2007 at the Box Office (1 Viewer)

[Lou Sytsma]

Cheers for 1408! Does my heart good to see an intelligent horror film do well at the BO. It would have done much better if it had been released in the fall though.

 

[Jason Roer]

As I've stated numerous times - Knocked Up is my favorite film of the year so far. It really has the perfect blend of sweet and crude and has such mass appeal because of it. What Judd began in Virgin, he perfected here.

$20 million for 1408 has to have them creaming in their shorts. Very unexpected, and with a budget of only $25 million and little in terms of an ad campaign, this is going to be a very solid hit.

Hostel 2 wasn't the death of the horror film - only the death of the current "torture" subgenre. Athough expect Saw 4 to have an ok opening weekend and eventually turn a profit. However, horror will be back in the next couple of years with an entirely new spin.

The dancing banana is my favorite character and I wanted to show my wife what it looked like. That's why he's there if anyone was wondering.

Cheers,

Jason

 

[MattFini]

I really liked 1408, and I'm glad that it did well.

A good, slow-paced and smart horror film that deserves its success.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I don't agree, as I thought it was hyped - in a weird way. Everyone kept talking about it as the summer's sleeper hit. However, that meant it couldn't be a sleeper since too many people expected it to do well!

I think Virgin and Wedding Crashers were surprise hits, but too many people expected this one to make money for it to be a sleeper...

 

[Mark Hawley]

Ouch with Evan Almighty. If it didn't cost nearly as much, I'd say it had done rather well, considering.

They should learn not only to not make sequels to Jim Carrey films not starring Jim Carrey, but not to make huge budget sequels to movies and have them center around big boats and eschew the predecessor's main star in favor of its secondary star just because that particular star is hot at the time. Sound familiar?

Oh and good for 1408. Highest opening for a Stephen King film ever.

 

[EricW]

well since Evan is geared to kids it should do well on home video.

btw, i just thought, and this has probably been said elsewhere, but wouldn't it have been cool if Bourne Ultimatum was released on July 4, then the trailer could have had the tag:
BOURNE ON THE 4TH OF JULY

 

[MikeRS]

Nobody pre-release (especially in this thread) thought "Knocked Up" was a shoo in for topping 100 million domestic - let alone handedly beating 40 Year Old Virgin (which BTW had even more 'sleeper' hype than "Knocked Up"). Even if they were optimistic it might find it's little niche this summer, no one guaranteed the success it has had since release.

After seeing the picture however, I was pretty confident

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...postcount=1239

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I agree. Saw it tonight on a whim since it was playing at the drive-in. A missfire in every possible way. You can feel the hand of the screenwriter (not the Almighty) at every turn. Not funny, poor characterizations, politically heavy-handed. Even the climax severely underwhelms. I thought it'd be bad, but I had no idea it would be this bad. There's only one good scene in the movie (and Freeman's the reason). Eric's right that it might have success in the bland, family-friendly video market. That's about it.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Does anyone know how many screens are showing Ratatouille this weekend? I just checked my local theaters and they all seem really really low. Our big 28 screen multiplex has it only on one single screen for a total of 4 showings a day. Die Hard 4 at the same place is showing 20 times per day. All of the other cinemas around seem to be showing the same numbers most have twice as many showings for Die Hard than Rat.

Did they just not book up that many?

 

[Malcolm R]

Looks like a super-wide release at 3,500+ theaters. I'd imagine most theaters haven't locked their schedules yet. My local theater doesn't usually post their next week schedule until sometime Tuesday night. LFoDH is only a couple days away, so they have to finalize that schedule. They still have a couple days to decide what to do for the weekend.

 

[TerryRL]

Weekend Report

The slump continues as this weekend saw business drop 2% from this point last year when "Click" debuted at #1 with its $40 million opening. However, business was up 8% compared to this frame in '05 when "Batman Begins" repeated as the nation's top box office draw.

Despite the slump, 2007 has now tallied a domestic total of $4.426 billion. That total is up 4% over '06 ($4.247 billion), a 9% bump over '05 ($4.071 billion), nearly identical to '04 ($4.422 billion), and a 5% improvement over '03 ($4.218 billion).

In terms of overall theater admissions, '07 has now moved nearly 661 million tickets. Compared to past years at this point, '06 had sold 645 million tickets, '05 had moved 636 million admissions, '04 sold a whopping 712 million, and '03 moved 699 million.

On to the top ten...

Despite earning the biggest live-action opening weekend ever for star Steve Carell's as the headlining performer, Universal's "Evan Almighty" couldn't escape the "disappointing" tag as it pulled in $31.2 million, which is less than half of the nearly $68 million that "Bruce Almighty" debuted with in 2003 (which would translate to a $75.5 million in today's marketplace). 'Evan' earned a solid $8,654 average from its 3,604 locations, which was the best of the top ten.

Still, the movie earned the unfortunate tag of being "the most expensive live-action comedy ever made" with a cost of more than $175 million. The movie will have to show extremely sturdy legs in the coming weeks (as well as perform well overseas) if the studio is hoping to recoup the film's extremely high cost. Judging from the exit polls, the movie didn't blow movie-goers away and may deteriorate much quicker than expected.

MGM/Weinstein's "1408" had a surprisingly strong opening tally of $20.6 million as it took the second slot. The movie's per-theater average of 7,698 from its 2,678 locations was the second best of the top ten. The $25 million budgeted film also gave star John Cusack the third best opening of his career behind "America's Sweethearts" ($30.2 million) and "Con Air" ($24.1 million). "1408" also scored the best opening ever for a film based on a work by author Stephen King, besting the $18.2 million debut of 2004's "Secret Window" and the $18.0 million opening of 1999's "The Green Mile".

Given the fact that horror movies haven't fared that well this year, many thought "1408" would fall victim to this recurring theme. The movie benefitted from very strong reviews as well as extremely strong exit polling, indicating that this one could end up having a very leggy run in theaters. Many are now expecting "1408" to have staying power similar to that of this year's only other hit thriller, "Disturbia" ($78.5 million).

Fox's "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" took a steep 65% hit in business this weekend as it fell to the third slot (the first movie lost 59% of its business during weekend #2). The movie has so far tallied more than $97 million and looks to be headed for a final gross in the neighborhood of $130-$140 million, falling short of the $154.7 million haul of the first film.

Despite FF2's steep fall, Fox is "satisfied" with how their $130 million sequel is performing and are already talking about doing another sequel. Overseas, the movie has now earned more than $50 million. The studio is expecting a solid run abroad (the first film pulled in $175.4 million abroad for a global tally of $330.1 million).

WB's "Ocean's Thirteen" was off a moderate 42% and has now pulled in just under $92 million. This time next weekend the movie will have passed the century mark. Overseas the caper flick has already passed $100 million in international grosses.

Universal's "Knocked Up" once again had the best hold of the top ten as it lost a mere 22% of its business from last weekend. The movie has now earned $109.3 million and looks headed for a final haul in the area of $140-$150 million.

Disney's Pirates 3 has now had back-to-back moderate percentage drops and a $300 million-plus final domestic gross is now pretty much a lock because of it. Overseas the movie continues to impress as it has now pulled in a whopping $584.6 million, giving it a worldwide mark of $872 million. The movie is now days away from passing the $878.9 million worldwide tally of "Spider-Man 3" to claim the top spot for the year in global grosses. A final haul of between $950 million and $1 billion is now expected for Pirates 3.

Sony's "Surf's Up" has now earned $47.2 million. DreamWorks/Paramount's "Shrek the Third" became only the fourth animated film in history to pass the triple-century mark. Overseas the movie's total rose to $171.1 million, giving it a worldwide mark of about $479 million. WB's "Nancy Drew" has pulled in a disappointing $16.1 million.

Paramount Vantage's early Oscar hopeful, "A Mighty Heart", barely registered with movie-goers this weekend as it opened with $3.9 million, earning a less than thrilling $2,914 average from its modest 1,355 locations. Still, expect star Angelina Jolie to get a major Oscar push from the studio. Look for this one to probably play a lot stronger on home video.

This weekend also saw filmmaker Michael Moore's latest documentary, "Sicko", play to sold-out shows this weekend as Lionsgate had about 40 sneaks of the movie. The movie will go wide next weekend.

Next weekend the studios are banking on the magic of Pixar and the return of John McClane to end the current box office slump. Disney/Pixar's "Ratatouille" is expected to blow away the competition next weekend and easily take the top spot at the box office, launching in about 3,500-4,000 theaters. Hoping to get a jump on the expected dominance of "Ratatouille", Fox will open "Live Free or Die Hard" on Wednesday. This one is also expected to have a fat debut. Focus Features will release the drama "Evening" on about 900-1,000 locations.

 

[Tim Glover]

Good stuff Terry. For such a promising Summer of big films, these discussions of late have been a bit uneventful (not your analysis stuff btw ). Obviously, for the most part, we just haven't been as captivated as we had hoped. Interesting how much better Pirates 3 is doing overseas. Wow.

So what's the studio expectation for Live Free or Die Hard?

 

[TerryRL]

Fox is "cautiously optimistic" about the prospects of the fourth DH flick. The movie has received very strong early reviews (despite the PG-13 rating) and the studio now believes that the movie could turn into a big hit this summer.

The studio is basically taking a "wait and see" attitude right now. If the movie has a big opening and goes on to be a big hit, two things will happen. 1) the studio will do another one and 2) they (Fox) will ink a deal with director Len Wiseman to helm the "Wolverine" movie as well as the fifth DH movie.

The studio isn't stupid enough to think the movie will be #1 this weekend opposite "Ratatouille", but they feel the movie can earn big numbers because most involved believe that this is the best DH flick since the first one back in 1988. We'll see what happens.

 

[JediFonger]

man, i just wrote a lot and htf chewed it up ='(

anyways, i think every year we go through the "they don't make 'em like they used to" or "it just wasn't what i expected" comments. and this year is no different.

not only that but our lives are just getting more and more busy@home with home cinema, front projectors, surround sound, HD stuff, it's difficult to justify going to the cinema unless you are a true movie nut.

this year's 3rd sequels were highly anticipated. i really looked forward to spiderman3 so much that i qued up spiderman and its sequel and watched it prior to watching 3... and was supremely disappointed because 2 was SOOooooooooo good. 3 was simply too busy.

then i saw shrek3 and that suffered the same issues, 2 busy.

same with pirates3

i go into spidey3 to see peter parker struggling to juggle his life and spider-man... not 3villains all@once. i went to see shrek3 for shrek himself, donkey and puss+boots have grown on me... but i didn't get enough of them. again it was sooooo busy with ALL the fairy tale villains. not just a few. all 'em. i want to see jack sparrow in pirates... don't much care for any of the other characters. bringing rush back was a bad idea. just took even more time away from sparrow.

i was dragged into evan's almight and f4-2 this past weekend. EA was pretty funny in the beginning but took itself 2seriously in the end. f4-2 was pretty niftywhen silver surfer was on... but just as much of a dud as the first.

i had more fun @hot fuzz a few months ago than these summer "blockbusters".

plus with so many sequels i haven't had time to catch the original yet like ocean's 13, i have to watch 12. i haven't even seen f4 yet.

next week is the new hampshire state license motto + pixar. it'll be interesting considering transformers is just around the corner.

i think transformers has LOTR/Spider-Man sized audiences. totally untapped and ready to roll. i'd be VERY surprised if it didn't do well.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

It's definitely riding high on RT right now: ~86%. I just earlier tonight had someone ask me if I wanted to catch it with them tomorrow; someone who's not exactly an opening night kind of guy. All the anecdotal word-of-mouth I've experienced around the project has been really strong.
It might ultimately be one of those movies where you have to say, okay it isn't like the original but does it work on its own terms?
That's how I plan to go into it.

 

[Chris Atkins]

That's good advice for watching any movie, IMHO.

 

[Tim Glover]

Agreed.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

But it's not human nature. Eating Wendys a few days after a four star meal is going to be noticed and compared. And it's going to look worse in comparison. Especially when it costs more

 

[Chris Atkins]

But that doesn't mean that you still can't enjoy your Wendy's meal, does it?

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Of course you can...but you'll never enjoy it as much