..Gary
Dretzka
..Noah
Forrest
..Leonard
Klady
..R.J.
Matson
..David
Poland
..Douglas
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
..Michael
Wilmington
Dancing on the Parade ...
August 13, 2006
Weekend Estimates
While the debate entering the weekend focused on how competitive the debut of World Trade Center would be with Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby, the innocuous teen dance drama Step Up took to the floor to complicate the picture. When the dust settled the order was clear: Talladega led with an estimated $22.6 million with Step Up close behind with $20.9 million and WTC trailing at $18.8 million.
The frame also featured an OK bow for the horror remake Pulse and a misfire for the kid adventure Zoom. There was also a potent bow for the Bollywood entry Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and strong response for the Sundance grad Half Nelson in limited release.
Following its huge premiere last weekend, Talladega Nights geared down by 52% and that was just enough to cross the finish line ahead of a very competitive pack. The race was so tight that had the Will Ferrell comedy dipped by 60% it would have ranked third for the current session. It’s grossed close to $91 million in 10 days of release with the century mark looming on Wednesday.
The appeal of Step Up wasn’t completely unnoticed. Universal, for instance, moved its teen comedy Accepted off the current weekend and into Snakes on a Plane’s departure date. It was the first choice Friday with an $8.5 million gross but saw Saturday’s business dip by 20 percent. The Flashdance spawn and a carbon copy of Save the Last Dance’s story, the new film effectively tapped into a niche and mined it for gold … or at least silver.
World Trade Center got in ahead of the pack with a Wednesday opening that was just 2% behind Talladega. However, the early debut likely squandered the picture’s bragging rights as weekend leader. Nonetheless, considering both its intrinsic appeal and the resistance to the material by a sliver of the audience, it performed very well. Tracking that had suggested a sizeable youth appeal didn’t translate initially with exit polls revealing opening weekend crowds composed 65% of over 25s and not surprisingly a 55%/45% male/female split.
Already generating considerable buzz in advance of next weekend is Snakes on a Plane. While tracking remains soft, industry pundits are savvy to the fact that interest methodology is likely not picking up on the picture’s core audience. There was also surprise that Friday’s trade screening to exhibitors generated very positive response to a crowd not expected to connect strongly to the material.
Weekend business was expected to tally close to $145 million in sales for a 9% drop from last weekend. However, it was 7% better than 2005 when new releases Four Brothers and Skeleton Key led with respective grosses of $21.2 million and $16.1 million.
The year to date saw Disney exceed $1 billion at the box office on August 3 with Sony hitting that mark five days later and moving to the top of the market share chart on Friday. Fox is poised to join the club this month and 2006 could well become the first time all major studios see domestic revenues of 10 figures.
The Weinstein Co. decide