Box Office Report: 8-28-05

Dude here again, with another look at the weekend box office report. It was kind of a slow weekend at the box office, which is to be expected at this time of year. Kids are going back to school, families want to have one more weekend of vacation, school supply shopping, etc. The summer is starting to wind down, and there's not enough to whet the appetite of the moviegoing public.

This week, the number one movie remained the same, meaning that Steve Carell will most likely have a good future ahead of him in movies, and thank god for that. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates. Numbers could change on Monday).

1. The 40 year Old Virgin (UNI) - $16.4, 2868 screens, week 2, $48.7 total
2. The Brothers Grimm (Dim/MGM) - $15.1, 3078 screens, week 1, $15.1 total
3. Red Eye (DW) - $10.4, 3091 screens, week 2, $32.7 total
4. Four Brothers (PAR) - $7.8, 2649 screens, week 3, $55.3 total
5. Wedding Crashers (NL) - $6.3, 2737 screens, week 7, $187.7 total
6. The Cave (ScrGems)- $6.2, 2195 screens, week 1, $6.2 total
7. March of the Penguins (WIP)- $4.5, 2394 screens, week 10, $55.7 total
8. Skeleton Key (UNI) - $4.4, 2784 screens, week 3, $37.9 total
9. Valiant (BV) - $3.4, 2016 screens, week 2, $11.6 total
10. Dukes of Hazzard (WB)- $3.0, 2891 screens, week 4, $74.4 total

Ok, those are the numbers, so what does this all mean? Well, it means hat people really aren't going to the movies this weekend. there will be more talk of a slump, and talk of how this was the weakest summer in a long long time. Again, my feelings on this slump are that it's made up to be a lot worse than it is. The "slump" is based on comparative figures with the same weekend LAST YEAR, meaning that THIS year's performances didn't match up to what was being done at the same time last year. Which is very stupid to base your entire industry on that, but whatever. You're still making billions of dollars off of us, stop whining because the movies you over saturate us with are leaving after only three or four weeks. You do this to yourselves, and push your own product out of the market if ti fails to perform instantly. But I digress.

If you're Terry Gilliam, you might be a little happy, but probably not so much. Brothers Grimm, his first film in 7 years (although it's been sitting on the Dimension shelf for quite some time now) opened at the number 2 spot, but didn't earn nearly enough to assure it would be making more money, and bad word of mouth is starting to spread. (It's not your fault, Terry. You did what you could with a weak script, and no doubt tons of Dimension editing suggestions). It most likely won't recoup it's $80 million budget, but there's always the lucrative world of DVD. And hey, at least Terry's got tideland coming out this fall, and that's supposed to be utterly fantastic, and pure Gilliam.

If you're the makers of The Cave, all I have to say is you had this coming. You made a crappy movie, and this is what you get. You should have stuck it out, and kept an R rating, so at least I would have enjoyed some good gore scenes in your bad movie. Seriously. If you're gonna rip off Pitch Black, go balls out and do it right. Instead,
we get a tamed down version of what could have been a craptacular motion picture, that we all could have dug and said "Hey buddy, that flick the Cave was pretty damn solid." But no, you punked out. And no one came to see your movie anyway.

Those damn penguins are still holding strong. Good for them. I guess if you're a penguin or a crasher of weddings (of which there's gotta be a lame joke about tuxedos somewhere in there, but I'm too lazy to find it) this was your summer. Repeat business, that's the name of the game. Building a strong word of mouth, and building on that. Going back to my slump ranting, these two movies are prime examples of what the industry needs to do, instead of an all out dump on half the screens at your local multiplex. (Granted, Wedding Crashers DID open an a large amount of screens, to a pretty hefty opening weekend, but it maintained it's buzz and continued to play in the top 5 for 7 weeks).

Red Eye and Four Brothers continue along solidly, turning a nice tidy profit that can make all involved smile a little bit more. And maybe Rachel McAdams (my future wife) can ask for more money for her next flick, so she can support my broke ass. In due time, sweetie.

On the indie scene, Broken Flowers continues an impressive run, hovering just below the top ten, but making cash. The Aristocrats as well. They're doing well, and I hope more people see them as the summer turns into fall. But they'll probably start losing steam as more and more "prestige" pictures start rolling out for "Oscar season" (another thing that makes me angry, if a movie is good, people should remember it, it shouldn't be released at a certain time of year. It's ridiculous, but entertainment people love labeling things).

And Undiscovered, that horrible looking film that marked the film debut of Jessica Simpson's younger, not as hot sister Ashlee (I don't think either has musical talent), debuted at 19, with $690,000. i was mercifully spared having to watch this, because the screening was cancelled. And since I showed up anyway because nobody told me it was cancelled, I got some good Lions Gate stuff. Thanks Lions Gate. So sorry your movie about wannabe actors and musicians trying to make it big in LA and find love at the same time tanked, but it really looked bad. Even if it had Princess Leia AND Robocop in it.

OH, and there was this other movie that came out called Dirty Deeds, which was a PG-13 knock off of American Pie and those types of movies. First off, you don't make a PG-13 rip off of those movies, you try to outgross them. Literally, not monetarily. PG-13 doesn't lend itself to that. But the most impressive part of this movie was that it was produced (and released) by Green Diamond Entertainment, a company formed by former New York Met Todd Ziehle. Sure, the movie made $78,500, and nobody even knew about it. But still, it's good to see a Met in action.

There you have my wonderful break down. Next week, prepare to get your ass kicked hardcore when the Transporter comes out of retirement for a second film. Seriously, that movie is gonna be slap your neighbor good. Have you seen that trailer? The 2 minutes I saw of it was better than the two hour Stealth that followed it. It's gonna hurt, and you're gonna take it. Oh, and A Sound of Thunder finally gets released after quite some time, and Dimension decides to let loose another cinematic thud on us. This one with Nick Cannon as...who really cares? Until next weekend....