| March 9, 2008 |
| March 2, 2008 |
| Feb 24, 2008 |
| Feb 18, 2008 |
| Feb 10, 2008 |
| Feb 3, 2008 |
| Jan 27, 2008 |
| Jan 21, 2008 |
..Gary
Dretzka
..Noah
Forrest
..Leonard
Klady
..David
Poland
..Doug
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
March 16, 2008
Weekend Finals
Who's On First ...
Doc Seuss's Horton Hears a Who translated best to the big screen audience this past weekend with an estimated $45.3 million. It was sloppy seconds for the frame's two other national freshmen with the teen martial arts yarn Never Back Down generating a respectable $8.8 million to rank third overall and the Apocalyptic adventure Doomsday struggling to find a crowd with a $4.7 million tally.Limited release openers generated uninspiring returns including Funny Games' failure to translate controversy into box office with a $520,000 gross from 289 theaters. American indie drama Sleepwalking proved commercially somnambulistic with a $1,640 average from 30 venues and Maldeamores targeted at the Hispanic audience sputtered with an $830 per screen in 20 exposures.
The potent bow of the first big screen animated adaptation of the beloved Dr. Seuss assuaged critics ruffled by live-action movie Grinch and hatted Cats. Horton Hears a Who broke a series of arcane box office records but the really important one is its current status as 2008's biggest opening grosser. With the current absence of family fare in the marketplace expectations were high for the movie … just not as high as ticket sales bore out.
Never Back Down repped the first saturation release for Summit and as with most start ups there was plenty of room to observe: "if only this film had been released by a major." Summit's ground floor participation with such films as Step Up, Babel and Michael Clayton has resulted in impressive international returns. But logically starting a domestic operation at full throttle would have been a true anomaly.
Similarly, the prospect of squeezing more commercial juice out of Rogue Pictures' genre outings by flipping distribution from Focus to Universal is likely best served on a title by title basis. Doomsday, in retrospect, played no better going out via the mother company.
Weekend box office experienced a 12% boost from last weekend with overall revenues approaching $118 million. Horton had that extra bit of b.o. utz to push grosses up 2% from 2007 when the second weekend of 300 led with $32.9 million and the top new entry was Premonition at $17.6 million.
Holdover titles displayed no great stamina and it's safe to say that the award/Oscar season is officially over. Last week's leader 10,000 B.C. took a 55% hit and continues to be the overall prominent title in the international arena. Horton's initial foreign foray saw it slightly out-paced in Mexico and Spain by the caveman and a local debut in Germany but first in Brazil and excluding previews in the U.K. and Australia, it corralled an estimated $14.2 million.
Activity in the margins continued to be tepid though the session's debut of Funny Games generated considerable media scrutiny. An American adaptation of and by Michael Haneke of his decade old Austrian movie raised eyebrows for its scathing look at a complacent society via the framework of an abusive psychological thriller. Defenders applauded the filmmaker's fiat of challenging viewers not to look … but in the end there appeared little concrete reason to thrown down the gauntlet.
- Leonard Klady
Weekend Finals - March 14-16, 2008