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2003-10-17
remake of a 1973 horror classic, the return of John Grisham, the not quite wide release of a docu-drama and the expansion of last week's Per Theatre Average Chart topper. With so much new, the top five will mostly be new movies with holdovers only occupying a couple of places.
Having the best shot at top spot is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a remake of the 1973 movie of the same name. First of all, the advertising campaign claims that this movie is 'inspired' by a true story, which is overstating the facts. It is inspired by real life events in the same way Who Framed Roger Rabbit is inspired by real life events. Also, these crimes involved were also the inspiration for both Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs, both of which are superior movies. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is following in a long line of low budget horror movies released this year starting with Darkness Falls in January and with the most recent example, House of the Dead, opening just last week. The most successful of these movies this year was Freddy vs. Jason and Texas Chainsaw Massacre hopes to duplicate its success. And while it is opening in roughly the same number of theatres (3016 to 3014) and has roughly the same reviews (43% to 41%), it isn't opening at an as lucrative time of the year. So look for a $22 million opening.
In the early 90's John Grisham was one of the hottest Hollywood properties. Three of the first four movie based on his novels passed $100 million at the box office, with the fourth just missing that feat. But after that, the next three movies made just over $60 million combined. The Runaway Jury is the first John Grisham movie in over five years, and granted it won't break any personal bests for him in either reviews or box office. However, it should pull in $18 million during its opening weekend and have a total closer to the first four than the last three.
The School of Rock will continue its strong performance at the box office. It will drop to third in its third week adding another $11 million to its already impressive total.
With direct competition and the lack of opening weekend hype, Kill Bill: Volume 1 will drop a little more than 50% at the box office to just under $11 million.
Rounding out the top five is Mystic River, which expanded into over 1400 theaters on Wednesday. Reviews have been great for the film and its box office should jump up to $10 million. It will need another jump in its theatre count and continued success at the box office for it to become a serious Oscar contender.
The last movie opening in more than a few cities is Veronica Guerin. Opening in less than 500 theatres to moderately positive reviews it should earn around $3 million but may or may not make the top ten.
On final note, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl should cross $300 million this weekend. It will be only the second movie to do so this year, and the 16th all time.
Submitted by: C.
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2003-01-27
almost every analyst, and the horror of almost every critic, Darkness Falls lead the weekend charts this week with a larger than expected $12.5 million. As reported here earlier, Darkness Falls was produced for only $7 million, however Revolution studios showed themselves to be masters of marketing, spending an estimated $20 million dollars in pushing the movie to top spot.
Recently, top spot has been held by a series of critically vilified movies. Starting two weeks ago when Just Married won despite getting only 20% on Rotten Tomatoes fresh meter (and 0% from the Cream of the Crop reviewers.) Last week Kangaroo Jack received a tiny 9%, a figure matched by Darkness Falls. Although Darkness Falls received much better User Ratings on IMDB than Kangaroo Jack.
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2003-01-23
.the-numbers.com/people/GPALT.html">Gwyneth Paltrow's latest flick, A View from the Top was supposed to open this weekend, however its release date has changed, again. Originally planned for an April 19th, 2002 release, Miramax pushed that back four times. Its new and hopefully final release date is March 21st, 2003. A View from the Top is now opening against Piglet’s Big Movie, Identity and another movie that was pushed back due to real world events Phone Booth.
This bit of rescheduling leaves Darkness Falls as the only wide release for the January 24th weekend.
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2003-01-07
or flicks are currently seeking possible theatrical runs
for the new year and both with less-than-thrilling backgrounds.
House of 1,000 Corpses, the Rob Zombie-helmed blood feast, was originally
to be release on June 8 of 2001 until financial backer Universal dropped the movie
like a hot potato due to the film's extreme violent nature. It didn't help matters that
the MPAA slapped House with an NC-17 rating and Zombie refused cuts.
It was thought of at one point the film might go direct-to-video.
House of 1,000 Corpses is now in distribution limbo and hoping for a possible
March opening.
Darkness stars Lena Olin and Anna Paquin and was supposed to hit theaters
last August. It was thought the $10 million prodution would open on February 7 but
was quickly side-tracked as to not bump into the similar titled Darkness
Falls. The film, about a haunted house and distributed by Dimension Films, is now
likely to hit video shelves sooner then multiplexes.
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2003-01-07
ry is known as the dumping ground, the time when studios
throw out projects they lacked faith in during the broader times of summer and fall.
Of course, January also sees the widened releases of Oscar-worthy December
openers, but those not interested in watching Meryl Streep in The Hours,
or Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt, will have plenty to choose from in
the first month of 2003.
January 10 will bring Just Married, starring semi-celebs Ashton Kutcher (That
70s Show) and Brittany Murphy (8 Mile) as a young couple just - yup -
married and having one heck of a crappy honeymoon. And yet another movie
aimed at teens will debut on January 17, (Almost Famous) and Julia Stiles (The Bourne Identity) who
have what appears to be a one-night stand during the night of Lee's bachelor
party. Distributor MGM pulled it from its initial fall release due to competition
from another Lee comedy, Stealing Harvard, which flunked out.
More giggles abound in National Security, with Martin Lawrence, and the kiddie
flick, Kangaroo Jack, featuring an all-CGI kangaroo (oh, brother!). Both hit
theaters on Jan. 17.
If teeny-bopper comedies and cop/buddy flicks isn't your thing, you might want to check
out Sony's spooky-looking Darkness Falls. The low-budget flick, which was
supposed to have opened on December 6, concerns a haunted lighthouse and a
creature called the Tooth Fairy.
As reported earlier, Darkness will now fall on January 24.
Also opening on Jan. 24 is the Gwyneth Paltrow comedy, A View from the
Top, co-starring Mike Myers. Rumor has it Top was also inline to open
sometime last year, and judging from the trailer, this airline-themed baffoonery could
crash on site.
January 31 sees the arrival of three wide releases. The one with the most potential
to make a big splash is the Al Pacino thriller, The Recruit. He plays a
CIA-recruiter who enlists the aid of Colin Farrell (Minority Report) to catch
a mole in the training academy. Farrell will also be featured in Phone Booth
later this spring, a film that was taken out of last November's schedule due to the
gruesome sniper shootings in and around the Washington, D.C. area.
Final Destination 2 hopes to scare up as much business as its predecessor,
but, unlike the Scream films, the premise for Destination was intriguing
only one time around. The preview is cheap and unflinching, a bad sign. And last up,
there's Biker Boyz, starring Laurence Fishburne as a suit-and-tie business man
who trades in his briefcase for wheels at night. (Dates are always subject to change.
Please check local listings.)
Mat
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2003-01-05
.the-numbers.com/movies/2003/DFALL.php">Darkness Falls, which has gone under four other names (including The Tooth Fairy and Don’t Peek) and two other release dates (December 6th, 2002 and January 31st, 2003) look like it’s finally set to be released on January 24th. In recent months several low budget horror flicks have been released, some with higher budgets (The Ring) and others with lower budgets (They), but none lower than Darkness Falls.
With an estimated budget of only $7 million and a first time director Jonathan Liebesman and two first time stars in Emma Caulfield and Chaney Kley, Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures can’t rely on star power and big budget FX to draw the crowds in. Darkness Falls does have three points going for it. Firstly, Emma Caulfield’s role as Anya on the cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer should help draw in some fans. Secondly, the only other movie opening that weekend is A View From the Top, (which suffered through more schedule changes than Darkness Falls.) And lastly, the low budget means Darkness Fall only needs to make $30 million domestically to be considered a surprise hit.
For further information, please visit the Official Site.
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Monday, November 23, 2009
