..Gary
Dretzka
..Leonard
Klady
..David
Poland
..Doug
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
Hustle & Sink
July 24, 2005
Weekend Estimates
A quartet of new films entered the fray this weekend but the audience favorites continued to be the prior week's top titles Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Wedding Crashers. Charlie dipped 51% to emerge as the frame's top grosser with an estimated $27.5 million and the comparatively more resilient Crashers slipped just 24% to $25.7 million.
The high profile The Island was lost at sea in third spot with $12.2 million while the remake of The Bad News Bears grounded to fifth with $11.4 million. The violent actioner The Devil's Rejects cut a passable $7.2 million and the only bright light in the bunch was the Sundance urban drama Hustle & Flow that grossed $8 million in slightly more than 1000 theaters.
In the absence of a potent new title, overall business once again experienced a sharp decline, rolling back 17% from the prior weekend and off 11% from 2004. Last year the marketplace got a powerful spike from the opening of The Bourne Supremacy of $52.5 million - more than 30% greater than the gross of the current weekend's combined wide debuts.
The singular and extreme rejection of The Island proved to be a true industry head scratcher. The high-budget futuristic action-adventure was conceived as one of the season's major events and while tracking on the film was soft, expectations were still in the area of $20 million to $25 million and the hope it would edge Charlie out of the top position. The film divided reviewers but audiences were clearly disinterested.
The Island had generally better response in its first overseas dates in Asia, particularly South Korea where it grossed $5.6 million. Overall the film was expected to gross $10.5 million from nine territories including solid results of $900,000 in Taiwan and $800,000 in Thailand. An earthquake centered near Tokyo dampened Japanese box office where the film is expected to do $2 million.
Friday business found The Bad News Bears just a whisker behind The Island and its kid appeal suggesting it would vault into third spot by Sunday. However, rather than displaying the traditional arc, Friday trade reflected a high level of immediate interest and was followed by a 2% box office decline on Saturday.
Arriving as the underdog with moxie, Hustle & Flow provided a great deal more than hype. It's $8 million bow and $7,970 theater average immediately ranked it as Paramount Classics' all-time top grossing picture and its combination of adult and urban appeal should continue to sustain into the fall. There's already Oscar buzz for headliner Terence Howard.
Following up on House of 1000 Corpses rocker-filmmaker Rob Zombie provided another fast and cheap outing with The Devil's Rejects. Its $7.2 million bow should provide sufficient juice for ancillary exploitation to turn a nice profit.
Holdover fare was generally sturdy and audiences appeared to be catching up on titles it had missed. The not unexpected drop for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory nonetheless pushed the film past $100 million in its ninth day of release and the exceptional word-of-mouth on Wedding Crashers has virtually equaled the lifetime domestic gross for Monster in Law.
March of the Penguins continued to expand to great success and its current $9.1 million domestic gross (with more additions in the offing) will easily glide past the $11 million tally of Winged Migration. The ethnographic yarn is Warner Independent's best performer since hanging its shingle out 18 months ago.
In niche and specialized areas, the Bollywood entry Viruddh generated a disappointing $143,000 at 37 venues. The sector has had a string of potent releases in 2005 following generally moribund results that plagued much of the prior year.
A mixed bag of limited openers included initially encouraging results for the Kurt Cobain inspired Last Days and the sexual provocative Nine Songs. Both films rang up theater averages in excess of $7,000 with Days grossing about $93,000 at 12 venues and Songs tallying $14,600 at two sites. Other debuts included the American indie November with a dull $20,300 from 12 screens and an OK $10,100 for the German import The Edukators from two exposures.
Weekend Estimates - July 22-24, 2005
Title Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -51% 3790 113.3 Wedding Crashers -24% 2925 80.4 The Island - 3122 12.2 Fantastic Four -47% 3449 122.3 The Bad News Bears - 3183 11.4 War of the Worlds -43% 3265 208.2 Hustle & Flow - 1013 8.1 The Devil's Rejects - 1757 7.2 Batman Begins -27% 2275 190.8 Mr. & Mrs. Smith -32% 1916 174.5 March of the Penguins 134% 702 9.1 Herbie: Fully Loaded -45% 1953 60.3 Dark Water -59% 1772 23.1 Madagascar -51% 1101 186.7 Star Wars: Epi. III - Revenge of the Sith -37% 667 375.9 Bewitched -62% 1026 59.6 Cinderella Man -45% 418 59.9 Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) - - - % Change (Last Year) - - - % Change (Last Week) - - - Also Debuting/Expanding Happy Endings -31% 61 0.52 Viruddh - 37 0.14 Last Days - 12 0.09 November - 8 0.02 Nine Songs - 1 0.01 The Edukators - 2 0.01 Top Domestic Grosses: To July 21, 2005
Star Wars: Epi III - Revenge of the Sith 374,829,666 War of the Worlds 199,505,038 Batman Begins 186,377,725 Madagascar 185,531,031 Hitch 179,495,555 Mr. & Mrs. Smith 170,942,503 The Longest Yard 154,948,563 Meet the Fockers 146,401,395 Robots 127,987,733 The Pacifier 113,086,868 Fantastic Four 110,284,909 Million Dollar Baby 99,649,950 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 85,805,554 Are We There Yet? 82,531,160 Monster-in-Law 81,706,807
The Aviator 78,489,588 The Ring Two 76,231,249 Constantine 75,567,648 Sin City 74,021,779 The Interpreter 72,443,610 * does not include 2004 box office Domestic Market Share: To July 21, 2005
Company (releases) Fox (13) 20.60% Warner Bros. (17) 14.40% Paramount (9) 10.90% Sony (14) 10.50% Universal (13) 10.00% Buena Vista (15) 7.40% Miramax (14) 5.80% DreamWorks (3) 5.30% New Line (12) 3.80% MGM (8) 3.70% Lions Gate (11) 2.40% Fox Searchlight (6) 1.30% Focus (5) 0.90% Sony Classics (17) 0.80% 
Other * (149) 2.20% * none greater than 0.5% 100.00%
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