Weekend 24th - 27th February 2005
Keanu Reeves gave the box office some much needed juice over the weekend, as Constantine, his new heaven vs. hell
themed thriller opened to impressive numbers. Easily taking the honours for the largest opening weekend of the year so
far, the Rachael Weisz co-starring film which is based on the comic Hellblazer opened to $2.98m over the weekend.
The launch on 289 screens was the largest count for a new opener this year, while its $10,336 opening average was also
the best, pipping out Closer's $10,252 opening average. As far as the opening weekend goes, it was the second best
launch ever in the month of February, behind the $4.24m of 2001's Hannibal and just ahead of the $2.98m of last
year's other heaven vs. hell tale, The Passion of The Christ.
Constantine's opening weekend counts as the 106th best in Australia, a few notches ahead of its 139th best launch in the U.S. It's an opening that reflective of the $3.04m launch of last year's Alien Vs. Predator. That piece of shit crumbled quickly as expected, ending up with $6.10m. Constantine will be hoping for more than that, but if the U.S. precedent in anything to go by, then Constantine's life span will be short in Australia too, especially with Hitch opening this weekend. For Reeves, Constantine was actually his best opening to date outside of the Matrix series. The opening for Constantine is also similar to the $3.08m of 2003's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Although it suffered through some bad reaction, the Connery-starring flick eventually earned a respectable $8.04m in Australia. It happens from time to time, compared to the U.S. pace Constantine's launch was very much right on par* with the U.S. launch. Although super-natural themed films and comic-book movies don't do as well historically in Australia, it could be said that Keanu's star power compensated for that. Constantine has proven to have little staying power, reflecting the trends of comic book and horror films to fall quickly. It'll reflect 
The Aviator
Bride and Prejudice
Spanglish
Million Dollar Baby
The top 20 films collected $8.21 million over the weekend, down just 0.2% from last weekend and down 12.4% on this weekend last year when Mona Lisa Smile opened on top with a surprising $2.04 million, ahead of another surprise; a $1.15 million second weekend from Stuck On You, down only 28%. The weekend was down 19.8% on this weekend from two years ago when Just Married opened on top with a great $2.38 million, pushing Gangs of New York down to third in its second lap with $1.33 million, while Chicago rose 17% to remain in second place with $1.46 million. Weekend Coming 3rd - 6th March 2005 
Just one week after Keanu injected some much needed fuel into the Australian market, Will Smith steps out to sow up another
record 2005 opening with his romantic comedy Hitch. Co-starring Eva Mendez, the Andy Tennant (Sweet Home
Alabama, Ever After) directed flick tells the story of Alex Hitchens, a specialist for guys who are in need of
advice on relationships. Although he's good at at what he does, the expert finds that following his own advice isn't as
easy as he thought when the right woman steps onto the scene.
Released in the U.S. three weeks ago, Hitch has already become the biggest film of 2005 in the U.S. and the first to cross the $US100m mark. Tracking at $US124m, the $US70m film has held extremely well, off only 27% from its $US43m opening weekend. For Smith, the opening of Hitch marks his fifth $US40m-plus opening in a row, after successful campaigns with MIB II ($US52.1m), Bad Boys II ($US46.5m), I, Robot ($US52.2m) and Shark Tale ($US47.6m). Although Hitch's opening is a touch below them, the holding power that this film is seeing means to could be the only film of them to eventually reach $US200m, while passing the $US190.4m of MIB II is looking solid. In Australia, Hitch arrives hoping to re-write Constantine's week-old record for the highest opening of 2005. Opening weekends have been rather slow so far this year, in contrast to what has been a Jan and Feb free for all in the U.S. with six films having opened over $US20 million. Hitch will have no problem becoming the second film to generate more than $2m, but how high can it open? Only three films have ever opened over $3 million in March before, with the comedy Miss Congeniality having done the best with its $4.31m from 2001. It doesn't matter that romantic comedies are a new field for Smith; The U.S. strength of the film proves that. Will Hitch resemble the $3.06m opening of 2003's Bad Boys II, or the $4.63m of last year's I, Robot? Hitch should stich up at least $3.8m this weekend with a good chance of going higher. * Based on a US index of 10/1 with currency, ticket prices, population and cinema visits per head. ^ Based on a UK index of 2.1/1 with currency, ticket prices, population and cinema visits per head. |