Dudes Box Office Report Sept 30/2005

Dude here again. Hey, I picked up on something last week that I was not aware of, and neglected to put into last week's report, Don't know if you were aware of this butt Roll Bounce, the roller skating movie, donated half of it's gross last weekend to hurricane relief efforts. How classy and solid is that? I think I'm going to see that movie for that reason alone. I hope to god that was true. Well done.


This week, however, I have to say, the numbers are very disappointing. For many reasons. Some you might be able to guess if you read my latest review. It's gonna be tough to get through this one, but I'll try. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates. Numbers could change on Monday).

1. Flightplan (BV) - $15.0, 3424 screens, week 2, $45.1 total
2. Serenity (UNI) - $10.1, 2188 screens, week 1, $10.1 total
3. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (WB)- $9.75, 3204 screens, week 3, $32.9 total
4. A History of Violence (NL) - $8.2, 1340 screens, week 2, $8.969 total
5. Into The Blue (MGM/Sony) - $7.0, 2789 screens, week 1, $7.0 total 
6. Just Like Heaven (DW) - $6.1, 3543 screens, week 3, $38.4 total
7. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (ScrGems)- $4.4, 3004 screens, week 4, $68.5 total
8. Roll Bounce (FoxSrchlt) - $4.0, 1661 screens, week 2, $12.7 total
9. The Greatest Game Ever Played (BV) - $3.7, 1014 screens, week 1, $3.7 total
10. The 40 Year Old Virgin (UNI) - $3.1, 2152 screens, week 7, $101.4 total

Ok, those are the numbers, so what does this all mean? I guess it means that more people in North America would rather see a mediocre, by the numbers, poorly written and all around vanilla movie like Flightplan than take a chance on a witty, superbly written and acted, exciting and unpredictable roller coaster ride like Serenity. Seriously, this bit of news is slightly depressing. Yes, I am a fan of Serenity from the beginning, and no I did not like Flightplan, so this might appear to biased, and let's face it, it is. And frankly, I don't care, because this is just plain wrong. Sure, $10.1 million dollars is more than I'm ever likely to see in my lifetime, and I should be happy that it made the number 2 spot, over other movies. But it should have made more. If it made more, we could have had more Serenity movies, and gotten more people to realize the genius of Whedon. But no, some people felt they had to see a holdover of a movie that's very similar to one that came out two months ago. That's wrong. Try something NEW!! Ok, I'm done. I'm sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. Serenity is an awesome movie, and I'm very passionate about it, and deserved to make more money. Maybe next week will prove me wrong. And there's always the lucrative DVD market.

If you're my roommate, you're never going to hear the end of the somewhat lame performance of Into The Blue. In one of many discussions we've had, we were discussing the performance of Serenity, and he felt that Into The Blue would be a legitimate threat because, and I quote, "Alba and Walker sell tickets." I swear he said that, and I've been making fun of him ever since. Please, they do not sell tickets, as evidenced this weekend. If Paul Walker was such a draw, how come Timeline didn't break records? It's not because Timeline was any worse than any of his other films. It's because he's in movies that draw audiences who don't care who star in the flick. How many people went to see Fantastic Four solely because they were Jessica Alba fans? SHE WAS INVISIBLE THROUGH HALF THE FREAKIN' FILM! My point is pretty obvious at this point, and i promise this will be the last time I embarrass my roommate with this point in a public forum. But the movie didn't perform all that well, even with Alba in a bikini on your poster. (A wise choice, one Stealth should have picked up on).

If you're David Cronenberg, you gotta be a little pleased. History of violence opened up on more screens to a nice amount of money, along with some very stellar reviews. It's not going to break any records, but this is definitely one of Cronenberg's more successful film openings in years. And more people are seeing this great film, to boot. So everyone there is a winner.

If you're the Greatest Game Ever Played, you didn't do so bad. It was a low gross, yes, and there were mediocre reviews for the most part, but it opened on such a low amount of screens in comparison to others this weekend, that it should be a little proud of itself. I haven't seen the flick, so I don't know if it's any good, but I do like Bill Paxton and know that he's a nice guy, so I'm being optimistic on his behalf.

The holdovers did adequate. Corpse Bride seems to be losing a bit of steam, and should end up with roughly doing the same business as Nightmare Before Christmas, unless it holds over well through the Halloween season. Just Like Heaven and Emily Rose continue to drop off slightly while making decent money. Roll Bounce is performing well and should make back it's smaller budget. And the 40 year Old Virgin finally reached that $100 million mark, making it the 13th movie this year to do such a thing.

Below the radar, a few films opened in limited release, to some decent money. Capote, the highly acclaimed biopic of Truman Capote starring Phillp Seymour Hoffman opened to $349,000 on 12 screens. Not bad at all. The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio, a Julianne Moore movie that takes place in the 1950s (something she seems to enjoy) opened with $155,000 on 41 screens. I don't see it opening too much wider in the next few weeks, however. it seems to be meeting with so-so reviews. Neil Gaiman's Mirrormask, a Henson produced film in the vein of Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, opened nicely on 18 screens, making $127,000. This is a film I think if a lot more people knew about would go and enjoy. I'm hopefully getting a chance to see it this week. And down on the list is a movie called Little Manhattan, which opened on 2 screens and made $38,200, which is an impressive screen average. But I gotta tell you, I saw a preview for this before Corpse Bride, and it looked like one of the dumbest movies I have ever laid eyes on. It was about a ten year old and his first love. I'm sure it's heartwarming and all, but it looked really bad, so instead of actually watching it, I judge from afar.

The Miramax dump of the week. There was none. to be fair, Proof and An Unfinished Life continue to lurk below the top ten, quietly making a small pile of money. And I give them credit for that.

There you have my wonderful break down. Next week, we have the Big Screen debut of Wallace and Gromit (Finally!). We also have Waiting... a raunchy comedy that I have seen and am not allowed to say anything about until it opens. (Odd that I ignore that edict for War of the Worlds, and yet I respect for this one. Especially given that my review MAY or MAY NOT lean more toward the positive side). We also get a new movie from Curtis Hanson, which is always good news, and a movie that stars Al Pacino AND Matthew McConaughey, which means I'm not gonna stop doing imitations for WEEKS after I see it. God help us all.

Until next weekend....