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

June 5, 2005 Weekend Finals Limited Grossers Market Share Sleeping Beauty Man ... Madagascar animated itself to the mane position at the weekend box office with an estimated $28.9 million in a frame where the top pictures were once again tightly clustered. The top three titles repeated last weekend's report though their positions shifted. The Longest Yard followed with roughly $26.2 million and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith ranked third with $25.9 million. A trio of new titles all bowed below expectations and that added up to dramatically lower box office returns from 2004. The highest hopes were pinned on Cinderella Man that had done national sneaks one week ago. The true life Depression-era saga of family and fisticuffs ranked fourth with about $18.8 million. The high profile upscale production was expected to be more of a contender with a real shot to take the heavyweight box office crown in its opening bout. And despite reel star presence and generally positive critical response the film wasn't quite as powerful as Seabiscuit's 2003 bow of $20.1 million that ultimately generated a $120 million box office. The film's ability to keep on punching likely rests on revising its campaign to accentuate its family and romantic elements. The session's other two freshmen - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Lords of Dogtown - both struggled with reaching out beyond their respective core appeal. Traveling Pants, based on a youth novel, had built in appeal to young women who responded in sufficient force to generate a $10.1 million weekend. The film entered the fray on Wednesday and grossed an additional $3.7 million in its first two days. Reviews were also generally good and its banking on word-of-mouth to sustain its gross and create crossover interest. Dogtown, inspired by a true story and the non-fiction Dogtown and Z-Boys, has a much harder hurdle to clear. It bowed in seventh spot with $5.6 million and reviewers mostly gave it inferior marks to the documentary. The yarn charts the birth of extreme skateboarders and grabbed the attention of young males opening day. But Saturday's business fell by 30% and likely will never find a second wind. The weekend tally struggled to about $134 million for a 28% decline from the 3-day portion of last weekend's holiday span. However, it was 30% behind the comparable 2004 weekend when the third Harry Potter movie bowed to a seismic $93 million. Movie going has entered its fourth month of consistent declines from the prior year and now lags by 9% for the year to date. Newcomers in the specialized arena were also largely uninspired with the non-fiction Rock School - the debut release of the newly rechristened Picturehouse (the new Newmarket) -strumming up a discordant $27,500 from 32 engagements. Americans proved uncharacteristically more responsive to the French romantic comedy Apres vous than their Quebec counterparts. It's $34,300 debut saw the U.S. portion embrace roughly $25,000 of the total from three of the nine playdates. Other new entries include fair to poor results for the Italian import Catarina in the Big City with $9,800 from two screens; the ecologically friendly doc Deep Blue entering shallow waters with $8,400 from two engagements; and the American indie Milwaukee, Minnesota geographically challenged with $8,200 from a trio of theaters. - by Leonard Klady

Weekend Estimates - June 3-5, 2005

Title	Distributor	Gross (average)	% change	Theaters	Cume
Madagascar	DmWks	28.9 (6,970)	-39%	4142	101.2
The Longest Yard	Par	26.2 (7,200)	-45%	3634	95.9
Star Wars: Epi. III - Revenge of the Sith	Fox	25.9 (7,110)	-53%	3650	308.7
Cinderella Man	Uni	18.8 (6,670)	-	2812	18.8
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants	WB	10.1 (3,920)	-	2583	13.9
Monster-in-Law	New Line	5.7 (1,900)	-44%	3025	70.8
Lords of Dogtown	Sony	5.6 (3,020)	-	1865	5.6
Crash	Lions Gate	3.4 (2,610)	-26%	1319	41.1
Kicking and Screaming	Uni	2.2 (1,210)	-57%	1836	47.6
The Interpreter	Uni	.86 (1,250)	-59%	688	70.5
Unleashed	Focus	.71 (1,230)	-62%	575	23.4
Kingdom of Heaven	Fox	.63 (1,100)	-63%	571	46.1
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films)		$129.00	-	-	-
% Change (Last Year)		-30%	-	-	-
% Change (Last Week)		-28%	-	-	-
Also Debuting/Expanding
Mad Hot Ballroom	Par Classics	.36 (3,780)	4%	96	1.2
Apres Vous	Par Class/Christal	34,300 (3,810)	-	9	0.03
Rock School	Picturehouse	27,500 (860)	-	32	0.03
Catarina in the Big City	Empire	9,800 (4,900)	-	2	0.01
Deep Blue	Miramax	8,400 (4,200)	-	2	0.01
Milwaukee, Minnesota	Tartan	8,200 (2,730)	-	3	0.01

Top Limited Releases: To June 2, 2005

Bride and Prejudice	Mrmx	6,605,592
Millions	Fox Searchlight	6,155,249
Aliens of the Deep	BV	5,641,985
Downfall	Newmarket	5,454,195
Beyond the Sea	Lions Gate	5,307,776
Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior	Magnolia/Alliance	4,563,167
A Very Long Engagement	WIP	4,396,424
Being Julia	Sony Class/Think	4,221,165
Space Station	Imax	4,101,436
Kinsey	Fox Searchlight	3,929,716
Melinda and Melinda	Fox Searchlight	3,803,268
Bad Education	Sony Class/Seville	3,740,716
The Merchant of Venice	Sony Classics	3,712,503
Born Into Brothels	Thinkfilm	3,413,334
Enron: The Smartest Guys … Room	Magnolia	2,749,594
Le Survenant	Alliance	2,480,552
The Work and the Glory	Excel	2,313,747
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill	Shadow	2,018,591
The Sea Inside	NLC	1,978,057
Walk on Water	IDP	1,973,306
* no more than 588 playdates

 

Domestic Market Share: To June 2, 2005

Company (releases)	Box Office	Percentage
Fox (10)	633.4	18.50%
Sony (12)	451.2	13.20%
Warner Bros. (15)	401.5	11.70%
Universal (10)	394.4	11.50%
Buena Vista (12)	278.7	8.10%
Miramax (11)	248.9	7.30%
Paramount (7)	241.9	7.10%
MGM (8)	181.4	5.30%
DreamWorks (3)	150.2	4.40%
New Line (10)	116.1	3.40%
Lions Gate (8)	101.1	3.00%
Fox Searchlight (6)	64.9	1.90%
Focus (4)	44.3	1.30%
Sony Classics (13)	38.2	1.10%
Other * (120)	76.9	2.20%
* none greater than 0.5%	3423.1	100.00%