"2004 ANALYSIS - Part 1: United International Pictures"

2004 has now and truly closed and we are already in the heat of the 2005 madness, but which films dominated last year? Which did bigger than expected? Which totally tanked? Here is a guide to 2004's Hits and Misses at the Australian box-office.

2004 was surprisingly quieter than recent years. 21 films crossed the $10m mark while 12 films went past the $15m milestone. That represents a downward spiral from 2003, which netted 23 $10m winners and 14 that achieved past $15m. In 2002, 24 films earned $10m and over with 12 films past $15m. In 2001, 28 films reached $10m, 13 of which also passed $15m. Take into account, these three years also were the years that 'Lord of the Rings' achieved massive feats. All up, in 2004 286 films opened in some capacity in Australian cinemas, down from 293 in 2003 but up from 257 released in 2002.

For the next week, we will present a guide to each Australian distributor's success in 2004 followed by a recap of the Best and the Worst B.O results from the year. This will give everyone a wrap-up at the Australian B.O in 2004. First up is United International Pictures.

United International Pictures
Distributors for: Paramount, Universal and DreamWorks
Estimated Total for 2004: $237m, could reach $245m with 'Meet the Fockers'


It was a good year for UIP, which thrived with the #1 movie of the year ('Shrek 2') and the third best of the 2004 season ('Meet the Fockers'), an achievement that was recorded in the final days of the year. Despite Paramount's woes in the US, the studio got very strong figures from a string of Universal titles along with distributing 'Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason', which was a star performer here. All up, the distributor released 36 films in 2004. From the batch, 15 achieved grosses over $5m and 6 grossed over $10m. Quite a stellar score.

The Top Dog: 'Shrek 2' was the biggest opener of the year with $13.1m and continued to dominate during the winter with a staggering $50.1m. It became the second biggest film ever in Australian B.O history just behind the $57.6m of 'Titanic'. Not only did it dominate 2004, it demolished the competition with the nearest competitor at $33m ('Harry Potter 3').

Winners and Grinners: 'Meet the Fockers' achieved $25.8m so far despite starting on Boxing Day and has become a monstrous success for the distributor spending 4 straight weeks at the top and it's a lock for $30m and should beat 'Harry Potter 3' to become the 2nd biggest film released during 2004. UIP also scored themselves blockbusters with Universal sequels - 'Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason' and 'The Bourne Supremacy', both finishing with $18.2m and $15.6m. DreamWorks' spring smash 'Shark Tale' was also terrific with $15.1m while Universal's horror pic 'Van Helsing' ($12.7m) did tremendous despite losing steam in the US. The appeal of local boy Hugh Jackman and an opportune release date helped.

UIP had a further 4 films achieve results in the tremendous $8-10m range including Mike Myers' comedy 'The Cat in the Hat' ($9.8m), Ben Stiller's romantic comedy 'Along Came Polly' ($9m), Jim Carrey's adventure 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events' ($8.6m and counting), Lindsay Lohan surprise 'Mean Girls' ($8.5m) and Tom Cruise thriller 'Collateral' ($8.2m). 'Snicket' represented Paramount's biggest hit for UIP in 2004, an achievement it also recorded in the US.

The distributor also recorded strong figures from several films aimed at women: Nicole Kidman comedy 'The Stepford Wives' ($6.2m), Kirsten Dunst tennis flick 'Wimbledon' ($5.5m), lavish musical 'The Phantom of the Opera' ($5.1m and counting) and Jessica Alba's 'Honey' ($5m). The studio should also be pleased with 'Team America: World Police' ($4.5m), which did stronger than it was expected.



Losers: The distributor's biggest disappointment of 2004 was 'The Terminal', which despite a cast of Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones and a director like Steven Speilberg did just $4.3m, a respectable number though. Vin Diesel's sci-fi mess 'The Chronicles of Riddick' ($3.5m) dropped fast from a strong opening.

Denzel Washington's lacklustre appeal in Australia didn't help 'The Manchurian Candidate' ($3.1m) whilst US horror smash 'Dawn of the Dead' ($2.8m) faded rapidly despite good reviews. Will Ferrell proved he needs to do more to overcome rejection in Oz as his comedy 'Anchorman' did a measly $2.2m while Ben Affleck's delayed action flick 'Paycheck' was D.O.A with $1.8m.

Also weak were: DreamWorks' teen romp 'Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!' ($1.8m), UK spoof 'Shaun of the Dead' ($1.6m), ill-fated remake 'Thunderbirds' ($1.5m), Paul Walker's adventure 'Timeline' ($1.2m), Ashley Judd's thriller 'Twisted' ($1.1m) and US comedy smash 'Without a Paddle' ($1.1m).

In the under $1m category were a heap of clunkers like David Spade's 'Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star' ($0.97k), critically praised 'The Cooler' ($0.65k), Cuba Gooding Jr comedy 'The Fighting Temptations' ($0.57k), US indie hit 'Napoleon Dynamite' ($0.39k), teen comedy 'Eurotrip' ($0.37k) and lion pic 'Two Brothers' ($0.29k). The biggest dud of the year: Meg Ryan's boxing drama 'Against the Ropes', which had just one week on the theatrical shelf with $37,262 earned. Considering that theatres were running trailers for nearly 2 years, its quite ironic.

Lessons Learnt: UIP needs to find a way to make US comedies appeal to Oz audiences. 'Anchorman', 'Without a Paddle' and even 'Dickie Roberts' should have done better here with stronger advertising and it didn't help the distributor delayed them too long that the buzz they generated in the US had faded before they finally landed in the country. Apart from that, UIP did a phenomenal job in 2004 and the promotion and advertising was effective in most cases.

On the Horizon in 2005: Once they rid some likely flops ('Alfie', 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'), they can concentrate on launching hits like 'The Ring 2' and summer smashes like Speilberg/Cruise collaboration 'The War of the Worlds' and Michael Bay's 'The Island'. The studio has some movies that did well in the US but are iffy here like Samuel L. Jackson's 'Coach Carter', 'In Good Company' and 'Friday Night Lights', can they generate word-of-mouth? Also in the future: films with Nicolas Cage, Kate Hudson, Susan Sarandon, Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom. And this Christmas? 'King Kong' helmed by Peter Jackson.

By Chris Cappola

Please Note that Distributor totals are estimates and not exact data but are rounded off


OTHER DISTRIBUTOR ANALYSIS:
- Analysis of 20th Century Fox
- Analysis of Buena Vista International
- Analysis of Columbia TriStar Distributors
- Analysis of United International Pictures
- Analysis of Village Roadshow Distributors
- Analysis of the Indies! - Icon, Hoyts and more!

- The 2004 Chart

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