Jon Heder, Scott Hamilton and Will Ferrell in DreamWorks Pictures' Blades of Glory
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Glory brings home the Gold!

Last week, an influx of new movies and new choices hit the market spreading wide the choices of audiences everywhere. Demographics were expected to be all over the spectrum with their own personal desires of taste. It always comes down to the old “I want to see this!” reaction inside us all which decides what style of movie wins out for any particular  weekend. We all choose on what our tastes centers towards and a lot of that is an age factor within us. It’s why target demographics are so important for studios in the screening process (if they choose to screen it) and why a release date is as equally important for that distributor. Will the periodic action piece win? Will the adult themed comedy? Will the fantasy or the children’s movie rule overall? Every movie has its strong point and its own weakness from week to week depending on what Joe Moviegoer wants to see. If there’s a lot of choice out there, it’s a free for all in a game of chance. This weekend is no different. 

Standing higher then any others on that podium of gold is the Will Ferrell starring Blades of Glory. The sports comedy distributed by Dreamworks/Paramount scored big with audiences everywhere amassing 33.0 mil over the weekend in 3,372 screens. It’s obvious that the people wanted laugh this weekend over anything else and this was a film in which “thinking” was most likely last on their minds. It gave the audience an hour and 33 minutes of chucklicious moments (the running time of the movie) and it gave theaters an opportunity to play something more frequently throughout the day. Combine the short running time with the amount of screens, incorporate the PG-13 rating and you can see why this movie is this weekend’s number 1 film. 

Following in 2^nd place right behind the Ferrell comedy is Disney’s Meet the Robinsons. As I state, we can see clearly which demographics won this weekend and also had a piece of last weekend if you include TMNT in the mix. The Disney animated Robinsons opened up on 3,413 screens with a likewise short running time of 1 hr, 32 minutes. Much like Blades of Glory, this film had everything going for it. PG rated; short running time and a massive amount of showings per screen for audiences. Blades most likely won over Robinsons because it had a connect with a teen audience and an older audience to combine with bringing kids along too. 

Landing in 3^rd place while dropping out of 276 screens is the Warner Bros smash hit 300. Zach Snyder’s periodic action piece brought in another 11 mil to its accumulated domestic total of 179.6 million. If you tack on the other 79.6 mil it’s made so far overseas, its worldwide total is now sitting at 259.2 mil with a production budget listed at 65 mil. We’re now approaching a time in this movies run where it’s going to be dropping out of the top seats in our box office report. The film is now being pulled out of certain screens and it’s going to be stabilizing as audiences have seen the film by now. It doesn’t means it’s leaving the top 10 on our charts just yet (Wild Hogs has been going as strong with legs to stand on.); it just means that it may not be in the top 3 after this weekend electing instead to stand in the top 5-7 from this point forward. 

The other Warner Bros film TMNT dropped like a stone this weekend plopping down in 4^th place this weekend with 9.1 mil. The film which won last weekend’s box office report dropped 62.2% in its second weekend averaging $2,935 in its 3,120 screens. With Blades of Glory & Meet the Robinsons, it’s not a shell shock why the movie didn’t do as well this weekend as it did in its debut bout. The younger demographics had more choices this weekend compared to last. TMNT has a budget of 34 mil and its total domestic take is now at 38.4 mil. 

Standing tall in 5^th place is the other Disney comedy Wild Hogs with an 8.3 mil total in receipts. The regular joe biker comedy has been standing strong in much the same fashion as 300, albeit for even longer in theaters. This weekend’s take in cash has the film sitting nice at 135.3 mil in domestic totals. As I say, it’s done absolutely great for Disney in the month of March.  

The Paramount shoot ‘em up action flick Shooter fires its way into 6^th place this weekend. The Antoine Fuqua helmed film brought in another 8.0 mil this weekend in its 2,806 screens across the nation. It dropped from 3^rd place (last weekend) to 6^th place with a 44.9% change in its totals. Its budget is listed at 61 mil and its total domestic take is now at 27.2 mil.  

Sandra Bullock’s thriller Premonition stays in 7^th place for the second straight weekend grabbing another 5.1 mil in receipts. The film was pulled out of 357 screens this week from its distributor Sony and dropped 46.7%. Its budget is listed at 20 mil and its total domestic take is at nearly twice that amount (39.3 mil). 

Following behind in 8^th place is the New Line film The Last Mimzy. The film dropped an eye pounding 60.1% in its second weekend averaging a very low $1,325 per screen. It’s in 3,017 screens (quite a lot for a movie with these numbers) but only brought in 4.0 mil this weekend. Its total take in 2 weekends is 16.1 mil. 

Finishing this weekend’s box office report in 8^th & 9^th places is the horror The Hills Have Eyes II and drama Reign Over Me. This is the second weekend in release for both films and both films have relatively low budgets. Hills has a budget of 15 mil and Reign has its budget listed at 20 mil. Hills has now accumulated its budget costs (barely) with this weekends take of 3.9 mil and total domestic take of 15.8 mil. Reign Over Me has its total domestic take at 13.3 mil.  
 
 
 

Will Ferrell’s comedic roots began back at Saturday Night Live much like a lot of rising stars inside Hollywood. Some of those SNL alumni have hit iconic status lately… Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler,  Mike Myers, Steve Martin & Chevy Chase are just a few which spring to mind. Will Ferrell hasn’t quite hit the level of these guys in box office rankings but I’m sure if he continues down the path of acting for another 5 years or so, he may be up there on the box office leader board. He has the talent and abilities to do it. He can’t avoid having misses along the way with the amount of exposure he’s allowed himself to have these past 10 years. They’ve all been involved in box office duds along their perspective paths. It’s unavoidable. However, with an occasional smash hit, they bounce right back into the game. Ferrell is no exception to the rule. He’s had his share of misses.  

From Night at the Roxbury (in which he still appeared regularly on SNL) to Blades of Glory, Ferrell has received quite a lot of exposure the last few years. It can be said he was as busy as Samuel L. Jackson, Eddie Murphy & many others in the whole “accepting roles” department. That’s not to say it’s going to continue though. I’ve heard recently that Will’s set on slowing the pace down and accepting more serious minded roles with all his upcoming projects to be.  

He began his movie career doing small cameos in other pop culture imprinted movies based on SNL characters or actors, these films being Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery(1997), Night at the Roxbury(1998) & Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me(1999). A lot of his early career was cameoing in fellow comedic friends movies. Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell all had a habit of inserting themselves into each others movies a few years back. 

Two months after his cameo in the massively popular/box office success Austin Powers: Spy Who Shagged Me film, he hit a brick wall in the way of Dick. The underperforming film opened in 1,522 screens on 8/3/99 making a measly 2.2 million on its debut weekend and only 6.2 mil overall. Just like that, his movie career had a snag before it even began. He later appeared two months after that in Superstar which did somewhat better at the box office.  

Perhaps it was jumping into the scene a little too quickly for Will here. 3 films spaced two months apart from each other all in 1999. Actually, you could include a fourth film titled The Suburbans which came out the same exact month as Superstar. I’m not counting it though since it opened in only 11 screens for its theater release. Either way, Ferrell’s first real year as a big screen actor can be summed up as “too much, too quickly”. 

The years of 00 and 01 spread his name out there in industry circles and audiences everywhere but the films themselves didn’t exactly spell Box Office Gold for studio bean counters. His performances in Drowning Mona, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Zoolander left impressions that perhaps there was something worth watching in the way of Will Ferrell. At the very least, audiences started finding the ole humor bone whenever he would show up in strange situations out of the blue. His exposure was now crossing a point where people knew who the hell Will Ferrell really was (outside of the SNL audience) around 02. It was this exposure which led Will to having a good 03 year. By December of 03, Will was a household name in the minds of the mainstream movie audience.  

                                                    Will Ferrell Statistics: 

Total Domestic Gross: 

888.9 million  

Average Gross Per Film: 

46.7 million 

Ferrell is currently working on Semi-Pro (2008) & Step Brothers (2008).  
 
 
 
 

Question for you Maniacs: Episode II. 
 

Last week, I discussed how the month of March performed quite well in analytical expectations for the box office. This year in fact has been up and I posed the question your way on whether you think this trend of box office success will continue onward through April. No feedback towards this question so I’ll pose it again your way. 

Does the month of April perform better then the month of March? 

Does it do worse? 

Does it stall and stay status quo? 

Don’t be shy, Maniacs. Let me know what you’re thinking on the high box office success of March and what it means for the future of expectations in 2007. 
 

April 4-6, 2007: 

Wide Releases

• Are We Done Yet? (2,800 screens)
• Firehouse Dog (2,600+ screens)
• Grindhouse (2,500 screens)
• The Reaping (2,300+ screens)

Limited Releases

• Black Book
• The Hoax
• The TV Set

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