Saw 3D whipped into cinemas with an estimated $24.3 million to take top spot in weekend movie going. Distributors gave a wide berth to the Halloween frame when traditionally there are sharp drops in attendance; making the Saw finale the sole new national release.
A different sort of ghoul — the Millennium finale The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest — went limited wide to solid returns of $890,000, but otherwise the frame’s new entries were dominated by niche and exclusive launches. The best of the bunch was the Chinese trembler Aftershock with a single screen entry of $17,600. Other newcomers with good but not spectacular returns included indie drama Welcome to the Riley’s, Brit spy spoof Wild Target, Mexican prize winner Nora’s Will, Claude Chabrol’s final effort Bellamy and non-fiction entry Waste Land.
Overall box office saw a sharp fall from last weekend and a slight bump from 2009 results.
The seventh annual edition of the Saw franchise was hoping for an exit with bite with the addition of stereoscopic imagery. But pre-release tracking indicated that with or without gimmicks the mania was fading and its mid-$20 million weekend tally was pretty much in line with pundit’s predictions. The gore crowd would appear to be sated with current splatter fare but the past month has seen every segment of the audience unenthusiastic for the new crop of movies beyond their opening sessions.
The global juggernaut for the Millennium trilogy continued with the U.S. bow of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. The first installment, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, has racked up $99 million internationally and it and its second chapter are the top grossing foreign-language movies in America post-Pan’s Labyrinth.
Weekend revenues generated about $95 million in sales that translated into a 28% drop from the immediate prior session. It was a modest 6% improvement from 2009 when Michael Jackson: This Is It bowed to $23.2 million followed by Paranormal Activity with $16.4 million.
The fact-based Conviction expanded nationally to fair results and appears to be headed to the same sort of indifferent commercial returns as the rest of the early award season contenders. A sharp drop for last weekend’s Hereafter departs from the sort of holds associated with recent films directed by Clint Eastwood whereas the better than expected stamina of the geezer spies of RED has confounded box office mavens.
But apart from Jackass 3D (which passed a $100 million tally this weekend) such well-reviewed positive word-of-mouth entries as The Social Network and Secretariat have struggled to maintain a presence (forget about momentum) in a marketplace that has all but eliminated the possibility of a second wind.
Paranormal Activity 2 exceeded pundit expectation (though not necessarily fans) with an estimated $41.6 million to lead weekend movie ticket sales. The session’s only other national bow was Hereafter, which shot up to $11.9 million following last weekend’s limited opener.
Niche and regional bows included a solid $212,000 (in Hindi and Telegu versions) bow for the Indian crime saga Rakhtcharitra. Fans won’t have to wait long for its second part conclusion that’s scheduled for late November. Meanwhile up in Canada the Toronto fest curtain raiser Score: A Hockey Musical failed to live up to its name with a discordant $143,000 from 127 rinks.
Exclusives included good though unsensational debuts that included non-fiction Boxing Gym with a $6,100 TKO in its solo bout and Taqwacores — the tale of an Islamic rock band — grossing $5,500 also in a single outing.
Though there was a marginal dip from last weekend’s box office, the frame saw its first uptick from 2009 in a month with industry mavens already predicting expanded revenues through the end of the year.
Critical response to sleeper sensation Paranormal Activity 2 was at best tepid with the more negative reviews viewing it as a cynical rehash of its inspiration. Nonetheless avids were cueing up to provide Thursday midnight shows a record preview for an R-rated film. It lost traction as the weekend proceeded but the fast start was sufficient to speed past tracking that suggested an opening salvo of not much more than $30 million.
Exit polls for both Paranormal Activity 2 and Hereafter were disappointing. The latter film pretty much brought in the anticipated older crowd and filmmaker Clint Eastwood’s films have a history of hanging in for longer than typical runs and much higher multiples than is the industry norm. Still, this yarn could well stray from that trend.
Weekend revenues amassed roughly $130 million in torn ducats. It represented a slight 2% dip from seven days back but the unexpected Paranormal Activity 2 and overall strong holdovers translated into a 13% box office boost from 2009. A year ago the first Paranormal Activity (in its initial wide weekend) led with $21.1 million followed by Saw VI and Where the Wild Things Are with respective tallies of $14.1 million and $14 million.
With the exception of Waiting for “Superman” it’s been a brutal season for Oscar hopefuls trying to set an early footprint on the awards landscape. Granted, very few have received a wholehearted critical embrace, but even by niche standards the likes of Nowhere Boy, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and Jack Goes Boating among others have been comparative under-performers when measured against past films that have employed this tactic.
Jackass 3D was better than all right with an estimated $49.3 million that easily ranked it at the top of the weekend movie going charts. Another freshman, the seasoned action-comedy Red, ranked second with $21.9 million. The session’s third national debut in medium-wide release was the inspirational N Secure with an OK $133,000 bow.
Among niche and regional bows the polemical documentary I Want Your Money failed to bring out the vote with a $236,000 tally from 537 screens. Telegu-language Brindaavanam rang up an impressive $10,320 average from 20 venues while Bollywood entry Aakrosh was a washout with a $46,400 gross from 24 screens.
Among the week’s exclusive newbies the clear favorite was Hereafter with a $37,380 per screen from six early peeks. There were also impressive openings for the three-hour plus portrait of a terrorist Carlos of $33,700 from single dates in Manhattan and Montreal and a sturdy $101,000 gross for the ripped from the headlines Conviction at 11 cells.
Overall weekend box office revenues topped $130 million for a sizeable 42% boost from seven days back. However, it fell 4% below last year’s tally and the 2010 box office has shrunk to just 2% better than the prior year’s gross for the same period.
Industry trackers had pegged the stereoscopic version of Jackass at roughly $30 million prior to its opening. But they obviously were deaf to bygone wag Henry Mencken’s observation that “no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” The recently under-served young male audience were eager to don Polaroid glasses and see the aging stars of the reality skein making fools of themselves and others up close and personal.
Pundits also undervalued Red with early estimates in a $15 million to $18 million range. The single joke premise of over the hill spies conscripted back into service (more intentionally mawkish than The Expendables) skewed older but obviously had some appeal for a younger crowd in search of something marginally less mind numbing that required optical gimmicks.
The glacial expansion of Waiting for “Superman” continued to display stamina but it’s clear that Never Let Me Go has peaked and that the rapid expansion of Nowhere Boy left the early years of John Lennon stranded outside the Cavern Club. Stone was experiencing a better than expected hold as it increased its exposure from six to 41 venues.
The frame’s two award contenders – Hereafter and Conviction – constructed solid foundations for their platform bids. Still the early signs suggest a better than anticipated commercial run for the former with the latter yarn requiring a lot of TLC to reach a wider audience.
Among holdovers the second lap for Secretariat showed signs that audiences were discovering the heartfelt saga and The Social Network continues to be propped up by award buzz rather than Facebook fascination.
The Social Network surprised pundits with a better than expected hold and won the weekend movie going chase with an estimated $15.3 million. Three national debs were on its tail with lackluster returns. The rom-com Life As We Know It faltered in the clutch with $14.6 million while the much ballyhooed turf saga Secretariat posted $12.4 million, and there was a lack of stereoscopic shock for My Soul to Take with $6.9 million.
There was also a lack of oomph for the comic oddity It’s Kind of a Funny Story with $2 million tally-woo from 742 engagements.
In the niches Telegu-language Khaleja had a buoyant bow of $343,000 from 24 screens and OK returns of $72,700 for French thriller L’Immortel in Quebec. There were also a raft of exclusive bows with Darwinian winners that included the young John Lennon of Nowhere Boy grossing $51,300 at four venues, the squeezed of non-fiction Inside Job with $37,500 at two interviews and psychological thriller Stone with $71,400 from six couches.
Overall business once again took a dip with 2010 box office now less than 2% ahead of last year’s pace and industry mavens sweating out a quick reversal of fortune.
Tracking reports had pegged the uplifting tale of racing Triple Crowner Secretariat as the weekend’s odds-on favorite with estimates in the range of $16 million to $18 million. But its appeal to women and an older demo that remembered the four-legged wonder of the early 1970s failed to bring ‘em out in its maiden performance despite a considerable marketing push.
Life As We Know It was expected to be about a length behind Secretariat but pulled ahead right from the opening gate. It opened ahead of the pack on Friday with a $5.2 million bow but quickly lost ground to The Social Network as the weekend advanced.
And My Soul to Take fell smack in the middle of estimates in the $6 million to $8 million range. All three of the newbies skewed toward distaff viewers and there’s little question the marketplace is in dire need of something for the boys.
Weekend revenues pushed to roughly $92 million that represented a 4% dip from seven days back. It was a considerably steeped 16% fall from 2009 when the launch of Couples Retreat topped the charts on a $34.3 million first salvo.
On the expansion track, the “what’s wrong with our education” doc Waiting for “Superman” is holding up well and Woody Allen’s You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger continues to draw in aficionados. But the dour Never Let Me Go appears to have peaked early in the awards season. Among the new entries the highly enjoyable Tamara Drewe proved to be the surprise commercial disappointment with a dull $4,300 engagement average from four initial exposures.
The uber-ballyhooed The Social Network buzzed above the pack with an estimated $22.6 million to lead weekend ticket sales. Two other national releases proved commercial disappointments. The much-admired horror remake Let Me In ranked seventh overall with $5.3 million and the thriller Case 39 was a peg behind with $5.2 million.
The big noise for the frame came from new regional and niche titles. The Tamil language Robots (the most expensive film ever produced in India) rewrote the record books with the biggest ever North American debut with a $2.1 million tally. The simultaneous release of Anjaana Anjaani from Bollywood’s Hindi sector was also impressive with a $560,000 bow. In Canada, the Brit import StreetDance 3D generated a hefty $423,000 and the indigenous Fubar II rang up $209,000 from just 30 venues.
However, a couple of indie horror entries failed to ignite pre-Halloween frenzy. Chain Letter eked out a $300 average from 401 screens and Hatchet II was marginally better with an $880 average from a more contained 68 playdates.
Overall business experienced a roll back from both the prior weekend and 2009 revenues.
Critical response to The Social Network was predominantly rapturous. Still, media reports detailed concerns based on tracking and previews that the flamboyant saga of Facebook and its youthful creators was a tough sell. Exit polls showed that opening weekend skewed slightly female with 53% of the audience and plus 25s comprised 55% of sales. Trackers had predicted grossed in the range of $25 million to $28 million and its clear that its future rests on playing the awards card and eventually drawing in younger viewers obviously spending too much time on the net to go see the movie.
Let Me In also received enthusiastic thumbs ups from reviewers that failed to translate at the box office. Prognosticators pushed its envelope to the $10 million to $12 million strata but ticket buyers opted to catch up with The Town, Easy A or the Wall Street sequel. Case 39, which opened internationally in late 2008 and has grossed more than $10 million overseas, arrived as a theatrical afterthought and performed more or less as expected … blah.
Weekend sales came up just short of $100 million, which amounted to a 3% decline from seven days earlier. 2009 comparisons saw a steeper erosion of 9%. A year ago the debuts of Zombieland and the 3D pairing of Toy Story’s first two installments ranked first and third with respective openings of $24.7 million and $12.5 million.
Robot, with echoes of Metropolis, is a more optimistic yarn of a scientist who creates an android in his own image and watches the somewhat amusing results unfold. The big budget production went full out with dubbed versions in Hindi and Telegu in addition to the Tamil original. The largely Indian diasporas came out in force to generate a record opening box office. Still, despite considerable efforts in the past five years, the Indian cinema is just one film short of producing a crossover mainstream hit.
The session didn’t include a new platform in what looks like a crowded, eclectic awards season. However a clutch of early entries including Never Let Me Go, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and Catfish added dates and continued to keep a foot in the door. Only Jack Goes Boating appears to have run out of steam early.
The Social Network|22.6|New| 22.6
Legend of the Guardians|10.9|-33% |30.1
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps|10.2|-46%|36
The Town|10.1|-36%|64.4
Easy A|6.8|-36%|42.2
You Again|5.5|-35%|16.4
Let Me In|5.3| New|5.3
Case 39|5.2| New|5.2
Devil|3.6| -45%| 27.3
Alpha and Omega|3.0|-38%|19
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps|6.9|3565||6.9
The Town|5|2885|-40%|38.1
Legend of the Guardians|4.5|3575||4.5
Easy A|3.6|2856|-47%|25.7
You Again|2.7|2548||2.7
Devil|2.1|2809|-57%|17.3
Resident Evil: Afterlife|1.4|2642|-54%|48.5
Alpha and Omega|1.1 |2625|-53%|11.5
Takers|0.5|1413|-49%|53.7
Inception|0.4|907|-37%|286.2
Also Debuting
The Virginity Hit|0.1|700||0.1
Waiting for Superman|52,300|4||52,300
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger|44,800|6||44,800
Like Dandelion Dust|37,100|26||37,100
Buried|34,100|11||34,100
A trio of new films was expected to duke it out for weekend bragging rights but Friday box office returns burst that bubble. The cops and robbers of The Town prevailed with an estimated $23.6 million while the high school angst and hijinx of Easy A took place position with $18 million; followed with a $12.5 million gross for the horror entry Devil.
The session’s fourth national bow was the family-targeted Alpha and Omega (in 3D) that ranked fifth with $9.2 million.
And despite the surge of new blood, weekend box office was no better than on par with 2010; albeit with fewer people buying tickets.
The frame was also chock-a-block with new additions in regional and exclusive play. The Toronto fest favorite Incendies had a solid bow in Quebec of $170,500 at 29 venues while another TIFF debut, the adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, rang up a per engagement average of $29,370 from four screens. Also good in limited exposure were Philip Seymour Hoffman’s directorial debut Jack Goes Boating and the black comic Leaves of Grass.
Though The Town was clearly out-pacing its competition in advance ticket sales, tracking pundits pegged the latter day Ridgemont High antics of Easy A as the box office leader for the frame. Devil was expected to be very close behind the duo.
But some unexpected twists altered the scenario. The most telling wild card was the fact that Devil went against the grain of drawing in women (horror films generally draw a majority distaff audience). Exit polls revealed the horror film’s audience at 60% while The Town, which was expected to be predominantly male, had a better than expected 45% female buyers.
Conversely, Easy A’s composition was two-thirds female and whenever two films display comparable strength, the one that favors males usually dominates. Men out-weigh women among avid filmgoers.
Weekend revenues should top out just shy of $100 million for a sizeable 24% boost from the immediate prior weekend. However, that also translated into a 1% box office drop from 2009. A year ago the debuts of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The Informant held the top two slots with respective opening salvos of $30.3 million and $10.5 million.
Holdovers largely took it on the chin with last weekend’s chart topper Resident Evil: Afterlife going free fall by 63%. In general older titles saw their box office halved. The alternative hits of summer have pretty much run their course and specialized exhibitors are almost rabid about getting the deluge of film festival favorites on screen to bolster flagging sales.
Weekend Estimates – September 17-19, 2010
Title
Distributor
Gross (average)
% change *
Theaters
Cume
The Town
WB
23.6 (8,250)
New
2861
23.6
Easy A
Sony
18.0 (6,310)
New
2856
18
Devil
Uni
12.5 (4,460)
New
2809
12.5
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Sony/Alliance
9.9 (3,090)
-63%
3209
43.8
Alpha and Omega
Lions Gate
9.2 (3,490)
New
2625
9.2
Takers
Sony
3.0 (1,390)
-48%
2139
52.3
The American
Focus
2.7 (1,110)
-52%
2457
32.8
Inception
WB
2.0 (1,510)
-29%
1305
285.1
The Other Guys
Sony
1.9 (1,050)
-43%
1827
115.3
Eat Drink Pray
Sony
1.6 (980)
-44%
1668
77.6
Machete
Fox
1.6 (940)
-63%
1704
24.2
Going the Distance
WB
1.3 (660)
-65%
2007
16.7
The Expendables
Lions Gate
1.3 (720)
-59%
1854
101
The Last Exorcism
Lions Gate
1.2 (600)
-64%
2013
40.1
Nanny McPhee Returns
Uni
1.0 (600)
-53%
1588
27.6
The Switch
BV
.91 (790)
-55%
1158
26.6
Despicable Me
Uni
.86 (910)
-48%
944
244.7
Lottery Ticket
WB
.62 (920)
-49%
677
23.5
Get Low
Sony Classics
.57 (1,380)
-34%
421
7.8
Vampires Suck
Fox
.54 (560)
-64%
964
35.8
Toy Story 3
BV
.43 (900)
-44%
475
410.5
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films)
$94.30
% Change (Last Year)
-1%
% Change (Last Week)
24%
Also debuting/expanding
Catfish
Uni
.25 (21,080)
12
0.25
Incendies
eOne
.17 (5,880)
29
0.17
Never Let Me Go
Searchlight
.12 (29,370)
4
0.16
I’m Still Here
Magnolia
.11 (970)
11%
111
0.25
Jack Goes Boating
Overture
30,300 (7,580)
4
0.03
Leaves of Grass
First Look
24,300 (8,100)
3
0.02
Picture Me
Strand
6,800 (6,800)
1
0.01
The Freebie
Phase 4
4,400 (4,400)
1
0.01
GasLand
HBO
2,800 (1,400)
2
0.01
Kings of Pastry
First Run
2,250 (2,250)
1
0.01
Domestic Market Share – January 1 – September 16, 2010
(Tardy writing… 7p… football and family… and not much to say…)
So not only didn’t Easy A chase down The Town, Affleck’s latest was actually quite muscular after its Friday launch.
Devil reminds us again that Screen Gems is not an easy act to imitate. Not a horrible launch… but not surprisingly strong, given the marketing pedigree.
I’m Still Here, expanding to 5x the screens and still doing less than $1000 per screen is a tribute to how publicity can fail to draw a crowd. They must be hoping Phoenix’s Letterman slot this week turns the corner on the VOD, if not the theatrical.
The Town|8.2|2861||8.2
Easy A|6.7|2856||6.7
Devil|4.8|2809||4.8
Resident Evil: Afterlife|3|3209|-72%|36.9
Alpha and Omega|2.3|2625||2.3
Takers|0.9|2139|-49%|50.3
The American|0.8|2457|-53%|30.9
Inception|0.6|1305|-29%|283.7
The Other Guys|0.6|1827|-42%|114
Machete|0.5|1704|-62%|23.1
Also Debuting
Catfish|87,000|12||87,000
Incendies|44,000|29||44,300
Never Let Me Go|33,500|4||33,500
Jack Goes Boating|8,300|4||8,300
Leaves of Grass|6,900|2||6,900
Picture Me|2,900|1||2,900
The Freebie|1,900|1||1,900
Kate is a dominant and driven female wolf, while hairy Humphrey lives for the moment. But when the two young wolves are captured by park rangers and taken far away, they bond despite their differences.
Kate is a dominant and driven female wolf, while hairy Humphrey lives for the moment. But when the two young wolves are captured by park rangers and taken far away, they bond despite their differences … a modern-day Lady & the Tramp – wolf style.
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.