The Fog rides the horror-card through this week’s box office box office.
October 17th Box Office Overview
The top 5:
1. The Fog $12.2 million (1st week of
release)
2. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit $11.7 million
($33.3 million total)
3. Elizabethtown
$11 million (1st week of release)
4. Flightplan
$6.5 million ($70.7 million total)
5. In Her Shoes $6.1
million ($20 million total)
Thoughts: Looking at this week's total's there is only
one thought that comes to mind……where the hell is everyone? This is the
middle of October, a time when studios are just starting to get the Oscar
season and the holiday films going and the top film of the week can only
muster a measly $12 million? If you really look at it closely, there are
two reasons why The Fog was able to catch the top spot: 1) Horror
films always do well this time of year and 2) The other new releases got
trashed by critics so audiences went with the safe bet. Sony and Revolution
Studios followed a very safe formula with The Fog (campy, predictable,
plot or remake of an older film, low production budget and attractive television
stars with a young following) and are reaping the profits because of it.
If I were them though, I wouldn't expect this trend to continue. Films like
these usually drop big time by the second week and The Fog should
be no different. Next week sees a few films that might bring audiences out
of hiding and, if they do, it will spell the end of The Fog's run.
With only a 27% drop from last week, Wallace and Gromit continue
to prove that an animation film doesn't have to be all CGI in order to be
a hit. The film has managed to pull in $33 million over two weeks as well
as retain audiences with a strong word of mouth.
Elizabethtown tries to roll over early negative reviews.
Cameron Crowe wishes he had that strong
word of mouth with his latest film Elizabethtown. Burdened with
negative buzz before its release and then a slew of negative reviews from
critics, Elizabethtown was behind the gun from the get go. For
a $45 million dollar film an $11 million opening is a little of a disappointment
for Paramount studios who were expecting at least Jerry Maguire opening
numbers ($17 million) instead of Almost Famous numbers ($7 million).
Still, the lack of romantic films should be able to keep Elizabethtown
afloat in the top 10 for at least a few more weeks which should be more
than enough time to get some positive word of mouth going…..if there is
any.
Further evidence that audiences are not showing up to theaters is Flightplan's
refusal to die. How else can you explain a film in its fourth week taking
in only $6 million and still finishing in the top 5? This is no knock on
the film and I have come to the realization that this film is a hit, but
you have to agree with me when I say that if the other new releases hadn't
been slammed by critics, Flightplan would not be in the top 5.
Still, audiences love thrillers and apparently they also love Cameron Diaz
because In Her Shoes had another solid week, dropping only 39%
from last week. The $20 million total In Her Shoes has taken in
should be enough to cover Cameron Diaz's salary, but it also shows that
this film has found an audience which is surprising considering its lack
of awareness.
Domino gets the rough end of the box office. The bottom 5:
6. Domino
$4.7 million (1st week of release)
7. Two for the Money $4.6 million ($16.5 million total)
8. A History
of Violence $3.6 million ($22.3 million total)
9. Tim Burton's Corpse
Bride $3.5 million ($47.6 million total)
10. The Gospel $3.2 million ($12 million total)
Thoughts: Other than Domino's performance, which really surprised
me, the rest of the bottom 5 played out how I thought it would. While not
taking the biggest drop of the week award like I had predicted, Two
for the Money did get pretty hard to the tune of a 47% drop. I'm pretty
sure no one was surprised by that and by now you've figured out that it's
decent opening weekend was solely due to the star power that was attached
to the picture. Once people got to see it and word of mouth spread enough
this film was doomed. Same thing goes for The Gospel which enjoyed
a surprisingly good opening weekend. Now that the first wave of word of
mouth is out though, The Gospel is settling in to the spot it was
originally predicted to be.
Maybe it was my plea for audiences to give this film more respect or maybe
America smartened up and did the right thing, but A History of Violence
had a good weekend despite staying in the bottom 5. History dropped only
29% from last week and looks to be the sleeper film of the month. It may
not have enough word of mouth to make it a huge hit, but it looks to have
just enough to have a solid run at the box office and hopefully be around
long enough to warrant some Oscar attention.
I saved Domino for last because it really surprised me with how
poorly it finished. The film had all the makings of a huge hit, big time
director (Tony Scott, Ridley's brother and director of films like Top
Gun and True Romance), up and coming actress (Keira
Knightly) and an intriguing plot (a former model becomes a
bounty hunter) yet it tanked at the box office. New Line had been promoting
the hell out of this film for the past 6 months so why did it do so poorly?
The only reasonable explanation is that it was originally slated to come
out earlier in the year and then was pushed back. This has always been a
big problem to me. I understand that sometimes certain issues (like production
delays) force a film to push back its release date, but most of the time,
no matter how much you improve the film, the moment you push the release
date back people know to stay away from it like the plague. I'm not saying
Domino is a great film, but the moment they pushed the date back
New Line had pretty much left this film for dead. A perfect example of this
would be Serenity.
Here is a film that had good buzz due to the cult like following it had
when the series was released on DVD, was praised by critics, yet the film
had its release date pushed back and now no one is showing up. Studios would
be better off just going through with releasing it on the original date
and hoping for the best, rather than push it back and watch it bomb. Look
for this to happen again in March when V
for Vendetta is released.
DOOM is up to plate for next weekend.
1. Doom
$14 million
2. North Country
$11 million
3. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit $9 million
4. Elizabethtown $8 million
5. The Fog $6 million
I want to hear from you guys on what you
think the totals are. Agree with me? Disagree? E-mail (vince@canmag.com)
me your totals and I'll post the person who comes closest to the actual
totals.
Stay tuned for updates.
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