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Leonard Klady

By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com

Posted Sunday, June 2nd, 2013 - Comments Off on The Weekend Report
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The Weekend Report

Fast & Furious 6 was dominant in second gear as it sped away to an estimated $34.5 million. That propelled a couple of newcomers to a tight race for second place with the unexpected winner the offbeat caper tale Now You See Me prestidigitating a gross of $27.9 million. A disappointing step behind with $27.2 million was the futuristic survival lesson After Earth.

In the niches, Indian imports bounced back from recent doldrums with the Hindi Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani cracking the top 10 with $1.5 million from 162 playdates and Telugu Iddarammayilatho grossing $218,000 from 63 engagements. Mormon historical saga Ephraim’s Rescue was off to a solid start with a $132,000 in 22 journeys.

Results for exclusive preems were generally positive with several rising to outstanding status. The historic drama Hanna Arendt rose above banality with $28,700 on a solo essay while coming-of-age tale The Kings of Summer bowed to 72,900 from four screens. A jot better was eco-thriller The East with $74,700, also in a quartet of jams.

Overall revenues for the frame generated more than $165 million for a 37% decline from last weekend’s three-day slice of the Memorial holiday. It was nonetheless a 14% hike from 2012 when the opening session of Snow White and the Huntsman speared $56.2 million and the second weekend of Men in Black 3 added $28.1 million to the larder.

Industry tracking had predicted a close race between F&F 6 and After Earth with the latter expected to debut with more than $35 million. The box office shortfall of the latter has generated considerable hand-scratching. Some have cited ineffective marketing while others say tweeters rose in full force Friday night with warnings that the film wasn’t “a Will Smith vehicle” but a showcase for Karate Kid Jaden Smith.

One pundit suggested that the film would have been better served if promoted as a family movie. Studio exit demos identified the audience as 51% male and 60% aged 25-years and older.

Conversely, Now You See Me far exceeded expectations that generally ranged from $20-$22 million. It attracted a 51% female crowd and a surprisingly strong younger turnout with 52% of viewers aged 30 and younger.

Domestic box office crossed the $4 billion threshold on Friday which sets the current year’s pace 8% behind 2012’s momentum. With (the ever reliable) punditry predicting a softish summer it’s not exactly good news but not quite time to pass around the collection plate.

Weekend (estimates) May 31 – June 2, 2013
Title Distributor Gross (average) % change * Theaters Cume
Fast & Furious 6 Uni 34.5 (9,360) -65% 3686 170.3
Now You See Me Lionsgate 27.9 (9,530 NEW 2925 27.9
After Earth Sony 27.2 (8,000) NEW 3401 27.2
Star Trek Into Darkness Par 16.3 (4,550) -56% 3585 181.1
Epic Fox 16.2 (4,160) -52% 3894 65
The Hangover Part III WB 15.8 (4,420) -62% 3565 87.9
Iron Man 3 BV 8.1 (2,800) -58% 2895 384.8
The Great Gatsby WB 6.3 (2,380) -54% 2635 128.3
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani Eros 1.5 (9,070) NEW 162 1.5
Mud Roadside 1.2 (2,010) -40% 581 16.8
The Croods Fox .62 (1,220) -49% 506 180.5
Frances Ha IFC .52 (3,910) -6% 133 1.5
42 WB .51 (1,020) -59% 501 92.3
Before Midnight Sony Classics .42 (13,540) 70% 31 0.8
Oz The Great and Powerful BV .39 (1,180) -11% 330 233
Oblivion Uni .39 (1,080) -56% 357 88.1
G.I. Joe: Retaliation Par .26 (910) -29% 286 121.6
Iddarammayilatho Blue Sky .22 (3,460) NEW 63 0.31
What Maisie Knew Millennium .20 (1,990) 42% 101 0.54
Escape from Planet Earth Weinstein Co. .19 (690) -27% 268 56.3
Love is All You Need Sony Classics .16 (2,300) -25% 71 0.7
Identity Thief Uni .14 (760) -32% 187 134.5
Pain & Gain Par .14 (670) -78% 207 49
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) $156.65
% Change (Last Year) 14%
% Change (Last Week) -37%
Also debuting/expanding
Kon-Tiki Weinstein Co. .13 (1,740) -21% 74 0.8
Ephraim’s Rescue Excel .13 (6,000) 22 0.13
The Iceman Millennium .12 (990) -67% 123 1.7
Stories We Tell Roadside .12 (3,100) -6% 39 0.48
Renoir IDP/Metropole 88,800 (1,610) -40% 55 1.9
The East Searchlight 74,700 (18,570) 4 0.07
The Kings of Summer CBS 72,900 (18,220) 4 0.07
Fill the Void Sony Classics 46,400 (7,730) -22% 6 0.15
Hannah Arendt Zeitgeist 28,700 (28,700) 1 0.03
Un Plan parfait Seville 27,600 (1,530) 18 0.03
Shadow Dancer Magnolia 9,780 (4,890) 2 0.01
The History of Future Folk Variance 5,800 (5,800) 1 0.01
I Do Gravitas 4,800 (960) 5 0.01
Nostalgia (reissue) Kino 4,460 (4,460) 1 0.01
Old Stock eOne 3,250 (3,250) 1 0.01
The Wall Music Box 2,050 (2,050) 1 0.01
Domestic Market Share (Jan. 1 – May 30, 2013)
Distributor (releases) Box Office (millions) Market Share
Buena Vista (7) 685.7 17.00%
Universal (8) 576.7 14.30%
Warner Bros. (13) 552.9 13.80%
Paramount (11) 459.8 11.40%
20th Century Fox (8) 397.8 9.90%
Weinstein Co. (11) 324.6 8.10%
Lionsgate (15) 269.5 6.70%
Sony (6) 211.8 5.30%
FilmDistrict (5) 118.9 3.00%
Relativity (3) 105.9 2.60%
Open Road (4) 93.9 2.30%
Focus (5) 53.1 1.30%
eOne/Alliance (13) 23.1 0.60%
Sony Classics (7) 19.5 0.50%
Roadside Attractions (3) 19.1 0.50%
Other * (141) 108.7 2.70%
4021 100%
* none greater than 0.45%
Top Domestic Grossers (Jan. 1 – May 30, 2013)
Title Distributor Box Office
Iron Man 3 BV 376,745,285
Oz the Great and Powerful BV 232,613,195
The Croods Fox 179,923,061
Star Trek Into Darkness Par 164,756,486
Fast & Furious 6 Uni 135,839,525
Identity Thief Uni 134,326,175
The Great Gatsby WB 121,990,892
G.I. Joe: Retaliation Par 121,311,762
Silver Linings Playbook * Weinstein Co. 103,621,792
Olympus Has Fallen Film District/VVS 97,776,672
Zero Dark Thirty * Sony/Alliance 94,325,704
Django Unchained * Weinstein Co. 94,199,823
42 WB 91,819,454
Oblivion Uni 87,672,965
Les Miserables * Uni 75,915,297
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey * WB 74,456,964
The Hangover Part III WB 72,155,654
Mama Uni/eOne 71,833,055
Safe Haven Relativity 71,349,120
A Good Day to Die Hard Fox 67,349,198
* does not include 2012 box office
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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