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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Weekend Review

Grease is the weird. I’m getting exhausted trying to figure out Paramount’s box office results every week. Titanic was down 7 percent from last week, despite the Oscars, to $16 million. This surprised me, as for a change, I expected the film to do better than it actually did. On the flip side, Grease had the kind of three day skid that is usually reserved for the very worst films with the very biggest stars. But there shouldn’t have been word-of-mouth problems on the 20-year-old classic. Grease opened in first on Friday with $6.1 million. That should have led to at least a $19 million weekend. But on Saturday, instead of going up at the box office as almost all films do, it dropped to $4.2 million, meaning that it had to do under $3 million on Sunday. The film’s $13 million total is hardly an embarrassment. It’s even close to my prediction, but you still gotta wonder.
Leo beat John to the finish line, but the third and fourth place spots reversed the placement of the superstar challengers, with Travolta winning over DiCaprio in the celluloid forms of Primary Colors ($7.3 million) and The Man In The Iron Mask ($6.6 million). In non-John and Leo films, Wild Things took fifth and the other Oscars winners, As Good as It Gets and Good Will Hunting both did well, increasing their box office takes. The news on the other newcomers fits perfectly into The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
THE GOOD: Ride, a Miramax/Dimension release that only hit 492 screens this weekend, managed to gross $2.6 million. That’s a $5,242 per-screen average, better than any film in the Top 10 other than Grease. This comes just four weeks after Live Entertainment had a surprise success, also directed to the urban market, with Caught Up. With New Line moving back into this area as well, the competition should continue to heat up as the year continues.
THE BAD: The Newton Boys managed just $4 million, despite opening on 1,964 screens. That’s a $2,037 per-screen average. Not good. The execs out there who have been fighting for the right to pay Matthew McConaughey $12 million for his next picture are probably doing double-takes this morning.
THE UGLY: No one showed up to Meet the Deedles, which opened on 1,762 screens and managed to pull in only $2.2 million for a $1,762 per-screen average. That’s ugly.
CONTEST WINNER: No one got the Top Five right. No one. Most of you were killed by The Newton Boys. Ironic, since the brothers pride themselves on non-violence in the movie. Things were so tough this week that just getting the Top Four was enough to put Brandon Gray in the winner’s circle. E-mail me and the stuff is yours, Brandon.
NEXT WEEK’S CONTEST: Forget the ShoWest stuff. New Line is kicking in a complete package of cool stuff from Lost In Space to next weekend’s box office winner. It’s time for all of you who aren’t entering to get on the box office bandwagon.
TWO BAD MOVIES EQUAL: Dangerous Beauty + The Newton Boys = Dangerous Newtons. Matthew McConaughey is the beautiful psychopath who is poisoning the Fig Newton supply of a large Northeastern city. Catherine McCormack is the beautiful police psychologist who can’t decide whether to love him or lock him up. With Ethan Hawke as the beautiful former boyfriend, Skeet Ulrich as the beautiful Fig Newton junior executive who figures out chocolate is the antidote and Vincent D’Onofrio as the guy who can’t decide whether he’s extremely beautiful, extremely fat or a giant bug. With a guest appearance by Rufus Sewell, who is extremely beautiful and a giant bug.
JUST WONDERING: Had Titanic opened last summer and The Truman Show opened at Christmas, would we all be talking about how it was Jim Carrey’s year as he had the smash hit Liar Liar and an Academy Award for his performance in The Truman Show?
BAD AD WATCH: Well, these aren’t really that bad, but most of my teeth have rotted out since reading the ad. Barney’s Great Adventure is coming and the ad is running with eight quotes from kids, ages 2 to 7. From pull quotes “Super Dee-Super” to “My Most Favorite Thing Ever,” a bunch of pre-schoolers are doing Jeanne Wolf’s job for her.
READER OF THE DAY: Denise offers a response to the weekend’s Reader of the Day that echoes the thoughts of many: “While I agree that all of James Horner‘s soundtracks sound very similar, I think this is true of most film composers. They all have a readily identifiable style. In fact, my family makes somewhat of a game of guessing the composer of a soundtrack when we see a film. Danny Elfman is even easier to identify than Horner. Although I am not one of Titanic‘s rabid fans, I do feel that the music was a perfect fit for the film and was emotionally powerful. The award is not given for what style of music one likes or whether it sounds different to a composer’s other works. It’s based on how well the music helped tell the story of any one particular film. In Titanic, Horner succeeded in bringing out the feel of the era, culture, epic grandeur and emotional highs and lows of the film. In fact, I think his soundtrack made me feel more emotion than the actors did.”
And T.D. Putney adds: “Hey Erik….Before you go on a anti-James Horner campaign maybe you should get your facts straight. Hans Zimmer made Backdraft...Nice try though.”

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Leonard Klady's Friday Estimates
Friday Screens % Chg Cume
Title Gross Thtr % Chgn Cume
Venom 33 4250 NEW 33
A Star is Born 15.7 3686 NEW 15.7
Smallfoot 3.5 4131 -46% 31.3
Night School 3.5 3019 -63% 37.9
The House Wirh a Clock in its Walls 1.8 3463 -43% 49.5
A Simple Favor 1 2408 -50% 46.6
The Nun 0.75 2264 -52% 111.5
Hell Fest 0.6 2297 -70% 7.4
Crazy Rich Asians 0.6 1466 -51% 167.6
The Predator 0.25 1643 -77% 49.3
Also Debuting
The Hate U Give 0.17 36
Shine 85,600 609
Exes Baggage 75,900 62
NOTA 71,300 138
96 61,600 62
Andhadhun 55,000 54
Afsar 45,400 33
Project Gutenberg 36,000 17
Love Yatri 22,300 41
Hello, Mrs. Money 22,200 37
Studio 54 5,300 1
Loving Pablo 4,200 15
3-Day Estimates Weekend % Chg Cume
No Good Dead 24.4 (11,230) NEW 24.4
Dolphin Tale 2 16.6 (4,540) NEW 16.6
Guardians of the Galaxy 7.9 (2,550) -23% 305.8
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4.8 (1,630) -26% 181.1
The Drop 4.4 (5,480) NEW 4.4
Let's Be Cops 4.3 (1,570) -22% 73
If I Stay 4.0 (1,320) -28% 44.9
The November Man 2.8 (1,030) -36% 22.5
The Giver 2.5 (1,120) -26% 41.2
The Hundred-Foot Journey 2.5 (1,270) -21% 49.4