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

May 15, 2005 Weekend Finals Worldwide Grossers Market Share Lemon Aid A couple of comedies and a human canine provided a little bit of zest to weekend movie going. Absence may have made the heart go Fonda as Monster-in-Law nosed ahead of the sports themed comedy Kicking and Screaming with the two films posting respective estimated grosses of $22.9 million and $21 million. There was also a strong showing for Jet Li's Unleashed that ranked third with $10.3 million but not much action for Mindhunters that eked out $1.9 million in its debut. Overall the new titles propelled the box office to about $103 million for an encouraging 17% boost from the prior weekend. But business continued to lag behind 2004 by double-digits. While critical response was icy, Monster-in-Law capitalized on its high concept theme and the star combination of Fonda and JLo to bring in opening weekend patrons. Emerging as a distaff Meet the Parents, the film's core appeal was unsurprisingly female and not quite as young as past vehicles for Lopez. Opening day was modestly softer than anticipated but the picture had a better than expected boost on Saturday. Aimed at teens and younger, Kicking and Screaming looked a lot like Bad News Bears for soccer fans and played pretty much like a family film despite star Will Ferrell's sometime risque banter. The top two films weren't particular stepping on each other's toes and wound up positioning themselves well on the cusp on the summer season's upcoming on-slaught of movies. Unlike past years, summer 2005 is starting later than usual as last weekend's bow of Kingdom of Heaven failed to ignite early May biz. The season was well underway 12 months ago with Troy debuting with $46.9 million and Van Helsing dropping precipitously in its sophomore session to $20.7 million for a weekend tally 10% greater than the current one. However, the doldrums are expected to lift Wednesday midnight with the final installment of the Star Wars saga. Industry mavens are crossing their fingers that the film's four-day run will hit $100 million but in the wake of recent lackluster attendance would stomach a $90 million domestic gross and shudder at the prospect of a $75 million first wave. The current weekend finally made Clint Eastwood's movie a $100 million Baby. This year's best picture Oscar recipient passed the same milestone internationally last weekend. Also debuting nationally was the Luc Besson production Unleashed with a quick kick of $10.3 million. The film opened in France (as Danny the Dog) and a few other European territories two months ago where it grossed an impressive $6 million plus tally. Miramax continued to unload its inventory with Mindhunters and scraped together about $1.9 million in its opening frame. The thriller played extensively in Europe and Asia last year and had fair returns of roughly $12 million. It shapes up as a quick candidate for video and cable rotation. Most holdover titles were experiencing 50% hits with the notable exception of Crash. Virtually the only film in the marketplace for mature audiences, the social drama slipped just 27% in its second weekend and could well maintain commercial legs through the July 4th weekend. Among the niche players, eyes were focused most sharply on the Brit gangster opus Layer Cake that commanded slightly better than $70,000 from 10 engagements. Sony Classics is orchestrating a national expansion much in the manner it blew out Kung Fu Hustle. The latter film's domestic performance has been hotly debated in industry circles chiefly in respect to the cost and effort to elevate its box office to $16 million and its rapid commercial immolation. Hustle had already grossed $66 million in Asia, so the bold move may pay off for future Asian and niche releases in a more demonstrable fashion. The best first steps of the weekend were planted by the documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, an audience pleaser centering around very young kids in ballroom dancing competition. In two exclusives it grossed around $45,000 and could well tap into the crowd that responded to Spellbound two years ago. The single screen non-fiction psycho-profile of Haskell Wexler - Tell Them Who You Are - was off to a shaky start with a $5,000 return from a single screen. There was good response to the French award winner Kings and Queen with a $15,000 plus box office from two venues but Modigliani largely got a commercial brush off as it eight ateliers rendered a sketchy $31,000 return. - by Leonard Klady

Weekend Estimates - May 13-15, 2005

Title	Distributor	Gross (average)	% change	Theaters	Cume
Monster-in-Law	New Line	22.9 (6,690)	-	3424	22.9
Kicking and Screaming	Uni	21.0 (6,080)	-	3455	21
Unleashed	Focus	10.3 (5,270)	-	1955	10.3
Kingdom of Heaven	Fox	9.3 (2,900)	-53%	3219	34.8
Crash	Lions Gate	6.7 (3,570)	-27%	1876	19.3
House of Wax	WB	6.2 (1,980)	-49%	3111	21.6
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	BV	4.8 (1,720)	-51%	2770	43.2
The Interpreter	Uni	4.5 (1,740)	-42%	2602	61.1
XxX: State of the Union	Sony	2.1 (890)	-62%	2387	24.3
Mindhunters	Miramax	1.9 (1,790)	-	1040	1.9
Sahara	Par	1.7 (1,100)	-49%	1585	64.3
The Amityville Horror	MGM	1.6 (1,130)	-52%	1434	63.1
A Lot Like Love	BV	1.1 (700)	-66%	1522	20.8
Fever Pitch	Fox	.81 (830)	-64%	975	40.5
Robots	Fox	.57 (680)	-49%	839	125.6
Kung Fu Hustle	Sony Classics	.52 (1,220)	-57%	425	15.8
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films)		$96.00	-	-	-
% Change (Last Year)	-	-10%	-	-	-
% Change (Last Week)	-	17%	-	-	-
Also Debuting/Expanding
Millions	Fox Searchlight	.25 (1,130)	-46%	223	5.6
Layer Cake	Sony Classics	72,400 (7,240)	-	10	0.07
Mad Hot Ballroom	Par Classics	45,700 (22,850)	-	2	0.04
Modigliani	Innovation	31,300 (3,910)	-	8	0.03
Kings and Queen	Wellspring	15,240 (7,620)	-	2	0.01
Ma Mere	TLA	11,600 (5,800)	-	2	0.01
Tell Them Who You Are	Thinkfilm	5,080 (5,080)	-	1	0.01

Worldwide Grossers: To May 12, 2005

Title	Distributor	Gross
Meet the Fockers	Uni	369,892,924
Hitch	Sony	358,439,991
Robots	Fox	232,232,327
Constantine	WB	224,827,605
Million Dollar Baby	WB/Lakeshore	200,881,645
The Aviator	Miramx/Initial	179,741,255
Ocean's Twelve	WB	176,286,754
The Pacifier	BV	158,169,068
The Incredibles	BV	154,597,638
The Ring Two	DmWks/UIP	154,263,746
National Treasure	BV	131,213,038
Hide and Seek	Fox	119,733,325
The Interpreter	Uni	108,130,788
The Phantom of the Opera	WB/Odyssey	107,009,595
Alexander	WB/I.S.Film	97,136,884
Are We There Yet?	Sony	96,178,162
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous	WB	95,973,077
Be Cool	MGM	92,543,072
Sahara	Par/I.S. Film	90,090,749
Lemony Snicket's … Unfortunate Events	Par	89,487,016
* does not include 2004 box office

Domestic Market Share: To May 5, 2005

Company (Releases)	Box Office	Percentage
Sony (12)	444.9	16.30%
Warner Bros. (13)	380.9	13.90%
Universal (9)	335.8	12.30%
Fox (9)	326.8	12.00%
Buena Vista (12)	263.9	9.70%
Miramax (10)	243.3	8.90%
MGM (8)	177.5	6.50%
Paramount (6)	168.2	6.20%
DreamWorks (2)	77.7	2.80%
Lions Gate (8)	75.9	2.80%
Fox Searchlight (6)	64.1	2.30%
New Line (9)	50.4	1.80%
Sony Classics (11)	35.4	1.30%
Focus (3)	21.6	0.80%
Other * (106)	65.6	2.40%
* none greater than .06%	2732	100.00%