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Weekend 4th - 7th Apr
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Without any trouble at all Ice Age managed to keep its thaw factor to the smallest rate
in the top ten, down only 19% from its boffo second weekend. The tale of Manfred and friends
managed to return $2.5 million through its third age and has now seen its total leap to a
cool $11 million.
Ice Age is running only 4.5% behind* the pace it scored through its first three weeks
in the U.S., which means Ice Age is setting a cracking pace in Australia now after being
40% behind* last weekend. Ice Age still has a couple more weeks of skewed school holidays
around the country for its taking and will easily pass the U.S. pace before its run is
finished.
By comparison Monsters, Inc. made $2.3 million through its third weekend but had a
higher $17.2 million after three weeks. Ice Age won't exactly reach the $25 million
final of the Pixar film but has the potential to reach $21 - 22 million in Australia.
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Opening in second place was the locally produced vampire flick Queen Of The Damned.
The Aaliyah and Stuart Townsend starring pic about vampire rocker Lestat who awakens the queen
of the vampires via his music seemed to attract a moderate amount of interest over the weekend
as it opened in second place with a better than expected $1.26 million.
Released on a medium-low 164 screens, Queen Of The Damned averaged a meaty $7,742 per
coffin. Including its previews last week the Anne Rice adapted flick, to which she offered
to write the screenplay for, for free, but was denied now has $1.57 million in the bank. The
destined for B grade trash will fall quickly in the weeks ahead now that its cast of Goth
extras has come out in support of the film on its opening weekend, intent on, but failing to
prop up business much like all the three scientologists who saw Battlefield: Earth tried
but failed with the Travolta mess. Queen Of The Damned well may find its way to only
$3 million locally.
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Dropping one place to third was the Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind. The Russell Crowe
starring film for which he missed out on Best Actor honours fell a steep 43% over the weekend
as the Oscar and Easter inflated crowd was just to big to be sustained, even for a film that
has such good word of mouth. Still, A Beautiful Mind was able to take a solid $1.1
million in its fifth weekend which landed the film in the Highest
Fifth Weekend table, just under another Crowe film, Gladiator. With $16 million in
the bank so far, A Beautiful Mind is still well on course to do around $22 million
locally.
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Also not showing much holding power this weekend was the Robert DeNiro and Eddie Murphy
star-driven picture Showtime. The tale of two cops who are trailed by a camera crew
lost 49% of its audience in its second weekend for an $0.81 million try. The film now has
$3.2 million in the bank and may conclude with a tepid $5 million.
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The kid pic Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius faired much better this weekend as the rest of
the country came into school holiday mode and powered the animated kid flick to a 62% rise
over its somewhat no-show opening last weekend. Taking $0.68 million in its second weekend,
the story about a town full of youngsters who have their parents kidnapped by aliens and then
launch an interstellar mission to get them back now has $1.7 million to its name. The film has
Ice Age to contend with as its major competition, and vice versa, so its hard for a
film like this to find a decent audience. Perhaps in the next couple of weeks it will find
some decent legs as families who have seen Ice Age look for something new, other than
E.T. that is, which cannot be considered anything other than a disaster for the poor
showing of its 20th anniversary re-release.
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Elsewhere in the charts, Panic Room previewed in sixth place with a decent $0.6
million. Things look good for its opening this coming weekend. In seventh place Gosford
Park dipped by 41% in its fourth weekend, also showing signs that its Oscar inflated
performance isn't sustainable. The ensemble flick though still made $0.52 million over the
weekend and has now amassed a reasonable $4.3 million so far. Making up for its good showing
last weekend, Not Another Teen Movie crumbled by 63% in its third weekend and put right
the apparent good word of mouth rumour that was veiled by the Easter weekend. In eight place
the gross-out parody of the teen movie genre made $0.5 million in its third weekend and now
has an ok $4.3 million total. Not Another Teen Movie will probably end with an ok
$5.3 million. Kate and Leopold collected $0.45 million in its fourth weekend and has
seen its total elevate to a decent $5.2 million. The Meg Ryan starring film just passed
Serendipity to be the most successful romantic comedy this year. In tenth position
Black Knight opened poorly with just $0.36 million on a low 117 screens. Reflecting a
lack of faith by its distributor, Black Knight averaged just $3,095 per screen. It
stands as Martin Lawrence's worst opening yet and was even lower than my aneamic $0.6 million
opening prediction.
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The top 20 films made together collected $10.3 million, down 25.6% from last weekend's Easter
inspired bumper take but up 19.7% on this weekend a year ago when the racially unified film
Save The Last Dance opened on top with a good $1.6 million, on its way to a good $7.8
million. The weekend was up 24% on this weekend two years ago when a pre-Easter weekend saw
a bunch of new openers lead out by Stuart Little with $2.8 million and Mission To
Mars lead Galaxy Quest in positions 2 and 3 with $1.1 million and $0.9 million
respectively. Stuart Little went on to become the surprise hit of the year finishing
fourth for the year with $20.4 million.
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Weekend Coming - Weekend 11th - 14th Apr
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Opening this weekend is the Jodie Foster starring thriller Panic Room. Directed by
David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven, The Game), the focuses on Meg who is
recently divorced and has moved into a new apartment with her daughter. After being informed
that her new home is fitted with a panic room, it is put to good use on the first night. Three
odd sorts invade her home intent on retrieving items stored in the panic room by the previous
owners. The only problem is Meg and her daughter have sought refuge and are not going to let
anyone into the impenetrable room. Distributed by Sony in the U.S., Panic Room opened
just two weeks ago with a brilliant $US30 million, giving Foster the largest opening of
her career. The film held on reasonably, dipping by 38% and has collected $US58 million in
ten days. Budgeted at moderate $US45 million, Panic Room looks like it will take home
a good $US120 million. Panic Room has just come off a weekend of limited previews and
collected a fine $0.6 million on 128 screens. Foster herself has come out to Australia to
promote the film and will appear on various television programs which is sure to raise the
profile of the film. The media has been embracing this film as an event picture of sorts and
that kind of exposure will only help Panic Room's prospects. The last starring role for
Foster was in 1999's Anna and the King, it didn't perform that well in Australia, or
anywhere for that matter, opening with a disappointing $0.6 million going on to finish with $4
million. Panic Room will certainly perform much better, already having previewed with
as much as King opened with. Foster is in a role that will connect with moviegoers,
especially adults, and looks to capture the same audience that has made A Beautiful Mind
a success. With the Russell Crowe film falling away after all the Oscar hype space has been
made for Panic Room to score a big opening. Foster and Fincher should both score the
largest opening of their careers with a secure $3 million this weekend.
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Delayed from its release date late last year in the U.S., the Guy Pearce starring The Time
Machine finally hits our screens five weeks after its U.S. release. Directed by Simon
Wells who happens to share more than just a name, is the grandson of the author of the original
novel, the famous H.G. Wells. The film focuses on a guy who travels around through time, of
course, after inventing a time machine, of course. Distributed by Dreamworks on the U.S.,
The Time Machine opened with a quite good $US22.6 million and has earned $US54 million
so far to become this years Mission To Mars in both box office performance and critical
reviews. The Time Machine has been crumbling week after week due to bad word of mouth
and will need more than its cinema release to turn a profit from its heafty $US80 million budget.
The picture of course stars Guy Pearce who in his last film scored acclaim with Memento
and will draw fans in this weekend just because he is a local boy. The theatre trailers and TV
spots have been fairly exciting and should keep people looking for a special effects buzz or
action high happy. The Time Machine will open far below Panic Room this weekend
and will find it hard to keep Ice Age from slipping to third. The Time Machine
may open with a sound $1.6 million this weekend.
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* Based on an index of 10/1 with currency, ticket prices, population and cinema visits per
head. |
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