MCN Columnists
Leonard Klady

By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com

Honey in the Bank …

November 4 , 2007
Weekend Estimates
Domestic Market Share

The multiplexes were abuzz with American Gangster leading the frame on an estimated $46.5 million tally and the animated Bee Movie adding a stinging $38.9 million to a turnaround session at the box office. The leaders didn’t leave much more for the national debut of Martian Child that ranked seventh with $3.5 million.

The big guns also reigned in the deluge of regional and niche freshmen though the limited bows of non-fiction entries Darfur Now and Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten posted respectable returns. Canadian bows of the comedy Surviving My Mother and The Tracy Fragments were disappointing while a single screen reissue of the seminal thriller Diva trilled to an impressive $5,600.

There was no denying the fierce spotlight placed upon American Gangster, the saga of a real life Harlem drug czar during the Vietnam era. The star vehicle’s production history had already been interrupted by the studio’s decision to halt production once and its revival upped the stakes. Industry consensus was that it had to open to at least $40 million to prove viable and many doubted that a violent saga of lawlessness could attain that benchmark; the apt precedents were not supportive.

However, it proved to hit a sonorous chord with audiences and its opening day $16 million salvo allowed for a collective sigh of relief. The picture posted this season’s best opening gross and ranked as second best fall premiere in the record books.

Also exceeding expectations was Bee Movie. Some sectors had dire predictions for the Jerry Seinfeld inspired family film, believing a discount between his core fan base and kids and parents. Initial reviews buttressed that prognosis but in the end it was families that propelled its box office and hopes to reel in adults can only improve with time.

Weekend tallies approached $140 million for a truly expansive 39% boost from the prior frame’s debut of the other buzzer Saw IV. It was also 7% improved from 2006 when the cautious bow of Boratbested the $19.5 million opening of Santa Clause 3 and $18.8 million for Flushed Away with a $26.4 million gross.

Apart from the merciless 67% decline of Saw IV, most hold over titles appeared to sustain well against the debuting commercial dynamos. Last weekend’s newbie romantic comedy Dan in Real Life slipped 31% but generally the erosion factor was between 40% and 50%.

The well received human comedy Martian Child had alienating returns that translated into an unrecoverable $1,750 theater average. It was clearly a victim to second choice-itis in the unforgiving marketplace.

The session was light on platform expansions other than the crime drama Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead that saw its gross balloon 365% and still maintained close to a $10,000 average. Also worth keeping a close check on was Darfur Now, the highly lauded documentary that’s received an effective TLC marketing campaign. Its initial three screen exposure posted a good but not great $7,800 average and continues a disturbing trend for soft returns for films – real and created – addressing serious contemporary social issues.

– Leonard Klady

Weekend Estimates – November 2-4, 2007

Title
Distributor
Gross (averag
% change
Theater
Cume
American Gangster
Uni
46.5 (15,230)
3054
46.5
Bee Movie
Par
38.9 (9,910)
3928
38.9
Saw IV
Lions Gate
10.5 (3,310)
-67%
3183
50.6
Dan in Real Life
BV
8.1 (4,230)
-31%
1925
22.9
30 Days of Nights
Sony
3.8 (1,460)
-44%
2627
34.1
The Game Plan
BV
3.8 (1,330)
-38%
2844
81.9
Martian Child
New Line
3.5 (1,750)
2020
3.5
Michael Clayton
WB
2.8 (1,320)
-43%
2107
33.1
Why Did I Get Married?
Lions Gate
2.6 (1,870)
-54%
1403
51.1
Gone Baby Gone
Miramax
2.3 (1,430)
-39%
1617
14.9
Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (reis
BV
1.5 (2,740)
-55%
562
12.8
The Comebacks
Fox
1.4 (850)
-59%
1632
11.8
We Own the Night
Sony
1.3 (810)
-61%
1634
27.7
Into the Wild
Par Vantage
1.3 (1,950)
-19%
660
10.9
The Darjeeling Limited
Fox Searchlight
1.2 (1,980)
-31%
615
8
Across the Universe
Sony
1.2 (1,420)
-31%
822
21
Bella
Roadside Attract.
.85 (4,570)
-36%
186
2.4
Lars and the Real Girl
MGM
.78 (2,430)
-16%
321
2.4
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Uni
.61 (1,090)
-63%
562
15.4
Rendition
New Line
.56 (920)
-76%
609
9.3
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films)
$133.50
% Change (Last Year)
7%
% Change (Last Week)
39%
Also debuting/expanding
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Thinkfilm
.34 (9,830)
365%
35
0.45
Lust, Caution
Focus
.31 (2,540)
-34%
122
3.3
Assassination of Jesse James …
WB
.23 (1,080)
-47%
212
3.3
Surviving My Mother
Alliance
62,700 (1,140)
54
0.06
Darfur Now
WIP
23,400 (7,800)
3
0.02
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritt
IFC
18,900 (9,450)
2
0.02
A Broken Sole
Prism
10,300 (10,300)
1
0.01
Diva (reissue)
Rialto
5,600 (5,600)
1
0.01
The Tracy Fragments
Odeon
3,260 (1,630)
2
0.01

Worldwide Box Office – To November 1, 2007

Title
Distributor
Gross
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
BV
961,653,057
Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix
WB
942,294,650
Spider-Man 3
Sony
890,976,387
Shrek the Third
Par
795,564,752
Transformers
Par
702,463,147
Ratatouille
BV
560,837,324
The Simpsons Movie
Fox
522,063,442
300
WB
455,946,644
The Bourne Ultimatum
Uni
412,395,279
Night at the Museum *
Fox
394,697,927
Live Free or Die Hard
Fox
374,443,221
Ocean’s Thirteen
WB
310,940,968
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Fox
286,218,471
Wild Hogs
BV
253,658,370
Rush Hour 3
NLC
248,876,584
Ghost Rider
Sony
229,847,486
Mr. Bean’s Holiday
Uni/Wk Title
224,238,605
Knocked Up
Uni
215,921,696
The Pursuit of Happyness *
Sony
209,859,635
Hairspray
NLC
191,401,859

Domestic Market Share – November 1, 2007

Distributor (releases)
Gross (millions)
Mrkt Share
Paramount (18)
1265.2
15.90%
Sony (26)
1160.7
14.60%
Warner Bros. (27)
1076.5
13.50%
Buena Vista (18)
1057.1
13.30%
Universal (18)
926.2
11.70%
Fox (19)
758.9
9.60%
New Line (11)
414.8
5.20%
Lions Gate (20)
338.1
4.30%
MGM (22)
291.9
3.70%
Focus (8)
107.3
1.30%
Fox Searchlight (12)
98.1
1.20%
Miramax (8)
75.8
0.90%
Picturehouse (7)
56.9
0.70%
Paramount Vantage (6)
45.1
0.60%
Other * (258)
276
3.50%
7948.6
100.00%
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Klady

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon