Weekend Box Office
Well…
Incredibles held. No surprise there.
The Polar Express was not disastrous… the opening suggests a $100 million domestic gross is possible and perhaps even likely… the cost of the movie makes that seem like chump change. But it’s a hell of a lot better than the overall reviews would suggest to you.
I maintain that one of the biggest mistakes ever in distribution was putting this thing out wide this week when a significantly more attractive version – IMAX 3-D – was available and could have put critics, whose help was needed to fight off The Incredibles and Spongebob, in a much better state of mind. Word of mouth, too. A real opportunity lost. A month on IMAX followed by a wide release… perhaps the late delivery of the picture limited Warners’ options. But still…
After The Sunset also failed to qualify as a disaster, but also will not come close to making its money in the domestic marketplace, home entertainment included. But where there is Brosnan, there is some international hope… but not much. Expect this to be Brett Ratner’s weakest grosser since his first film, Money Talks.
Focus Features kept critics away from Seed of Chucky and got around $8 million for their restrictive effort. That said, the release date is an utter mystery, too late to ride the Halloween-period train that served a couple of other crappy horror films last month and right in the way of so much high-powered competition that it had zero chance. They really would have been better off trying to run this scam in February if they were afraid of The Grudge.
Speaking of The Grudge, it will hit $100 million Monday or Tuesday. Stunningly, this inferior flick will come very, very close to matching the grosses for The Ring, a surperior film, the sequel to which is coming, forced into an early ’05 release after a troubled production.
Expanding wide next week is Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, which mysteriously went early into the face of mostly crappy reviews. One supposes that Universal hopes that the title remains a first choice for women next week and into Thanksgiving and that most markets will forget the barrage of big name insults by next Friday. I guess.
Finally, Searchlight’s dueling Oscar contenders, Sideways and Kinsey continued in limited runs. Sideways’ $9170 per screen on 66 screens is okay… but not sensational and suggests to me that the studio needs a new marketing focus when they go wider later this month. Kinsey did a sensational $34,210 per screen, but looking at the art house titles that beat that this year (I Heart Huckabees, The Motorcycle Diaries, Sideways) suggests that no one can rest on those laurels. Searchlight has shown, amidst so much great success, a weakness in putting the petal to the metal on Oscar-season films that get strong reviews, from Antwone Fisher to In America and now, I fear, Kinsey and Sideways. (Huckabees was too hard a sell, past the talent, for me to hold it against anyone.) Let’s go, guys… these two movies don’t deserve to be swamped by Finding Neverland.
when u have the ring called superior to u, ur in trouble
Dave, Sideways is wonderful, but am I the only one who had a little trouble buying Maya’s adoration for Miles?
Loved Sideways but hes right. What girl in their right mind falls for Paulie G in that?
Sideways looks great, but a superhot milf like Virginia Madsen doing Giamatti just seems ridiculous. I’m sure theres a good reason for it in the movie, but from the trailers I dont get it. Its odd that Payne would cast that role “hollywood” in a movie that was otherwise cast in exactly the opposite direction.
I would love to hear from Dave and other fans of the movie regarding Madsen falling for Giamatti. It’s not that a beautiful woman could never love someone who looks like Giamatti. I’m just not sure that this particular woman would love this particular man. What does she see in him? I know people complained about the same thing in Punch-Drunk Love, but in that case I bought it. I’m not saying PDL is a better movie (though I love it), but in Sideways I’m never quite sold on it.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen the film, but I think it’s reading WAY too much to say that Madsen in the end “falls” for Giamatti. I took the ending to indicate that she understands him better, forgives him for his part in the deception, and is perhaps open to getting more involved with him. But does she LOVE him? Nah, I don’t think the character or the movie is that romanticized, and she’d probably dump him in less time than it takes to squash a grape if he acted up again. What’s really going on as the credits begin to roll is that Giamatti has begun to realize that he’d better start taking stock of his life, especially if he wants to have any chance to be worthy of a woman like Madsen.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen the film, but I think it’s reading WAY too much to say that Madsen in the end “falls” for Giamatti. I took the ending to indicate that she understands him better, forgives him for his part in the deception, and is perhaps open to getting more involved with him. But does she LOVE him? Nah, I don’t think the character or the movie is that romanticized, and she’d probably dump him in less time than it takes to squash a grape if he acted up again. What’s really going on as the credits begin to roll is that Giamatti has begun to realize that he’d better start taking stock of his life, especially if he wants to have any chance to be worthy of a woman like Madsen.
i think they end up together at the end. thats pretty solid evidence of her falling for him. besides her having sex with him before she finds out jacks lying about getting married. yea, thats pretty solid evidence.
Arthur, I think you make some good points. But I’d say it’s pretty clear that she falls for him. What happens to them is left somewhat ambiguous, but she definitely falls in love with him.
I think she has been in love with him. Not like he woo’s her at the beginning when we see them. He is a lush at dinner and one wine convo is not going to make a lady like that fall for Miles. For some reason she is in love with him.