By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
Up… Up… and Oy Vey!
Superman Returns flexed its pecs with an estimated $52.3 million to lead weekend movie going. The frame also saw the bow of The Devil Wears Prada with a steelier than expected $26.8 million in an overall session with slight box office improvement from 2005.
Though the Independence Day holiday is officially on Tuesday, much of the nation will be taking a 5-day vacation with government agencies the major exception to the rule with a business as usual Monday.
The highly anticipated Superman redux got a jump start on the holiday period with a Wednesday launch that set an opening day box office record. It entered its first weekend with slightly more than $32 million banked and initial industry expectations it would soar past $100 million by Sunday. However, a steep second day drop indicated the film would fall short of its target and initial reports peg its five day domestic performance at slightly better than $84 million. Critical response has run the gamut from raves to stinging barbs.
Fifty-four weeks ago Warner Bros. dusted off another comic book hero in Batman Begins with comparable three and five-days results of $48.7 million and $72.9 million. It went on to gross a bit better than $200 million in North America and another $175 million internationally. With media speculation that the film has to gross in excess of $600 million theatrically to reach break even, its commercial take off is a dose of Kryptonite for the Man of Steel.
The picture nonetheless set a record for its Imax dates of about $5 million on 76 screens. It was formerly held by the Batman reinvention with $3.1 million.
Overseas, Superman sidestepped the kryptonic World Cup with initial dates in 11 territories in Southeast Asia and Australia with sturdy opening day debuts in all territories including a $650,000 gross in Korea, $919,000 in Australia, $408,000 in the Philippines and $256,000 in Thailand. Its four-day tally in Australia was slightly less than $4 million and Korea was best in show at %5 million. The weekend generated $19.8 million from 1,750 playdates.
The adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada proved an apt piece of counter programming with studio projections of a $20 million debut smashed to the positive side. A contemporary spin on All About Eveset in the milieu of a fashion magazine, its opening day gross of $9.3 million anticipated a $30 million weekend but its box office experienced a 2% drop on Saturday that was a surprise. A Fox spokesman couldn’t explain why the film was playing like a picture aimed at teenage boys when Friday exit polls showed 61% of its audience was older than 25 years of age.
Weekend revenues were shaping up at roughly $155 million for a 6% boost from the prior weekend and 5% improved from 2005. Last year’s holiday offering was The War of the Worlds that grossed $65 million for the three-day span. While summer seasonal box office has generally been better than last year’s record, admissions are no better than status quo. The international picture is murkier with fingers crossed for a major surge following on the heels of football’s imminent finale.
Holdover business saw a sharp second weekend drop of 52% for the prior frame’s leader Click.Exhibitors are noticing that half way through the season the top titles appear to be experiencing declines that are sharper than usual with new event pictures sapping rather than expanding the marketplace.
Activity in the niches continued to be dominated by A Prairie Home Companion and An Inconvenient Truth with Wordplay maintaining a nice toehold several rungs down the ladder in 95 theaters. Its current weekend is estimated at $273,000.
The best of the alternative debuts was the black comic Strangers with Candy with a $41,200 gross from two engagements. The non-fiction whodunit Who Killed the Electric Car? puttered just past $39,000 at eight garages.
Weekend Estimates – June 30 – July 2, 2006
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change | Theaters | Cume |
| Superman Returns | WB | 52.3 (12,860) | – | 4065 | 84.3 |
| The Devil Wears Prada | Fox | 26.8 (9,400) | – | 2847 | 26.8 |
| Click | Sony | 19.3 (5,130) | -52% | 3764 | 77.8 |
| Cars | BV | 13.9 (3,750) | -40% | 3706 | 181.9 |
| Nacho Libre | Par | 5.8 (1,880) | -54% | 3082 | 64.6 |
| The Lake House | WB | 4.6 (1,730) | -48% | 2645 | 38.8 |
| Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drifr | Uni | 4.3 (1,620) | -56% | 2670 | 51.6 |
| Waist Deep | Focus | 3.3 (3,250) | -65% | 1006 | 15.1 |
| The Break-Up | Uni | 2.8 (1,470) | -57% | 1912 | 110.1 |
| The Da Vinci Code | Sony | 2.3 (1,650) | -44% | 1384 | 209.8 |
| X-Men: The Last Stand | Fox | 2.1 (1,330) | -57% | 1558 | 228.6 |
| Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties | Fox | 2.0 (930) | -61% | 2150 | 21.5 |
| An Inconvenient Truth | Par Classics | 1.6 (2,670) | -22% | 587 | 12.3 |
| A Prairie Home Companion | Picturehouse | 1.3 (1,830) | -43% | 717 | 14.8 |
| Over the Hedge | Par | 1.1 (930) | -61% | 1208 | 147.6 |
| The Omen | Fox | .52 (830) | -77% | 625 | 53.5 |
| Mission: Impossible III | Par | .51 (1,010) | -29% | 507 | 132.3 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $144.50 | – | – | – | |
| % Change (Last Year) | – | 6% | – | – | – |
| % Change (Last Week) | – | 7% | – | – | – |
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Wordplay | IFC | .27 (2,870) | -16% | 95 | 0.8 |
| Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man | Lions Gate | 44,700 (3,730) | 160% | 12 | 0.08 |
| Strangers with Candy | Thinkfilm | 41,200 (20,600) | – | 2 | 0.04 |
| Who Killed the Electric Car? | Sony Classics | 39,300 (4,910) | – | 8 | 0.04 |
| The Motel | Palm | 8,070 (8,070) | – | 1 | 0.01 |
| The Blood of My Brother | Lifesize | 1,620 (1,620) | – | 1 | 0.01 |
Top Domestic Grosses: January 1 – June 29, 2006
| X-Men: The Last Stand | Fox | 226,483,394 |
| The Da Vinci Code | Sony | 207,492,832 |
| Ice Age: The Meltdown | Fox | 193,640,718 |
| Cars | BV | 168,021,783 |
| Over the Hedge | Par | 146,438,334 |
| Mission: Impossible III | Par | 131,830,760 |
| The Break-Up | Uni | 107,239,150 |
| Scary Movie 4 | Weinstein Co. | 89,873,819 |
| Failure to Launch | Par | 88,822,973 |
| Inside Man | Uni | 88,469,545 |
| The Pink Panther | Sony | 83,137,123 |
| The Chronicles of Narnia * | BV | 82,270,870 |
| Eight Below | BV | 81,612,565 |
| Brokeback Mountain * | Focus | 70,615,735 |
| V for Vendetta | WB | 70,503,491 |
| Big Momma’s House 2 | Fox | 70,165,972 |
| RV | Sony | 67,416,072 |
| Medea’s Family Reunion | Lions Gate | 63,445,832 |
| Underworld: Evolution | Sony | 62,615,442 |
| The Shaggy Dog | BV | 60,662,059 |
Domestic Market Share: January 1 – June 29, 2006
| Fox (15) | 788 | 17.90% |
| Sony (17) | 760.9 | 17.30% |
| Buena Vista (16) | 561.1 | 12.70% |
| Paramount (9) | 503.4 | 11.40% |
| Universal (12) | 500.1 | 11.30% |
| Warner Bros. (13) | 367.9 | 8.40% |
| Weinstein Co. (9) | 191.5 | 4.30% |
| Lions Gate (11) | 166.5 | 3.80% |
| New Line (7) | 119.2 | 2.70% |
| Focus (8) | 113.4 | 2.60% |
| Fox Searchlight (7) | 96.1 | 2.20% |
| Sony Classics (13) | 47.5 | 1.10% |
| DreamWorks (3) | 24.7 | 0.60% |
| MGM (1) | 22.5 | 0.50% |
| Other * (153) | 142.4 | 3.20% |
| – | 4405.2 | 100.00% |
