News Stories About Wrong Turn Nemo Takes Top Spot, Bruce Stays Almighty 2003-06-02 "LEFT"> Buy this poster at AllPosters.com 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 Submitted by:
Can Nemo Find Box Office Success? 2003-05-30 "RIGHT">
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The weekend after Memorial Day sees three new movies open wide, each with widely difference target audiences and wildly different expectations.

Almost guaranteed to open first is Finding Nemo, the fifth film from Pixar studios. The real question with Finding Nemo is whether it will break records for the studio. It needs more than $62.5 million to better Monsters Inc. opening, which will be difficult - especially considering the post-Memorial Day dip that is historically experienced at the box office. However, Finding Nemo does have a higher theater count (3,374 to 3,237) and unbelievably high reviews going for it. Currently there is only one reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes that is not giving it a positive review. That puts it above both Monsters Inc. and A Bug’s Life, but amazing below both Toy Story 1 and 2, both of which received 100% positive reviews.

Coming in second, and crashing back down to Earth will be Bruce Almighty. The huge first weekend take and a post holiday weekend means this film will drop more than 50%. However, since the film outperformed expectations by such a large margin the first week, a 50% drop will still leave a second weekend box office greater than what the studio were hoping for before it opened.

There will be a close battle for third place between Matrix Reloaded and The Italian Job. The Matrix Reloaded is again tracking well below last week’s performance, which should result in another big drop. However, The Italian Job is only opening in 2,633 theatres, which is a little low. Surprisingly, The Italian Job is currently receiving nearly identical reviews as the Matrix. So look for the two movies to get nearly identical box office takes this week, around $18 million with a slight edge to the newcomer.

Fifth place will also go down to the wire as Daddy Day Care and X-Men 2 fight to stay in the top 5 one more week. Both are shedding theaters, but X-Men 2 is doing it faster. On the other hand, Finding Nemo will surely draw more of Daddy Day Care’s target audience away than from the X-Men. Still, Daddy Day Care has the lead last weekend, and while it will shrink, it should still win this weekend $8 million to $7 million.

Opening in only 1,615 theaters is the horror movie Wrong Turn, which has a plot reminiscent of The Lurking Fear by H.P. Lovecraft. The real surprise with the reviews is not that they’re as poor as they are, but that there are so few of them. As of noon Friday, there were only 6 reviews posted. But the target audience for these films generally doesn’t care about reviews or the lack thereof, so that shouldn’t affect the box office. And with a budget a mere fraction of the other films debuting this week, the studio should still be happy with $6 million and a seventh place finish.

In eighth place will be The In-Laws, which unperformed when in debuted last week and will do the same this week with a little more than $4 million. There are two bright spots for the studio, the movie did have a lower budget than most and it should find a larger audience in the home market.

In ninth place will be Down With Love, which unperformed when in debuted two weeks ago and will do the same this week with a little less than $3 million. Ok, enough of the cut and paste predictions, but the performance of the two previous movies has been very similar. Low expectations, even lower box offices and a quick descent down the charts.

Rounding out the top ten is The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which is shedding theaters faster than its box office pull would suggest it should. Failure to support this film in the long run could cost Disney several million dollars off the final box office figure. Even with the lost theaters it should earn a little more than $2 million and cross the $40 million mark for its total box office. The studio’s share of that figure should cover production and advertising costs.

Submitted by: C.S.Strowbridge

Rank	Movie	Theaters	Change	Weeks in Release	Distributor
1	Bruce Almighty	3,490	+8	2	Universal
2	Matrix Reloaded, The	3,453	-150	3	Warner Bros.
3	Finding Nemo	3,374	New	1	Buena Vista
4	Daddy Day Care	3,128	-344	4	Sony
5	In-Laws, The (2003)	2,652	n/c	2	Warner Bros.
6	Italian Job, The (2003)	2,633	New	1	Paramount
7	X2: X-Men United	2,533	-534	5	Fox
8	Wrong Turn	1,615	New	1	Fox
9	Lizzie McGuire Movie, The	1,330	-788	5	Buena Vista
10	Down with Love	1,300	-817	4	Fox
34	Bhoot	20	New	1	Spark Media
40	Together (Han Ni Zai Yiki)	6	New	1	MGM
43	Capturing the Friedmans	3	New	1	Magnolia

Estimated Theater Counts for Next Week's Openers

Movie	Theaters	Distributor
2 Fast 2 Furious	3,200	Universal
Whale Rider	9	New Market
Eye, The	4	Palm Pictures

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Movie Websites Launches for May 22 - May 28

2003-05-28

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.


Alex and Emma
Current Content: The new flash site launched this week, with the exact same content as the regular site. Just with animated introduction / segues and audio clips. It’s a nice to compare the effectiveness of the regular site with the flash version. The one complaint with the flash site, the production notes are far too long to be one section, it should have been broken up like it is on the non-flash site.


Bad Boys II
Current Content: The first of six issues was released this week. This issue contains the synopsis and cast and crew, (no bios), both the teaser trailer and the full trailer, half a dozen images, two wallpapers and two buddy icons. In two weeks, and every two weeks after that, a new issue will be released. It’s not a bad site, but the lack of sound is a disappointment.


Cabin Fever
Current Content: There a new section for downloads with the teaser trailer, wallpaper and a link to the Cabin Fever discussion board.


Capturing the Friedmans
Current Content: This site consists almost entirely of old photos. When you move the mouse over the photo an audio clip from the movie plays. It is an intriguing idea, one that was executed well. However, a little more background information than what was provided could have helped draw in surfers.


Elf
Current Content: None, you are just redirected to a Naughty or Nice contest.


Finding Nemo
Current Content: An excellent site with a lot of information, but mostly is filled with extras. Several different previews can be seen, there are wallpapers to download and games like Cruising with Crush to play. There is also Mr. Ray’s Classroom where surfers can learn more about the world’s coral reefs. Combines with the background sounds, and little animations that fill the site and you have this week’s winner of the authoritative Weekly Website Awards.


Garfield
Current Content: Nothing, in fact the link just redirects you to Fox’s movie index. But the movie is more than a year away, so this is not a surprise.


Hotel
Current Content: Warning, this site contains foul language, nudity, violence and the most incomprehensible content I’ve seen in a long time. Compared to this Identity’s flash site was linear to the N^th degree. At least the Identity site has a sense of cohesion to it. This just felt like random images and quotes. Might shock some, but I didn’t find it engaging enough to shock me.


The Italian Job
Current Content: A clip or two was added, as were several interviews with the cast members. There are still a few more clips still marked coming soon.


Rugrats Go Wild
Current Content: Another game, Jungle Stumble, was added to the site. There are no sign ups needed to play this one.


Sinbad - Legend of the Seven Seas
Current Content: A lot of multimedia was added to the site. Two featurettes and four interviews were added. Overall, it’s a lot a video to watch. There is also a coloring book with the four main characters.


The Three Marias
Current Content: Very small site with only a short synopsis, a few images, one quote from one review and some viewing dates. There is more information in the press kit, which can be downloaded from the stills and more section.


Together
Current Content: While this film has the usual information (synopsis, cast and crew bios, trailer, image gallery) it focuses on the behind the scenes more. Finding the right actor, composing the music, the culture of modern day China, etc. Speaking of music, while there is some, the clips are too short and do not loop. So you hear the piece only once when you change sections. This is too bad, since the subject matter would lend itself perfectly to more background music. Another downside is the animation, what little there is doesn’t fit well with the site as a whole.


Uptown Girls
Current Content: The song was removed from the site. No other changes were made.


Wrong Turn
Current Content: Very little was added to this site just before its release, just a couple of TV spots. But the site has previously won the weekly website award, so very little was needed.


Submitted by: C.

Movie Websites Launches for May 1 - May 7

2003-05-07

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. It’s been a slow week, no new site really jumped out at me and none of the old sites added enough content to warrant the award. But after reviewing each site once more, I was able to come to a decision. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.


Alex and Emma
Current Content: The original placeholder site has been replaced by another placeholder site, with the promise of a flash site to be launched soon. All the previous content is still there (synopsis, trailer, and photo gallery) and there is a poster and some wallpapers in the download section. Screen savers, buddy icons and a short story contest are all marked coming soon.


Cabin Fever
Current Content: So far the only content is synopsis and the teaser trailer. There’s a cast list, but that just links to IMDb. The movie isn’t released for four months, so there’s plenty of time for content to be added. Although right now only Images are marked coming soon.


Daddy Day Care
Current Content: No changes since the last review.


Down With Love
Current Content: The two interactive sections are up. The first section has quizzes and poll (both with one for men and one for women), and Catcher Block’s Bachelor Pad for men to test the Casanova power.


Dumb and Dumberer
Current Content: Some more features were added, including a pop quiz and bunch of trailers to watch. And they mean the kind you pull with your car. There’s also the official trailer offered in several sizes, including the smallest resolution I’ve ever seen.


Freaky Friday
Current Content: This remake doesn’t open in the theatres until August 8th, so the limited content is not surprising. Right now the only content is synopsis, trailer and the poster.


Freddy vs. Jason
Current Content: Right now this site has almost none of the usual features. No synopsis, no trailer, no cast and crew. There are quite a few images, including wallpapers and a poster. There are background sounds that are a little moody, but too short. You can also vote for who you think would win in their duel to the death.


Godsend
Current Content: None. Just a notice saying the site is under construction.


The League
Current Content: The full trailer is up, not just the teaser trailer.


Man on the Train
Current Content: A simple site with a synopsis, trailer, cast and crew bios, and some quotes from critics. There’s very little animation and no sound, which offers little to keep surfers interested.


Rugrats Go Wild
Current Content: Three adults from the Rugrats tribe are added to the Spike Search Game. Also the game, Undersea Adventure is now available.


The Trip
Current Content: This site focuses more on behind the scenes than most sites do. In addition to the usual, there are sections on the origins of the story, the locations, production design, etc. And while the transitions are good, the lack of sound is a distraction.


Wrong Turn
Current Content: This is the first site I’ve seen with a warning for parental supervision. But unless they plan to add a lot more, this has more to do with marketing than with actual content. What content they do have (synopsis, cast and crew bios, image gallery) is well done and the transitions between sections are very good. The slashing animation and sound add to the overall experience. Speaking of sound, once again the background sound is a little short, but it does enhance the surfers’ experience. It is this weeks winner of the indecisive Weekly Website Award.


Submitted by: C.