,212,418	6
15	12	The Pacifier	BV	817,575	-40%	834	109,447,891	10
16	13	Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fab	WB	531,333	-49%	570	46,741,786	7
17	16	Millions	Fox Searchlight	470,699	-22%	297	5,232,003	9
18	14	Beauty Shop	MGM	422,098	-53%	458	36,048,754	6
19	20	Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room	Magnolia	404,998	-2%	98	1,079,756	3
20	25	Constantine	WB	378,109	100%	291	75,162,258	12
21	17	The Upside of Anger	New Line	297,926	-50%	536	18,204,200	9
22	27	Million Dollar Baby	WB	260,338	49%	390	99,851,398	20
23	19	Hitch	Sony	253,246	-43%	296	177,575,142	13
24	18	Le Survenant	Alliance	186,089	-61%	108	1,769,509	3
25	21	Ice Princess	BV	173,929	-51%	310	23,829,835	8
26	15	King's Ransom	New Line	166,866	-80%	337	3,868,969	3
27	22	The Ring Two	DreamWorks	144,991	-38%	351	75,888,270	8
28	26	Are We There Yet?	Sony	138,845	-27%	211	82,036,247	15
29	28	Look at Me	Sony Class/Seville	132,443	-22%	58	1,184,108	28
30	33	Ladies in Lavender	IDP	122,990	-18%	26	337,660	2
31	24	Downfall	Newmarket	119,521	-43%	131	5,093,990	12
32	30	National Treasure	BV	111,175	-32%	165	172,818,622	25
33	35	Walk on Water	IDP	105,798	-24%	45	1,495,189	10
34	39	The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill	Shadow	105,385	3%	49	1,555,614	13
35	32	Because of Winn-Dixie	Fox	103,019	-33%	230	32,377,144	12
36	42	Aliens of the Deep	BV	88,614	-4%	23	5,020,663	15
37	31	Waqt - The Race Against Time	Eros	84,102	-47%	44	766,782	3
38	48	Palindromes	Wellspring	72,634	15%	46	323,191	4
39	36	Man of the House	Sony	71,770	-35%	104	19,718,659	11
40	41	Dear Frankie	Miramax	66,527	-28%	73	1,119,955	9
41	29	Kaal	Yash Raj	65,548	-60%	40	281,539	2
42	40	Melinda and Melinda	Fox Searchlight	60,794	-40%	76	3,660,377	8
43	47	Space Station	Imax	58,743	-10%	12	59,326,429	159
44	81	Diary of a Mad Black Woman	Lions Gate	57,685	265%	139	50,537,817	11
45	49	Off the Map	Holedigger	48,233	-22%	53	1,067,335	9
46	38	The Aviator	Miramax/WB	43,070	-60%	138	102,511,315	21
47	52	Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey	Giant Screen	41,248	-9%	12	8,423,464	133
48	45	Be Cool	MGM	40,038	-49%	94	55,993,882	10
49	51	Racing Stripes	WB	38,441	-30%	94	49,186,871	16
50	37	Hostage	Miramax	36,631	-67%	92	34,378,145	9
51	New	Jiminy Glick in LaLaWood	MGM/Equinoxe	36,058		43	36,058	1
52	43	Meet the Fockers	Uni	34,317	-61%	77	279,234,617	20
53	46	Boogeyman	Sony	31,941	-59%	69	46,934,186	14
54	53	Born into Brothels	Thinkfilm	31,653	-29%	30	3,320,407	22
55	23	House of D	Lions Gate	30,386	-86%	122	371,081	4
56	50	Dust to Glory	IFC	29,160	-48%	39	600,470	6
57	57	Bugs!	SK Film	28,963	-26%	20	15,383,801	111
58	58	Oldboy	Tartan	28,301	-26%	26	522,514	6
59	60	Happily Ever After	Kino/Seville	27,734	-17%	14	116,753	4
60	56	Winter Solstice	Par Classics	26,553	-36%	39	212,057	5
61	72	3-iron	Sony Classics	24,471	22%	19	53,307	2
62	34	Madison	MGM	24,098	-84%	49	508,867	3
63	64	The Holy Girl	New Line	21,069	-26%	2	61,985	2
64	68	Adrenaline Rush: The Science of Risk	Giant Screen	20,895	-11%	6	9,409,494	132
65	62	Son of the Mask	New Line	18,589	-37%	40	17,074,513	12
66	54	Phantom of the Opera	WB	18,358	-58%	65	51,225,796	20

Weekend Estimates - May 6-8, 2005

Title	Distributor	Gross (average)	% change	Theaters	Cume
Kingdom of Heaven	Fox	19.5 (6,070)