Amph The Box Office Thread

This week:

1. "Chicken Little," $32 million.

2. "Zathura: A Space Adventure," $14 million.

3. "Derailed," $12.8 million.

4. "Get Rich or Die Tryin'", $12.5 million.

5. "Jarhead," $12.3 million.

6. "Saw II," $9.4 million.

7. "The Legend of Zorro," $6.6 million.

8. "Prime," $4 million.

9. "Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story," $3.8 million.

10. "Pride & Prejudice," $2.8 million.


"Chicken Little" held on to a good portion of its box office; "Jarhead" fell quite a bit; "Zathura" is probably disappointing, given that "Harry Potter 4" opens next week and will probably swamp it; "Derailed" is probably disappointing; "Zorro 2" is a definite disappointment; and "Pride and Prejudice" considering that it is only playing in 215 threatres, is doing well. By contrast, there are 3,223 theatres for "Zathura," 2,441 for "Derailed" and 1,652 for "Get Rich or Die Tryin'".

 

Chicken Little really surprised me. I was expecting Robots numbers to cume, but now I can see it finishing Top 10 like many predicted. Expected a steep drop off with GOF next week

 

From the Nat'l Post:

Greatest increase: "Capote" from 17th to 14th on the list (31.2 per cent)

Greatest drop: "Jarhead" (55.8 per cent)

Best average per screen: "Pride & Prejudice"

Winner of the week: "Saw II", which made 19 times the 4 million they made it for.

Loser of the week: 50 Cent. A 4th place opening makes him Eminem's *****, to quite them.

 

From Box Office Mojo:

1 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire WB $101,425,000
2 Walk the Line Fox $22,400,000
3 1 Chicken Little BV $14,769,000 (-53.3%)
4 3 Derailed Wein. $6,526,000 (-46.6%)
5 2 Zathura Sony $5,100,000 {-62.0%)
6 5 Jarhead Uni. $4,790,000 (-59.2%)
7 4 Get Rich or Die Tryin' Par. $4,375,000 {-63.6%}
8 6 Saw II Lions $3,900,000 (-57.3%)
9 7 The Legend of Zorro Sony $2,300,000 (-64.0%)
10 10 Pride and Prejudice Focus $2,112,000 (-26.3%)
11 11 Good Night, and Good Luck. WIP $1,695,000 (-32.2%)
12 8 Prime Uni. $1,610,000 (-58.4%)

 

Congrats to GOF, though it didn't beat SM, Shrek and ROTS, it still made 100+ according to estimates and set more than 1 record.

 

From the Nat'l Post:

Biggest gainer: "Bee Season" (90 per cent)

Biggest loser: "Zorro" (64 per cent)

Biggest per-screen return: "Harry Potter IV"

Biggest winner of the week: "Harry Potter IV:

Biggest loser of the week: "Zathura" (it's going to need better returns than 5 Million a week to make back its $65 Million cost)

 

Biggest Loser of the Week: Chicken Little. Missed 100 million by 1 million this weekend. Now it has to rely on the weekday crowd to push it over that milestone...which.........it will do.

 

Harry Potter - the Goblet of Fire looks set to be the hit of the year!
http://www.premierepictures.com

 

Any particular reasons why "Zorro" is a failure this time around?

I saw the movie and enjoyed it. The first was better, but there is definitely chemistry between AB and CZJ.

 

Maybe it was because they gave away the major plot point in the trailer.

No other reason, that I can think of, unless the majority of people decided that they'd watch it on TV or DVD.

 

You don't release a sequel to an already mediocre film 7 years later. And plus how many people are still interested in the 1800's West Genre?

 

I love Westerns, but very few are made any more.

I know the first Zorro movie performed somewhat below expectations for the studio.

However, I expect that the international market will help out.

It does have to be a concern for both Banderas & Zeta-Jones; it means they can't open a pre-tested property. Bad news.

 

The Christmas market is going to get really crowded strarting next week: "Narnia", "Aeon Flux", "Geisha", "King Kong", "Brokeback Mountain" & "All the King's Men" are all opening soon.

 

But I have this feeling that the holiday season isn't going to be as big as expected.

Yes, we've had CL and GOF and pretty much that's left is Narnia and KK. Aeon Flux may do something, but could easily bomb. This is a difficult season to predict. I'm sure there's a few surprises, but there will be a lot of letdowns.

 

I feel bad for Jarhead. I don't think it will even be able to cover it's 72 million cost.

And Harry Potter the surprse hit of the year? , It will average out to about the same ass the other three, probably close to $300 million.

The surprise hit of the year, was Wedding Crashers. Nobody expected it to do so good. I mean, ROTS, was expected to be huge, and it fufilled just that, but this was R rated, and R rated movies generally don't fair very good.

 

1 1 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire WB $54,905,000 -46.5% ($201,089,000)
2 2 Walk the Line Fox $19,700,000 -11.8% ($54,721,000)
3 N Yours, Mine and Ours Par. $17,475,000 ($24,500,000)
4 3 Chicken Little BV $12,421,000 ($118,235,000)
5 N Rent SonR $10,700,000 ($18,050,000)
6 N Just Friends NL $9,275,000 ($13,600,000)
7 10 Pride and Prejudice Focus $7,027,000 +228.1% $5,409 ($15,901,000)
8 5 Zathura Sony $4,900,000 ($26,025,000)
9 4 Derailed Wein. $4,717,000 ($29,415,000)
10 N In the Mix Lions $4,475,000 ($6,150,000)
11 N The Ice Harvest Focus $3,744,000 $5,051,000
12 6 Jarhead Uni. $2,861,000 ($59,420,000)
13 8 Saw II Lions $2,400,000 ($84,212,000)
14 7 Get Rich or Die Tryin' Par. $2,130,000 ($28,379,000)
15 11 Good Night, and Good Luck. WIP $1,910,000 ($19,617,000)

1 & 2 are the same as last week. "Chicken Little" is hanging tough; "Rent" and "Just Friends" need to pick it up; "Zathura" and "Derailed" won't make their costs back, at least in first release. Nor will "Jarhead", it seems. "The Ice Harvest" is a disaster; "Saw II" made a fortune considering the negible overhead. "Get Rich" won't; "Good Night" is still not in wide release.

 

"Goblet" has apparently taken it over $408,000,000.00 worldwide to date, so Book Five, which in my view will be extremely difficult to adapt, will go ahead.

 

PJ's Kong was reviewed by Newsweek. It got a decent, but not great review. At over three hours, a decent movie doesn't cut it in my book. I, for one, will see it opening weekend....... but many will not! This movie may perform like Godzilla '98.

 

I'm not a great fan of Jackson, or anything, and I hate remakes, but I hope not...

 

Actually Newsweek gave King Kong a great review. The link to the review is listed below.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10216525/site/newsweek/

 

This weekend's results:


1. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," $20.45 million.

2. "Aeon Flux," $13.1 million.

3. "Walk the Line," $10 million.

4. "Yours, Mine & Ours," $8.4 million.

5. "Just Friends," $5.9 million.

6. "Pride & Prejudice," $4.62 million.

7. "Rent," $4.6 million.

8. "Chicken Little," $4.5 million.

9. "Derailed," $2.4 million.

10. "In the Mix," $1.9 million.

 

Potter is a lock to outgross ROTS worldwide...... unless Narnia and Kong make major box office inroads to Harry's audience overseas. No small feat, mind you. I think Harry 4 can reach 900-925 million worldwide.

As for Kong, the question is "Will it be another Jurassic Park?" or "Will it be another Godzilla '98?". Despite probably being superior to the Spielberg homage to Kong '33, I predict AOTC adjusted numbers. 700 million worldwide, and no best picture nomination.

King Kong has been beaten to death. 'Definitve version' or not, this classic 'Beauty and the Beast' story was told perfectly in '33. What PJ is trying to do is impossible. It's like trying to remake "Gone With The Wind". ......Basically it's a no-win situation.

 

"King Kong" won't get a best picture nom no matter how good it is. The Academy likes messages, and the only message it has is: 'If you meet a demented giant ape on a desert island, don't bring him to New York.'

(Well, actually, the message is that the wonders of nature will always be exploited by Jack Black, but that's another story...}

National Post:

Winner of the box office week: Harry Potter. It lost 62 per cent of its box office and still was in number one.

Loser of the week: "Aeon Flux" They don't think it's as bad as Catwoman, a small concession.

Biggest box office gain: "Syriana" in limited release

Biggest box office loss: "Chicken Little"

Best screen percentage: Harry Potter

 

Interesting there Zaz. I agree with you about messages in the Academy but how would that explain ROTK winning. Other than the fact that the Academy felt they owed it to him.