2005 at the Box Office (1 Viewer)

[Casey Trowbridg]

Some impressive legs for wedding crashers I must say.

 

[DavidPla]

I agree Arjan S. Dreamworks going bankrupt because of "The Island" sounds ludicrous. Especially with all the success the studio has had. I mean, they were less than 5 years old when they won their first Best Picture Oscar with "American Beauty". I was hoping to see a lot more from them.

Happy to see "Batman Begins" pass 200 Million. Hopefully "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" will be able to as well.

 

[Galen_V]

Check out this article by Edward Jay Epstein that was published on Slate this morning. He does a pretty good job of explaining how studios make most of their money these days, and uses his argument to explain why studio-less studios like Dreamworks are in deep financial trouble.

"The big six studios, with vast libraries of movies and TV programs, can count on this income flow no matter what happens at the box office or video stores. For example, even though Sony has a batch of movies this summer, its profitability is assured by the licensing fees flowing in from its library of more than 40,000 hours of movies and TV episodes. No such luck for the independent studios. With no comparable libraries, or, for that matter, corporate sibling alliances to ease their access, they need a constant quota of hits to keep their heads above water. Consider Dreamworks SKG, run by three of the most successful and creative executives in Hollywood's history—Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. Despite its clout, Dreamworks was not able to produce anywhere near enough hits to prevent it from burning through most of its capital. The problem for these wannabe studios is that without a juicy slice of the $17.7 billion television pie, they cannot compete with the studios that have this rich cushion to fall back on."
http://slate.msn.com/id/2124078/

 

[Timothy Alexander]

What the hell? This is the first I'm hearing about Universal taking over Dreamworks. Does this mean I won't be seeing that wonderful "Dreamworks" logo at the top of new movies anymore? They've had an unbelievable run for such a young studio.

 

[TerryRL]

You'll likely still see the DreamWorks logo, but if Universal ends up owning the pink slip than the studio will end up being what Columbia/Tri-Star and Touchstone are to Sony and Buena Vista

 

[Pete-D]

Isn't Dreamworks still counting their money from Shrek 2?

I mean honestly now that Star Wars has finished its run ... Shrek is probably the hottest movie franchise in Hollywood period, even bigger than Spider-Man (and cheaper to make to boot).

And the fact that its still an active franchise with Shrek 3/4 in production ... I would think would secure their long term future.

Having a movie like "The Island" underperform is just part of the business.

 

[Malcolm R]

Spielberg et. al. have more than enough money that if they truly desired their studio to remain independent, they're more than able to finance it themselves.

 

[Galen_V]

You're forgetting that Dreamworks Animation is a different company now, separate from the live-action unit which Universal is on the verge of acquiring.

 

[Holadem]

Aren't Spielberg movies typically distributed by Universal? I have a feeling he may not mind.

To this day I still expect the Universal logo to be followed by Jurassic park. Kinda like Fox and Star Wars.

--
H

 

[TerryRL]

Weekend Estimates

#1 "Four Brothers" $20.7 million
#2 "The Skeleton Key" $15.7 million
#3 "The Dukes of Hazzard" $13.0 million ($57.4 million) -57%
#4 "Wedding Crashers" $12.0 million ($164.0 million) -25%
#5 "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" $9.4 million
#6 "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" $7.2 million ($183.7 million) -33%
#7 "March of the Penguins" $6.7 million ($37.6 million) -5%
#8 "Sky High" $6.1 million ($43.3 million) -32%
#9 "Must Love Dogs" $4.5 million ($34.6 million) -37%
#10 "The Great Raid" $3.3 million

Paramount's action/drama "Four Brothers" got off to a great start this weekend as it pulled in close to $21 million. Playing in a modest 2,533 locations, the movie earned a solid $8,172 per-theater average (easily the best of the top ten). The film, which cost a modest $45 million to make, should have a strong run in theaters during the coming weeks.

Universal's "The Skeleton Key" debuted with nearly $16 million this weekend. The horror flick earned a $5,700 average from the 2,771 theaters it is playing in (the second best of the top ten). Next weekend will better judge what type of run this one will end up having.

WB's "The Dukes of Hazzard" slipped to third this weekend with a sizeable 57% hit in business. The film has so far tallied more than $57 million and a final haul in the neighborhood of $85 million is now expected. The $53 million movie (not counting the $17.5 million out-of-court settlement WB had to pay a group who held the rights to the underlying 'Dukes' television show) will end up having a solid run in theaters, but probably not impressive enough for the studio to think "franchise".

New Line's "Wedding Crashers" continues to show great legs as it took another meager 25% dip this weekend (the second smallest decline of the top ten). The comedy has so far earned $164 million and a final haul north of the $200 million mark is looking more and more likely.

Sony's "summer to forget" continues as "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" got off to a very weak start. The film took in $9.4 million (earning only a $3,006 average from the 3,127 theaters its playing in) and will probably have a very short run in theaters. Sony may have better luck when 'Deuce' hits home video. You can bet that Sony execs can't wait for this summer to end.

WB's "Charlie and the Chocolate" saw only a 33% drop in business this weekend as its total neared the $184 million mark. A final mark of more than $200 million now seems likely.

"March of the Penguins" continues to impress as it once again had the best hold of the top ten (off a mere 5%). The documentary has so far tallied $37.6 million and will have little difficulty in passing the $50 million mark. A final haul of more than $65 million is now expected.

Disney's "Sky High" had a solid hold as it lost only 32% of its business this weekend. This one is also looking like it'll top out in the area of $60-$65 million.

WB's "Must Love Dogs" took a modest decline of 37% and has earned $34.6 million thus far. This one should make it to the $50 million plateau.

Miramax's WWII drama, "The Great Raid", rounds out the top ten. The film earned a solid average of $4,119 (the third best of the top ten) from the 819 theaters its playing in. Miramax is expecting this one to have solid legs in the coming weeks as it expands to more theaters.

The overall box office was down once again compared to last year when "Alien vs. Predator" opened with $38.3 million, this time to the tune of 17%. Next weekend will see the releases of Disney's animated flick "Valiant", DreamWorks thriller "Red Eye", and Universal's comedy "The 40-Year-Old Virgin".

 

[Mark Hawley]

Also, Batman Begins has just passed the $200 million mark.

 

[TerryRL]

Yep. I forgot to mention that.

Congrats to WB, Christopher Nolan and everyone involved with "Batman Begins". On Thursday (its 58th day of release) the movie passed the $200 million mark. The movie joins an exclusive list of films from the comic book/superhero genre to pass the double-century mark.

'Begins' joins both "Spider-Man" movies, the 1989 "Batman" flick and 'X2' on the short list of $200 million-plus performers for this genre.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Awesome!

 

[ChrisBEA]

I'm happy for Batman Begins box office, it's just a shame that actual ticket sales among Batman films, puts it behind Batman, Batman Begins, and Batman Forever.

 

[Chris Atkins]

Very happy for Batman Begins. I hope this convinces the studio to bring Nolan back for the sequel.

 

[TerryRL]

Nolan is directing the sequel (and very likely the third film as well). He's also getting about $5 million to do it.

As for overall ticket sales of the franchise, here is how the five films stack up in terms of how many admissions they each sold...

WB Estimates
"Batman" (1989) 61.0 million
"Batman Returns" (1992) 39.2 million
"Batman Forever" (1995) 42.2 million
"Batman Begins" (2005) 31.1 million
"Batman & Robin" (1997) 23.3 million

 

[DavidPla]

I guess a lot of that can account to the fact that at the time "Batman" was the ONLY successful comic book film franchise around while "Batman Begins" has not only been the FIFTH film in a series but is now competing with other successful comic book properties.

Which asks the question, how does it rank as a fifth in a series? I'm sure Attack of the Clones is #1 but would Begins rank #2?

 

[Alex Spindler]

How many other possible contenders are there? Rocky, Aliens vs Predator (if that counts), Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th. Are there any other theatrical release series with that many films under their belt?

 

[DavidPla]

There's James Bond, "You Only Live Twice" which with inflation might be pretty high up there. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Star Trek V, Child's Play...

 

[EricW]

what exactly does compete mean? you could argue that Batman Begins competed with Fantastic Four, since they were released in the same season, but will less people see a Batman movie when Spider-Man and X-Men are successes from different years? or would their success help/compliment the Batman franchise? a more tangible threat might be the UNsuccessful comic book properties like Hulk or Daredevil.