By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
Peek-a-Boo!
Hide and Seek scared up a hair-raising gross estimated at $22.2 million to handily take the lead in the weekend box office derby. However, audiences were less inclined for the equally visceral Alone in the Dark that had a roughly 90% less chilling $2.5 million debut. Overall business rebounded 24% from last weekend’s snow-out in much of the country on the allure of cheap thrills and the opportunity to at least see all those critical darlings that comprise the official Oscar list.
The old saw about no second acts certainly doesn’t apply to Robert DeNiro, whose early career pegged him as box office poison despite a string of highly lauded performances. His comedy turns in Analyze This and Meet the Parents changed all that and Hide and Seek has provided him his best ever dramatic opening in one of those twisty thrillers rife with implausible turns and sloppy construction. Exiting polling provided some surprising results including a majority female audience and a strong 57% turnout of under 25. It should out-perform the equally lackluster and similarly themed Secret Window from last year.
The weekend’s only other wide release was the aptly titled Alone in the Dark. Audiences decided not to take up the challenge and the film wound up 13th in the lineup with faint prospects of surviving beyond next weekend.
Ticket sales should generate about $120 million to top last year’s business by 22%. A year ago the incoming You Got Served led the frame with a $16.1 million gross.
The biggest surprise in the current span was the amazing resilient second weekend of Ice Cube‘s Are We There Yet? It slipped a notch in the rankings with a $16.5 million gross and defied the odds with a razor this 11% drop from its opening.
Leading the Oscar charge in third spot was the $11.7 million tally for Million Dollar Baby. The downbeat boxing saga from Clint Eastwood added more than 1,850 theaters and generated a solid near $6,000 engagement average. While it was flagging in the heartland, its major contender status should sustain commercial momentum for at least the month running up to Oscar’s Kodak moment.
Two other best picture nominees ranked in the top 10 – The Aviator and Sideways – with significant bounces in ticket sales and a sizeable number of new playdates. The Howard Hughes bio jumped 49% to $7.2 million and the long and wine-y rode of Sideways shot up 115% to $6.1 million. Finding Neverland and Ray, the other two nominees, also experienced significant boosts but are much further along in their theatrical careers and the latter film bows on DVD next week.
Oscar was also good to The Phantom of the Opera and Hotel Rwanda but the paucity or absence of nominations resulted in sharp declines for such titles as The House of Flying Daggers, Kinsey and The Woodsman.
Among limited and regional freshmen titles, the large format bow of James Cameron‘s Aliens of the Deep was not at all soggy, with the underwater adventure splashing up close to $400,000 from 27 venues. There was also an OK $17,300 gross for Lost Embrace – Argentina’s Oscar submission – from two Manhattan hard tops.
Conversely, there wasn’t much utz for Childstar, rated best Canadian movie at the Toronto Film Festival, and generating an icy $10,300 from seven screens. Even frostier was the 10-theater opening of the romantic drama Fascination that grossed roughly $8,700.
