News Stories About The Lizzie McGuire Movie

Nice Guys may Finish Last but Mean Girls Finish First 2004-05-03 Five movies opening wide in one weekend is just too many for one weekend. Combined with the horrible reviews and its no wonder all but one film flopped. Fortunately that one film had one of the best April openings ever so we saw a pretty good increase from last weekend at 4%. However, this time last year was the beginning of May, which marks the official start of the Summer Blockbuster season, so it is no surprising that this weekend is down a huge 33% from last year. In fact X-Men United opening was just shy of the top 10's total. And if you add in The Lizzie McGuire Movie and their combined debuts are higher than the weekend's total box office.
The Post Holiday Blues 2004-02-20 Well, it had to happen, after a great start to February first critically and then financially, it all comes crashing down this weekend. Four movies open wide this weekend and none of them impressing critics and neither do they have much of a shot at a stellar box office. On the plus side, this weekend last year was weak, so we should see 2004 gain some ground on 2003. Or at least do better than the nearly 9% year to date decline.	Dog Days of Summer Opens with Four Duds 2003-08-15 movies opening wide this week, and with such a crowded market at least two will bomb. And considering the dubious quality of the release, they could all fail to make much of an impact. With so many new openings I'm going to profile them first and then deal with the rest of the top five after. Freddy vs. Jason - Ten years too late. The Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises are some of the longest lasting with a combines 17 films between them. But despite this they have less than $450 million domestic box office. That's less than Austin Powers has made in just 3 movies. Predictions for this movie go as high as $30 million, but that's more 10 of the previous films earned in their entire run. And the people who grew up with the franchises have grown up themselves and are unlikely to see another slasher movie. Reviews are about what you would expect, 33% overall and about half that for the cream of the crop. Look for about $15 million this weekend and about $35 million overall. Uptown Girls - MGM misses again. This is the eighth movie released by MGM/UA this year, and so far only one has beaten expectations (Agent Cody Banks) and one other will be profitable (Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde.) Normally I'd give this movie an extra boost given it's target audience, but this year there has been several movies aimed at similar audiences from What a Girl Wants to The Lizzie McGuire Movie to the more recent How to Deal and Freaky Friday. Unfortunately for MGM, reviews are closer to How to Deal than Freaky Friday. And so will the box office. $10 million this week, but with better legs it could top Freddy vs. Jason's $35 million. Open Range - The Best reviewed wide release of the week. In fact, its score of 77% is higher than the other three movies combined. Too bad it is also the smallest release of the four opening in just over 2000 theatres. Recently Kevin Costner movies haven't performed well at the box office, and chances are good reviews won't save this one. $8 million opening weekend and good word of mouth will be its only hope. Grind - Worse reviews that Gigli? As I'm writing this Grind is currently sitting at only 8% positive, which's the same score as Gigli. However, even Gigli had one cream of the crop reviewer give it a positive review, the same can't be said for Grind. The only thing going for this movie is it is relatively unknown, so at least there's no negative buzz surrounding it. $5 million opening weekend before dropping out of theatres by September. If I lived in Cleveland I'd be checking out American Splendor this weekend. Since I don't I'll see if any of the local theatres are playing Passionada. If not, well, I've got a pretty good DVD collection I could dip into. Now on to the holdovers. Repeating at top spot will be S.W.A.T., not due to its quality, just because there's so little competition this week. It will stop roughly 55%, but that still leaves $16 million, good enough for first place. Freaky Friday will drop one spot to land in third. A weekend total of $14 million will raise its run to nearly $60 million. More than it cost to make and advertise. Making one more appearance in the top 5 will be Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. It's just $100,000 from beating Bruce Almighty for third place this year. It is starting to slow down and the race for 2nd place is becoming more interesting. $9 million this weekend will leave it just short of the $250 million mark. Submitted by:	Disney and Duff may Make Up 2003-06-13 cing it was ending negotiations with Tween Queen Hilary Duff, the Wall Street Journal reported Disney chairman Michael Eisner has requested the two sides reopened talks. This could prove a wise move as Disney has some economic setbacks recently. Their traditional cell animation department is not the guaranteed hit maker like it used to be, and they will soon be losing a large revenue source when they renegotiate their relationship with Pixar Studios. In addition, ABC, which is owned by Disney, suffered through another weak season finishing barely ahead of fourth placed Fox. Meanwhile, Hilary Duff’s career is taking off. Before negotiations began, Hilary Duff was known almost exclusively as Lizzie McGuire having only starred in one theatrical release with Agent Cody Banks. However, since then she has finished filming on Cheaper by the Dozen and is preparing for her role in The Cinderella Story, starting next month. In addition, she is working on her first album, Metamorphosis, set to be released in September and has a new line of cosmetics coming out called Stuff by Hilary Duff. At this rate, the only thing Hilary Duff has to fear is over exposure. Current demands from the Hilary Duff camp are for $5 million for the sequel and $100,000 per episode. This is on par with fellow Tween Sensation Frankie Muniz, but it is significantly higher than what Disney was willing to pay. How the negotiations go from here could be interesting, Hilary Duff was right when she said, ‘We might not have seen the last of Lizzie.’ Submitted by: C.
Nemo Takes Top Spot, Bruce Stays Almighty 2003-06-02 "LEFT">
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For the first time in 2003, the weekend box office totals were significantly above the same week last year. The total box office for the top ten was up nearly 45% from 2002 year. This helped put May in the record books as the best month in box office history. But, even after May's record-breaking performance, 2003 is still behind 2002's total for the year to date.

Opening in first place, with a record weekend for both Computer Animation and a studio best for Pixar was Finding Nemo. The Albert Brooks fish tale earned $70.3 million at the box office, and if the stellar reviews and past Pixar performances are any indications, this movie could pull in close to $300 million domestically, and a little more than that internationally.

Bruce Almighty came in second, and did so with a smaller drop off than expected. $37.3 million was only a 45% decline, which is very good considering the huge opening weekend take and the post-holiday dip. Along the way Bruce Almighty became the largest grossing comedy of the year after crossing the $100 million mark on Thursday.

Third place went to the second of three wide releases this weekend. The Italian Job grabbed up $19.5 million, on par with predictions. Surprisingly good reviews could give this movie legs. However, with a $60 million production budget, and an advertising budget close to half that it won’t see a profit in the home market.

Continuing to drop faster than expected is The Matrix Reloaded, with $15.7 million, down nearly 58% over last weekend. The movie seems to be suffering from The Empire Strikes Back effect, that is to say it doesn't have the novelty of the first movie, and doesn't have the satisfying conclusion of the third movie. Speaking of Star Wars, The Matrix Reloaded is now just a few hundred thousand above Attack of the Clones' pace, despite having a $24 million lead after opening weekend. It will take a surge just before the release of Matrix Revolutions to push this film above $300 million.

Daddy Day Care was able to stay in the top five one last week with a $5.7 million dollar performance. The movie now has made a little more than $80 million in four weeks, and could have enough gas in the tank to cross $100 million.

Opening with a little weaker box office than predicted, but a spot higher was Wrong Turn. $5.2 million is not a lot of money for an opening weekend, but considering a budget of only $10 - $13 million, it should be enough to pull a profit from the home market. The reviews for Wrong Turn were not as low as one might have expected, getting a 50% score from the run-of-the-mill Internet reviewers. However, of the Cream-of-the-crop reviews, of which only four even bothered to review the movie, none of them gave it a positive review.

Coming in less than $100,000 behind in sixth place was X-Men 2 with $5.1 million. The mutant movie sequel just failed to cross the $200 million dollar mark but should do that by Tuesday. That total is enough to pay off the production budget, but it will take a bit more to make a profit domestically. However, add in its impressive international numbers and X-Men 2 has made Fox very happy.

The second Albert Brooks movie in the charts, The In-Laws, fell to eighth place with $3.7 million. It had one of the best drop-offs of the week, but that wasn’t good enough to save it: $14.5 million after two weeks is still a disappointment.

Down With Love dropped faster than predicted with only $1.6 million. Only $17.2 million after three weeks of wide release is quite a shock considering the talent attached to this film.

Rounding out the top ten is The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which was only able to grab $1.2 million this weekend and fell just shy of $40 million total. Fortunately, not only will it cross that mark before long; it will also have covered its total budget as well.

See the full weekend chart

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