Flying Up To Rio

The box office continued to be animated with the aviary stereoscopic Rio high aloft from the film flock with an estimated $39.9 million. Session bridesmaid was another freshman, the long delayed squeamquel Scream 4 that grossed $18.9 million.

Also newly incoming was the limited wide bow of the historic pageant The Conspirator that landed just outside the top 10 with $3.4 million. The first installment of the oft (and until now stalled) ventured adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged arrived with a $1.7 million tally at 299 depots.

Of note was the boffo bow of Telegu-lingo Teen Maar that rang up an impressive $11,180 theatre average from just 32 venues and is setting box office records in India. In Quebec local entry Les Frissons des collines was off to a fair start with $178,000 while French import Les Petits mouchoirs disappointed with $64,200. Another Gallic newbie, the historic Princess of Montpensier, showed initial interest with $23,100 from seven exposures. The remainder of the frame’s limited and exclusive debuts ranged from dull to disaster.

But overall the business expanded a healthy 10% from the prior weekend and registered only the second instance of a 2010 improvement this calendar. Revenues were 14% better than last year when the launch of Kick-Ass led with $19.8 million; just a foot ahead of the $19.6 million fourth weekend of How to Train Your Dragon.

While critical response to Rio was tepid, families embraced the feathered nonsense. The film was originally set to open last weekend but wiser heads decided to put more space between it and Hop’s bunnies. But last week’s date was maintained internationally where the film generated a hefty $72 million for the full seven days.

Rio fell slightly shy of tracking estimates that generally ranged between $40 million and $44 million but Scream 4 according to pundits had a low bar of $25 million and a high end in the low $30 millions. Absence clearly failed to make the heart or box office grow fonder (Scream 3 bowed in 2000) and exit polls that pegged the audience 52% female once again prompting one to ask what the fan boys are doing. It was also 54% under 25s – 10 year-olds when the franchise bowed in 1996.

The Conspirator, centering on the trial of Mary Surratt for the Lincoln assassination, received respectful but hardly enthusiastic response. Americans have traditionally found movies on their history anathema to their viewing choices. Period works much better here when the intent appears to be purely entertaining. They’d much prefer to see bygone tales from Europe or Asia; most recently The King’s Speech.

It seems just yesterday that Angelina Jolie was set to star as Dagny Taggart in a five-hour mini-series adaptation of Atlas Shrugged. It might have been last season’s Mildred Pierce but like so many past efforts to bring Rand’s magnum opus to screen, script issues undid it once again. The right’s holders decided to forge ahead with private financing, independent distribution, a trimmed budget and a non-marquee cast. Critical response was decidedly cool but devotees of the 1957 novel showed up at least for the opening weekend and one suspects it will have a decent ancillary afterlife. 

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