Shia LaBeouf in D.J Caruso's DISTURBIA(2007).
© Paramount/Dreamworks

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Disturbia Wins Back to Back

While it can be said that Disturbia wins this weekend, it should be noted first and foremost that the last 3 days, it’s clear the audiences of America were not going to the theaters. First place, Disturbia, gets only 13.4 mil in its top ranking spot? Nope, the real two stories here is that audiences are saving their money for the summer season to begin in May and Hot Fuzz doing so well in only 825 screens. We had 4 new wide releases this weekend and they’ve taken the 2^nd, 4^th, 6^th, and 8^th places this weekend respectively.  

Disturbia stays in control of the 1^st spot for the second weekend in a row bringing in another 13.4 mil in its 3,015 screens. This has its total domestic session at 40.6 mil which isn’t too shabby at all for two weeks especially given that its budget is listed at 20 mil.  

2^nd place goes to the thriller Fracture. The film, starring Anthony Hopkins, took in 11.1 mil in its debut weekend, averaging 4,574 per screens. New Line kept the screen release for this film in check debuting it on 2,443 screens and it brought in $4,574 on those screens.  

Will Ferrell’s Blades of Glory stayed in the top 3, landing in 3^rd place on its fourth week of release. The sports comedy broke the domestic 100.0 mil mark over the last 3 days bringing in 7.8 mil on its still respectable 3,469 screens. Another smash hit for Ferrell but it will most likely be the last weekend where Blades gets in the top 3 spots. 

The Vacancy horror starring Kate Beckinsale lands in 4^th place in its debut bringing in 7.6 mil on its 2,551 screens. The film’s budget is at 19 mil so getting 7.6 mil on its first weekend is a good deal for its distributor Sony Screen Gems. It could have done better but its low budget guarantees it will make its money back and more.  

The Disney animation film, Meet the Robinsons, takes 7.0 mil setting its place firmly at 5^th place for this weekend’s box office report. The family film has taken in a total domestic take of 82.2 mil in its 4 weeks of release. I’d say it’s safe to say it will break the 100.0 mark by the time Spider-Man 3 is entering its second week of release given its screen release stays around 3,000 screens for that time. 

Here’s the biggest story of the weekend and the reason it’s the biggest story is that it was a “pre-planned” method of attack by Rogue Pictures and New Line. I just read over at comingsoon’s box office report that this week’s release of Hot Fuzz doing so well is conducive to it getting pushed into 1000 more screens next weekend. The truth here, fellow Maniacs, is that this was already planned ahead of time. A theater chain insider told me last week, when I broached the subject of an 825 screen release that the studio was planning an expansion behind the scenes and the chains were already setting aside future screen slot scheduling for it. Everyone knew it would do well for its opening weekend and this was a method of both frustrating audiences looking to see it and pushing its excitement up even more. It was always intended to expand it inside the theater scene, they just wanted that high average per screen to be high this weekend for us analyst to sift through the numbers. Hot Fuzz took in 5.8 mil in its 6^th place opening weekend but had an eye popping average of $7,075 per screen per showing. Congrats, Rogue & New Line, your method of pre-attack planning has worked. It can be said that Hot Fuzz was actually the number one film of this weekend had you released it on more screens this weekend. 

Ice Cube’s family comedy Are We Done Yet finishes right behind in 7^th place bringing in another 5.2 mil over the weekend. This has its total domestic receipts at 39.5 mil in 3 weeks of release.  

Finishing up the box office report has In The Land of Women in 8^th place, Perfect Stranger in 9^th place & Wild Hogs finishing in 10^th place. Land of Women took in 4.9 mil in its debut weekend while Perfect Stranger brought in another 4.1 mil in its second week of release. Wild Hogs, in its eighth week of release, managed to stay in the top 10 chart for most likely the final weekend bringing in another 2.8 mil. Its total domestic take is at 156.2 mil.  
 

And so it begins…in two weeks 
 

The summer season is upon us, fellow Maniacs. 

“Everyone, hold onto your butts.”—Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park. 

It’s time to put on those tin foil thinking caps, for those of you whom have them, and prepare for a 5 month stretch of movies which can make or break a studio’s chances of success for the fiscal 2007 year. This is the time when Mr. Suit is sitting in his studio office following those hourly tracking numbers of his perspective “must see” distribution for the season. Yep, they’re sitting there watching the numbers either rise or fall while self-analyzing themselves on the fact that they spent 100,000,000 dollars of investment capital on that very project in the previous year. To put it ever so bluntly, their asses are on the line, ladies and gentlemen.  

The good news is that some movies we’ve been rooting with fan boy hearts will make an absolute killing in the box office. 

The bad news is that some movies we’ve been rooting with fan boy hearts will become utter duds and become miserable failures in the box office. 

You can take that for what it is. This summer season’s jam packed (utterly congested) with films which have large followings around the net and some of these followings will feel vindicated when the movie they support kicks box office ass while on the opposite end of the spectrum, the poor souls of the other following have to cope with their anticipated movie coming up short for whatever reasonable excuse they can think up. 

I’ve already had my miserable failure for the pre-summer season startup and you guys obviously know what it is. Grindhouse. I won’t bitch about it anymore because it’s becoming rather repetitive to see so many people bring it up on every box office analytical column around the web these days.  

You won’t hear anymore from me on it other then a passing quote sometime in the future saying “Ah, this film had the Grindhouse effect.” 

But I feel I should call the studios out on the most ridiculously naïve depraved decisions of the summer season when they happen. I think a group of individuals supporting a movie to the degree that they have deserve to have someone in charge of their films whom know what the hell they are doing. Is that really too much to ask here? Am I demanding too much with that kind of reasonable expectation? 

This week, I can discuss how Rogue Pictures seriously dropped the ball on releasing Hot Fuzz in the states but perhaps, just perhaps, I’ll save any such negative commentary on my part with the hopeless faith that Rogue will expand Hot Fuzz to at least 1,000 screens by next week? Sure, I know there is no mention of expanding the film in next week’s listing at any number of informational sources but one can hope for it, right? One can dream that a studio exec will have themselves a “moment of clarity” in which they might actually have some miniscule amount of common sense interjected into that ego driven brain of theirs. One can hope beyond belief that a Rogue Pictures studio executive has a credible reason as to why their The Hitcher was released on 2,831 screens and Hot Fuzz on only 825 screens. One can wish that there is someone over at Rogue with any number of good reasonable answers to questions which the above facts appear to pose towards anyone with half a working brain. Someone with an ounce of logical & factual common sense who’s making these strange decisions… (Note: See the above box office report, reader. It was a planned method of attack. Theater chains were told of a screen expansion a week ago. This was a method of building even more buzz for Rogue so yes, my hopes were answered. Can this type of hopeless faith be answered again with future questions?) 

What’s that you say? 

“Dream on, Jarrod” 

Sure, sounds good. I’ll dream that studio execs start making sense very…very soon.  

In the meantime, it’s time to stop pulling punches. 

If Sony, Paramount & Disney all feel they are making “good calls” with their May releases, then so be it. Spider-Man has ruled a previous summer’s box office charts. Shrek has ruled a previous summer’s box office charts. Pirates has ruled a previous summer’s box office charts. So yes, by all means, let’s put Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, & Pirates 3 all together in the same month of May.  

If Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros executives overseeing Live Free or Die Hard (June 29), Transformers (July 4^th), and Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix (July 13) all feel it’s a wise move releasing these 3 films in back to back to back weekend debuts, that’s fine with me. They deserve what they get when they look at their box office numbers not being up to par because of overwhelming competition. When they sit in those cushy swivel chairs and see their box office receipts drop 40-55% in their second weekends of release, they have only their own strange & misguided behavior to blame. Not audiences. Not the core followings of each film whom have invested so much of their time discussing and chit-chatting on the films around the water coolers. Definitely not the internet frenzied core fans which reviewed their films with such fan boy eagerness that would make Harry Knowles blush.  

If Dimension wants to release Halloween on August freaking 31^st instead of (imagine this) October, that’s fine in my book. I’ll keep my horror fanatical attitude out of the equation when roasting the hell out of them for such lunacy. When they wonder why their movie failed to bring in as much money as it could have, they only have themselves to blame. Sure, every horror fan in the world can shout to the high heavens in disbelief that the Dimension head honcho is scared of going against 30 Days of Night (Oct 19) and Saw IV (Oct 26). You, Joe Moviegoer, can scratch your heads and wonder why a film titled “Halloween” doesn’t come out on say, Wednesday October 24, 2007, playing for a big 5 day 50-80 million debut. You, Joe Moviegoer, can display more common sense in knowing when, why, and how to release the films mentioned above but really what do you know? What do I know? We’re obviously on different brain patterns then these studio executives who get paid the big bucks to see their films fail by making these off-the-wall decisions. Perhaps, that’s for the best. 

I guess the good news is we have no personal investment in these films, outside of wanting our favorite genre specific films to succeed. We’re not going to be losing our jobs if the movies fail. Mr. and Mrs. Suit, on the other hand, will get their well deserved pink slips expressed mailed so some good will come out of it. I’d say they deserve it for the failures, questionable calls and setting some of the genres we love back a few more years.  

What the hell, right? 

If you ask me, and even if you don’t, I say “Bring it on!”.  

Let the summer season begin and let the chips fall where they may. Some of the films you want to succeed will fail miserably. Some of the films you want to fail will kick box office ass. These are the cards dealt us by way of questionable studio decisions & popular culture attitude. The masses will be flocking to some of our favorite genres while outright ignoring some others. Some successful ones will guarantee we see more genre specific movies green lit in the future while some failures will set some future projects we wish to see back a few more years. All we can do is watch the events unfold with our tin foil thinking caps on.  

Let the adventure of the summer season begin. 

To cap off this week’s report, I’m posing a question your way. 
 

Box Office Maniac Question of the Week: 

Which movie does better in box office receipts, Spider-Man 3 or Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End? 

Spider-Man 3 has a running length of 2 hrs and 36 minutes. 

Pirates of the Caribbean has a running length of 2 hrs and 50 minutes. 

Both will most likely have near the same amount of screens. Both will make a box office killing. Which one will be the box office champion? 
 

Friday April 27, 2007 Releases: 

Wide Releases

Next (2,500 screens)

The Condemned (2,000+ screens)

The Invisible (2,000 screens)

Kickin’ It Old Skool (1,500+ screens) 

Limited Releases

Wind Chill

Diggers

Jindabyne

Something to Cheer About

Zoo 
 

That’s going to do it for this week’s Box Office Report. See you later, fellow Maniacs.