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2003-08-18
couple of surprises this week, and they were pleasant ones. This helped the box office rise by 4.9% from last week, and an amazing 32% from last year.
Beating practically all predictions, and not just mine, was Freddy vs. Jason. $36.4 million was not only double my prediction, it was higher than the total box office of all but one Friday the 13th movie and all but two Nightmare on Elm Street movie. Where were all these fans last year when Jason X bombed at the theatres? However, Freddy vs. Jason did have pretty bad reviews, although they were on par with the rest of the Nightmare and Friday the 13th series. Add in the genre, fanboy effect, sequelitis and your looking at a large drop next weekend. Oh, and before I get anymore more insulting e-mail on this topic please remember two things: 1.) Try and use actual words and proper grammar, when you say stuff like, 'u r stupid' it just makes me pity you. 2.) Try and be insulting. I hang out in ASVS so it takes a lot to offend me. Be creative, be witty, don't repeat, 'LOL' a dozen time and expect it to have an effect.
S.W.A.T. is holding onto its box office better than expected but it still dropped over 50% this weekend. 51.1% to be more precise leaving a figure of $18.1 million. A relatively average result.
Going back to the genre that made him a star, Kevin Costner did better than expected with Open Range. Buoyed by the best reviews of any wide release this week, it was able to earn $14.0 million this week.
Freaky Friday made just a fraction less than predicted at $13.4 million. It's probably just a couple weeks away from making Disney a profit.
Conversely, Uptown Girls made a fraction more than predicted at $11.3 million. However, reviews suggest future earnings will be hurt by word of mouth and MGM will most likely have to wait till the Ancillary market (Hotels, Airliners, Cruise Ships, etc.) before it sees a profit.
Over the weekend reviews for Grind improved all the way to 9% positive, just ahead of reviews for Gigli. However, its box office was actually worse at only $2.5 million. Grind's per theatre average was barely more than $1000, lower than Finding Nemo in its 12th weekend, and lower than Bend it Like Beckham in its 23rd weekend.
Submitted by: C.
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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:
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2003-08-13
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.
American Splendor
Current Content: This site takes full advantage of the movie's comic book origins. All the content is presented in comic book form complete with panels and pages you can turn. This includes a lot of the regular features but the coolest is getting to read stuff that Harvey Pekar wrote in his own handwriting. Page after page has been simply scanned in for you to read. Gives a little more insight that most sites allow. If only it had some sound. Even without sound this is the best site of the week and the winner of the pragmatic Weekly Website Award.
Cold Creek Manor
Current Content: The site hasn't launched yet, but at least there's a placeholder site instead of just a redirect. Just the trailer and the poster are available for now.
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
Current Content: The flash site opened this week and while it has the usual features (synopsis, trailer, cast and crew bios, production notes) it's the extras that I really liked including two games. One is a 'Where are they now?' Video Poker game and the other is an obstacle course Slip 'n' Slide. Having something interactive on a site is really big plus.
Freddy vs. Jason
Current Content: Two clips and the TV spot were added to the site since last time, as was an extensive Behind the Bloodbath section. This brings the total content on this site to impressive levels. The format is also well done with mood setting background music, animated segues and audio clips from the movie. Too bad it's so bright, the previous darker look fitted the film better.
Grind
Current Content: The movie opens this week, but nothing much has changed with this site since I reviewed it last.
Luther
Current Content: There's an impressive amount of animation. Unfortunately, outside the trailer there is no sound. And while all of the usual features are there, even more are marked coming soon including lots of historical information.
My Life Without Me
Current Content: This site has good content, good animated segues, the only thing it's missing is sound. No effects, no background music, in fact no sound outside the trailer. The Spanish language version of the site has an animated intro with sound, so you might want to check that out before returning to the English version.
Open Range
Current Content: Almost all of the content marked coming soon last time has been added. The majority of this new content is the director's commentary, which is more of a behind the scenes look since many more people speak than just Kevin Costner.
Passionada
Current Content: This is a relatively simple site animated segues or background music, in fact the only sound outside the trailer is a short clip of Fado, which is the style of music featured in the movie. However, there is enough content both usual and unusual to keep the surfer interested. I especially liked the seafood recipes. I also like how nearly every image is a link it makes the simple design more intriguing.
Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Current Content: A clip from Hollywood Access was added to the site.
Second Hand Lions
Current Content: This is the third format for this website. It has mostly the same content as before, just with more animations and sound effects. Each version is more elaborate than the next and at this rate by the time the movie is released it will be more complex than The Matrix website.
Uptown Girls
Current Content: The background music is too short. I can't emphasize that enough. It gets repetitive before the intro is finished. There's also very little of the regular content, just the synopsis, trailer and a few images. The only other content is a few slideshows that introduce the characters.
Submitted by:
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
