|
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.
Submitted by:
|
|
|
2003-03-21
ovies are opening wide but will any of them unseat Bringing Down the House as box office champ?
The Contenders:
Dreamcatcher: Opening in nearly 3000 theatres, this Stephen King adaptation is the latest in a long line of Stephen King adaptations. And that’s a mixed blessing. For every Green Mile in Stephen King’s movie career there’s a Mangler. Dreamcatcher is not as bad as that, but its reviews are very poor so don’t look for this one to be a blockbuster. Dreamcatcher should do a little better than $11 million for its opening weekend.
Piglet’s Big Movie: Opening in just 2000 theatres, this Disney redux is the latest in a long line of Disney Reduxes. Follows in the footsteps of The Tigger Movie, Return to Neverland, The Jungle Book 2, etc. Reviews are almost immaterial (but quite good) considering how dependable these movies have been at the box office. Like those movies The Piglet Movie should make around $10 million in its opening weekend and about $50 million overall.
View From the Top: Opening in 2500 theatres … maybe. Miramax has just hours to delay the release of View From the Top for the seventh or eighth time; I’ve lost track. Officially it was delayed due to worries over whether the public was willing to laugh at the airline industry. Rumors were circulating that it was actually delayed cause it just wasn’t funny. And the reviews seem to support the second theory. Reviews are simply awful with Rotten Tomatoes currently showing only 8% fresh. Look for View From the Top to make a $5 million debut before disappearing quickly.
Boat Trip: Opening in just 1700 theatres, and for good reason. Reviews are on par with View From the Top, at only 9% of them positive. Oscar winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. is apparently trying to make people forget just how good of an actor he can be. Boat Trip will make about $4 million this weekend before sinking completely.
And the winner is…
Bringing Down the House: Should bring in another $15 million to become the first movie of 2003 to finish first three weeks in a row.
Agent Cody Banks should remain in the top five, and perhaps Chicago will join him there.
Submitted by:
|
2003-03-19
k promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here’s a list of highlights, plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
Boat Trip
Current Content: Very simple design that hasn’t changed since the site first launched. Includes just the basics (Synopsis, Trailer, Character Bios and Photo Gallery) with no real style to draw in surfers.
City of Ghosts
Current Content: The movie is still a month away, so the lack of extras beyond the synopsis and trailer isn’t unexpected. However, there are no hints at future additions to encourage surfers to come back at a later date.
Down and Out with the Dolls
Current Content: Opening in limited release this week, this site has both HTML and Flash versions with a lot of information about the movie, the cast and crew, news and reviews. Also there is the trailer and a music video by the band, The Paper Dolls. The flash site also includes an interactive tour of the Dollhouse that includes introductions to the characters and clips of some of the songs from the movie. Another example of a low budget movie making good use of internet promoting and winner of the unequalled Weekly Website Award.
Dreamcatcher
Updated Content: This website has already won The Weekly Website Award and while there is a little more revealed in the flash site it is not enough new content for a second win.
Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd
Updated Content: I checked this site this morning and there was a new version up. I checked back this afternoon and the old version was back. Very strange. Which version is up when you read this is anyone’s guess. The new version looked like a school bulletin board with downloads, (movie poster and some wallpaper) a ‘live’ chat, a toilet cam, and a lot of spelling mistaktes.
Ghosts of the Abyss
Updated Content: Disney continues to roll out more content for this award winning site. Recently three more features were added: A tour of the Titanic, an interactive timeline and downloadable guide to the Titanic in .pdf format. And a few more sections are still marked coming soon.
Levity
Current Content: Flash Site starts with scenes from the robbery with happen 22 years before the events of the movie. Once the intro is done, there’s lots of information to read (synopsis, cast and crew bios, production notes and the director’s statement. Periodically images from the flash intro of the robbery reappear. While this is an interesting concept, it does make reading the text very difficult and disrupts the flow of an otherwise good site.
Piglet’s Big Movie
Current Content: A well designed site that should be fun to navigate for youngsters. Includes movie and character information, trailer, a music video and short clips of some of the movie’s songs. Also includes wallpapers and a game to play.
View from the Top
Current Content: Just a short synopsis, trailer and cast and crew, not even cast and crew bios, just the names. For a movie opening this week, there’s not much to entice surfers to go and see this movie.
Submitted by:
|
2003-02-24
the-numbers.com/movies/2003/DARED.php>Daredevil was only able to grab $18.5 million during its second week at the box office, good enough for first place. However, the loss of 55% was greater than expected. Fox claims this loss was due in part to post-holiday weekend slumps. However, Presidents’ Day is not a big holiday for movies and the snowstorm that hit the Northeast lessened its effect even more. If Daredevil doesn’t rebound next week with a lose of less than 40% it will have a very difficult time crossing the $100 million mark. Making it the first movie to make $40 million on its opening weekend to fail to hit that milestone.
In second place, making $17.5 million (exactly what I predicted) was Old School. This teen comedy staring 30 year olds got surprisingly great reviews. It was the only movie opening wide last week that got an overall fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Also living up to predictions was How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days with $11.6 million for third place. In fourth was Jungle Book 2 which only dropped 24% from its first weekend. A phenomenon which can be entirely explained by the complete lack of competition for its target audience, a trend that will continue till March 21st when Piglet’s Big Movie is released. Just behind in fifth place was Chicago with $8.2 million. Chicago should hit the $100 million mark next weekend.
As for the rest of the new releases, none made much of an impact at the box office. The Life of David Gale just failed to make the top 5 with $7 million. Gods and Generals made slightly more than predicted, but still not enough. Its production and advertising budget was nearly $90 million, so less than $5 million during it’s opening weekend has to been seen as a huge disappointment. And sitting in 9th place with less than $4 million is Dark Blue, which I predicted would make more than twice as much.
Submitted by:
|
Monday, November 23, 2009
