By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
That’s No Lady…
Tyler Perry evaded the “terrible twos” as his ribald, comic Madea’s Family Reunion was the clear weekend viewing favorite with an estimated $30.4 million. However, he didn’t get much support as two other national debuts – the animated Doogal and the thriller Running Scared – performed indifferently and most holdover titles experienced 40% to 60% declines that translated to rollbacks in the audience.
The crude, rude observation of contemporary African Americans that propelled Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman to hit status in 2005 was once again in evidence in his new outing. Lions Gate was confident in Madea’s appeal and upped its exposure to close to 2,200 theaters to mixed results. While crossover locations displayed no great strength, the target audience came out with greater force in key venues and this reunion is moving toward a $75 million gross if it follows the original’s commercial trajectory.
Holdover titles dominated the frame with the Arctic adventure Eight Below and The Pink Pantherdisplaying the greatest resilience while the teen comedy Date Movie had an all too familiar 50% plus drop. Overall business for the span should ring in at about $117 million for a 10% decline compared with the three-day portion of last weekend’s holiday period. Revenue was also off by 6% for the comparable weekend of 2005.
The British-French animated acquisition Doogal arrived with little fanfare or commercial zip with $3.4 million to rank eighth in the lineup. Originally titled The Magic Roundabout, the film was redubbed for the U.S. Overseas the film had a spotty record in 2005.
The action-thriller Running Scared performed with comparable listlessness of $2.9 million to rank one notch below. Of greater note was the first significant expansion for Tommy Lee Jones’ acting-directing effort Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. The Cannes-preemed effort grossed close to $1 million from 300 plus venues.
The situation in the niches was generally as bleak with the notable exception of Tsotsi, the South African social drama that’s won a clutch of festival awards and is on the Oscar short list in the foreign-language category. The film grossed $76,800 from six screens.
Otherwise debuting fare failed to spark including respective grosses of $23,200 from four playdates and $5,100 in three exposures for the acclaimed non-fiction pictures Unknown White Male andStreet Fight. The gritty Australian award-winning drama Little Fish received a wide berth with a $5,400 box office from a single site. And Bollywood entry Taxi No. 9211 limped to $61,300 from 36 theaters on the circuit.
Weekend Estimates – February 17-20, 2006
Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change | Theaters | Cume |
Medea’s Family Reunion | Lions Gate | 30.4 (13,840) | 0 | 2194 | 30.4 |
Eight Below | BV | 15.6 (5,090) | -23% | 3072 | 45 |
The Pink Panther | Sony | 11.2 (3,390) | -33% | 3313 | 61 |
Date Movie | Fox | 9.2 (3,180) | -52% | 2898 | 33.9 |
Curious George | Uni | 7.1 (2,720) | -40% | 2609 | 43.2 |
Firewall | WB | 6.2 (2,250) | -31% | 2740 | 36.8 |
Final Destination 3 | New Line | 5.3 (1,933) | -48% | 2726 | 44.7 |
Doogal | Weinstein Co. | 3.4 (1,500) | 0 | 2318 | 3.4 |
Running Scared | New Line | 2.9 (1,820) | 0 | 1611 | 2.9 |
Freedomland | Sony | 2.8 (1,200) | -51% | 2361 | 10.7 |
Big Momma’s House 2 | Fox | 2.4 (1,580) | -47% | 1535 | 65.7 |
When a Stranger Calls | Sony | 2.4 (1,160) | -52% | 2060 | 45.4 |
Nanny McPhee | Uni | 2.4 (1,240) | -37% | 1906 | 42.6 |
Brokeback Mountain | Focus | 2.3 (1,680) | -29% | 1355 | 75.4 |
Capote | Sony Classics | 1.0 (2,290) | -9% | 454 | 23.4 |
Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada | Sony Classics | .96 (2,990) | 405% | 322 | 1.8 |
Mrs. Henderson Presents | Weinstein Co. | .94 (1,860) | 2% | 504 | 7.1 |
Match Point | DreamWorks | .87 (1,960) | -30% | 443 | 21.5 |
TransAmerica | Weinstein Co. | .84 (2,650) | 39% | 317 | 4.8 |
Walk the Line | Fox | .74 (1,500) | -52% | 492 | 117.5 |
The Chronicles of Narnia | BV | .67 (1,140) | -49% | 589 | 288.1 |
Underworld: Evolution | Sony | .66 (1,280) | -56% | 517 | 61.4 |
Good Night, and Good Luck | WIP | .61 (2,240) | -18% | 272 | 30.3 |
Munich | Uni | .51 (1,570) | -24% | 325 | 46.1 |
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $111.40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
% Change (Last Year) | 0 | -6% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
% Change (Last Week) | 0 | -10% | 0% | 0 | 0 |
Also debuting/expanding | |||||
Heart of Gold | Par Classics | .19 (4,820) | 14% | 40 | 0.51 |
Night Watch | Fox Searchlight | .18 (5,200) | 103% | 34 | 0.31 |
Tsotsi | Miramax | 76,800 (12,800) | 0 | 6 | 0.08 |
Taxi No. 9211 | UTV | 61,300 (1,700) | 0 | 36 | 0.06 |
Spymate | Thinkfilm | 52,500 (780) | 0 | 67 | 0.05 |
Unknown White Male | Wellspring | 23,200 (5,800) | 0 | 4 | 0.02 |
Little Fish | First Look | 5,400 (5,400) | 0 | 1 | 0.01 |
Street Fight | Frontier | 5,100 (1,700) | 0 | 3 | 0.01 |
Top Domestic Grossers: January 1 – February 23, 2006
The Chronicles of Narnia * | BV | 78,042,182 |
Big Momma’s House 2 | Fox | 63,279,373 |
Underworld: Evolution | Sony | 60,711,490 |
Brokeback Mountain * | Focus | 60,647,522 |
King Kong * | Uni | 57,699,360 |
Fun with Dick and Jane * | Sony | 55,953,571 |
Hoodwinked | Weinstein Co. | 49,900,596 |
The Pink Panther | Sony | 49,745,736 |
Hostel | Lions Gate | 47,382,554 |
When a Stranger Calls | Sony | 42,957,359 |
Glory Road | BV | 41,767,205 |
Nanny McPhee | Uni | 40,232,920 |
Final Destination 3 | NLC | 39,448,909 |
Last Holiday | Par | 38,150,772 |
Curious George | Uni | 36,133,915 |
Cheaper by the Dozen 2 * | Fox | 35,351,439 |
Memoirs of a Geisha * | Sony | 34,274,181 |
Munich * | Uni | 33,301,185 |
Firewall | WB | 30,613,260 |
Eight Below | BV | 29,333,448 |
Domestic Market Share: January 1 – February 23, 2006
Distributor (releases) | Gross | Percentage |
Sony (10) | 252.5 | 19.80% |
Fox (8) | 188.5 | 14.80% |
Buena Vista (10) | 181.4 | 14.20% |
Universal (6) | 177.8 | 14.00% |
Warner Bros. (6) | 81.6 | 6.40% |
Weinstein Co. (6) | 77.2 | 6.10% |
Focus (4) | 76.7 | 6.00% |
New Line (4) | 53.1 | 4.20% |
Lions Gate (3) | 48.3 | 3.80% |
Paramount (4) | 42.7 | 3.30% |
DreamWorks (3) | 21.9 | 1.70% |
Fox Searchlight (3) | 18.6 | 1.50% |
Sony Classics (7) | 15.9 | 1.20% |
Rocky Mountain (1) | 11.3 | 0.90% |
Warner Independent (3) | 7.4 | 0.60% |
Other * (47) | 18.9 | 1.50% |
* none greater than 0.4% | 1273.8 | 100.00% |