April 15, 2007
Weekend Finals
Domestic Market Share

The offbeat teen thriller Disturbia took top honors in weekend movie going with an estimated $22.8 gross. Five other films bowed nationally to generally disappointing results as the industry appeared to be emulating the August tradition of dumping product. However, in this instance new entries were anticipating quick turnarounds as the May onslaught of tentpole titles will sweep them from the screen.

Though some pundits were predicting that the Bruce Willis-Halle Berry thriller Perfect Strangerwould be competitive with Disturbia it finished below expectations and ranked fourth with $11.4 million. The rest of the newbies turned in bland returns. Vikings were less than Greek inPathfinder‘s $4.7 million box office; Redline circled the track with $3.9 million; the Aqua Teen Hunger Team (ATHT) grossed $2.9 million; and there was a very Slow Burn of the appropriately titled film of $740,000.

New entries in niche and specialized arenas were equally vigorous with the best initial response going to Mike White‘s droll comic Year of the Dog with a screen average of $14,800 from seven venues.

Volume once again trumped strength with frame ticket sales topping roughly $115 million for a 6% downturn from the prior weekend. Business was down by 2% from 2006 when it corresponded with Easter and top honors went to the $40.2 million bow of Scary Movie 4.

The presumed dust up between Disturbia and Perfect Stranger turned out to be no contest. Though the former received unexpectedly good reviews and the latter was largely dismissed with derision, demographics told the tale. Disturbia‘s core male under 25 crowds proved considerably more rabid than the other film’s appeal to 25 plus females and that produced a stark contrast when pitted head to head.

The frame’s other distinctive twist was the appearance of a pair of launches by a new company and one that rarely steps out with a national release. The auto speed yarn Redline was hardly the marketplace pace car and though its producer Chicago Pictures has at least one other film in the pipeline its initial experience may steer it away from future theatrical ventures.

First Look’s new management has announced a move away from specialized fare and into the mainstream but its first foray with the animated TV series Aqua Teen Hunger Team was an inauspicious start for the policy. It simply couldn’t hold its own against Meet the Robinsons, Firehouse Dog and the lingering TMNT.

Some long running titles continued to be commercially potent including 300 that saw its domestic cume surpass $200 million. Among last weekend’s freshmen Are We Done Yet? appears to have found its niche while the graphic genre entries The Reaping and Grindhouse both took hard hits.

While hipper and younger, Mike White could well follow in the footsteps of Albert Brooks andChristopher Guest as an alternative comic voice. Initial response to his Year of the Dog was excellent though he’s not quite crossed over to the box office response for Best in Show.

The other limited bows ranged from disappointing to passable including the Dahliaesque Lonely Hearts that eked out roughly $73,000 from 23 investigations and the French import Moliere with $78,000 in 28 Quebec locations. Exclusive runs from Brit fest fave Red Road, the doc Dreaming Lhasa and Alain Resnais’ Private Fears in Public Places (aka Couers) all had good engagements in one to three situations with averages in the $6,000 to $8,000 range.

– Leonard Klady

Weekend Estimates – April 13-15, 2007

Domestc Grosses – Jan 1 – April 12, 2007

Domestic Market Share: Jan 1 – April 12, 2007

Be Sociable, Share!

• 
•