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2003-03-24
this year, a movie has finished first in the box office race three weekends in a row. Bringing Down the House racked up another $16.2 million to raise it’s total box office to an amazing $83 million in just three weeks. We’ll see this week if Steve Martin’s stint at hosting the Oscars will help give a bounce to the box office, but it’s hard to imagine it getting any better.
As predicted, in second place was the Stephen King adaptation, Dreamcatcher. It’s $15.0 million opening haul was better than predicted. However, it did have very poor reviews, low CineScores and a genre not known for its longevity at the theatres. So don’t expect too much more out of Dreamcatcher.
In third was Agent Cody Banks at $9.2 million, a drop of 34%. That’s only an average drop for a movie with Agent Cody Bank’s target audience. Better than Spy Kids, but not as good as Spy Kids 2. But with a budget much lower than either of those movies, it should still make the studios very happy.
Fourth place was snagged by the surprising View From the Top. Pulling in $7.0 million can’t be considered a success by any stretch of the imagination. But with its horrid reviews, it’s better than expected. But back to the bad news, View From the Top had awful reviews, a poor internal multiplier, weak CineScores, etc. It should drop faster than Dreamcatcher.
Deja view dominated fifth place as last week’s big military movie disappointment, The Hunted, became this week’s biggest drop-off with just $6.5 million. Just like last weekend when Tears of the Sun was the biggest drop-off after being the previous week’s big military movie disappointment. This should send the makers of Basic into full panic mode, as Basic will most likely be next week’s big military movie disappointment and the week after’s biggest drop-off.
Piglet’s Big Movie was only able to manage 7th place with $6.1 million. Stranger still is it’s lower than expected internal multiplier, especially for its target audience. This is also unusual given its great reviews and very high CineScores. We’ll have to wait till next week to see if this means Piglet’s Big Movie won’t have the legs of the other Disney reduxes.
Barely making the top ten was the fourth release of the week, Boat Trip at $3.8 million. That figure was a little less than predicted and with the audience reactions, don’t expect it to make much more during the rest of its run.
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2003-03-17
www.the-numbers.com/people/SMART.html>Steve Martin / Queen Latifah comedy earned $22 million at the box office and its second straight first place finish. Bringing Down the House dropped less than 30% for its debut last week and has earned a total of $61.3 million. $100 million is all but assured at this point.
Battling for second place were two of the three new releases this week.
After spotting The Hunted a $300 grand lead on Friday, Agent Cody Banks came back to take second place by half a million dollars, $14 million to $13.5 million. Compared to last year’s Big Fat Liar, Agent Cody Banks pulled in a little more than 20% more in the box office with almost identical CinemaScores so look for nearly identical legs. MGM is obviously quite pleased with its performance so far since work on a sequel is already beginning.
The Hunted, on the other hand, will not impress the folks at Paramount. The Hunted had a much higher budget than Agent Cody Bank’s and a lower internal multiplier, weaker CinemaScores, etc. The studio’s share of the box office probably won’t even cover their advertising budget. This is the second weak in a row with an under-performing military movie, perhaps real-life events are affecting the box office of these movies.
In fourth place was last week’s under-performing military movie, Tears of the Sun, which became this week’s biggest drop off in the top 5. Its weekend tally of only $8.7 million is barely more than half of last week’s and brought its total box office to only $30 million so far. This one also won’t pay for the advertising budget.
In fifth place is the unstoppable Chicago. In it’s twelfth week Chicago’s box office climbed nearly 4% without any increase in its theatre count. With the Oscars only a week away a big win could keep Chicago in the top ten for many more weeks to come.
The only other movie to be released wide this week was Willard. The low budget horror was only able to pull in $4 million and should disappear quickly from the theatres. Willard had good critical reviews, but horrid CinemaScores, which usually means the fault lies with the marketing campaign.
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2003-02-19
k promotional websites for several movies were launched. Here’s the first, of what should be a weekly list of those sites and a breakdown of their content.
Ghost of the Abyss
Current Content: None
Honey
Current Content: Synopsis and two photos.
The Hunted
Current Content: Synopsis, Trailer, Photo, Cast and Crew Bios, Production notes, Survival Tips and Fighting Styles descriptions.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Current Content: Trailer
The Lizzie McGuire Movie
Current Content: Synopsis and Trailer
Poolhall Junkies
Current Content: Synopsis, Trailer, Wallpaper, Reviews, Release Dates, Cast and Crew Bios, Press Kits, Photos, Merchandise links, rules to pool and a funny little pool game you can play. Definitely the most deserving of Site of the Week.
Rugrats Go Wild
Current Content: Synopsis and Trailer
Spring Break: The Movie
Current Content: Synopsis
Till Human Voices Wake Us
Current Content: Synopsis, Trailer, Movie Clips, Cast and Crew Bios, Reviews, Press Kit, Theatres and a rather involved Flash Site
Van Helsing
Current Content: Synopsis
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2003-02-11
people/TLJON.html">Tommy Lee Jones/Benicio Del Toro thriller, The Hunted has moved back 2 weeks to March 14.
The movie has already had a turbulent ride towards its final release, with the movie being delayed 5 months when Del Toro broke his wrist filming one of the action scenes.
The original planned release date was Spring 2002, although this extra slip seems to be in order to find a better weekend for the release, rather than related to further problems with the movie.
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