Weekend 27th - 30th October 2005
Big things could have been expected from a movie titled Doom, and rightly so. As one of
the biggest selling, most reocognised and iconic video games in history, it makes basic sense that a devoted fan base
that gave the property it's hit statuts would support it at theatres, right? Well, of course video-game adaptations have
been flooding theatres over the last few years, and the taste left in mouths has rarely been far from sour. The best way
to battle that stigma is create a great film on its own merits, however it appears audiences found UIP/Universal's attempt
only adequetly savoury, as Doom opened with $1.46m. Good enough for the top position, it
looks at though that fan base overcame for its distibutor some of the most dismal reviews of the year, reviews that would
normally see other films open with less than $1m.
The Rock and Karl Urabn-starring flick which follows a group of marines who attempt to clean-out a research facility overrun by mutated subjects and scientists of genetic expariments gone wrong bowed on 187 screens, averaging a solid $7,818 from each. It's a fine opening weekend average, but how long will it last? The film tumbled like blind three-legged dog in its second weekend in the U.S., which doesn't bode well for its performance in Australia. Not to take away from its opening weekend just yet, it didn open on top afterall. Doom's opening weekend counts as the 36th-best for 2005, just ahead of the $1.40m of April's action flick Sahara. It also counts as the 25th-best for the month of October, behind last weekend's champ Pride and Prejudice which collected $1.47m but ahead of Road to Perdition's $1.41m. Bound by its nature, Doom will fall harder than either of those films, meaning a final total somewhat lower than Perdition's $4.80m. So how hard will it fall. Without question it'll be an impressive slump. In amongst one the hardest falls in second weekend history in the U.S., its U.S. figures have been similar to 2003's sci-fi abomination Star Trek: Nemesis. Doom was down by 73% in its second weekend in the U.S., while Trek was off 76%. In Australia the tenth Trek opened with $1.37m and closed with $3.22m. Distinctively it crumbled by 58% in its second frame here, somewhat kinder than the whipping it endured in the U.S. That, it is worth noting happened in February, which only with this time of year is one of the film calendar's slowest. Doom sees competition from the horror crowd this coming weekend with Wolf Creek, but chances of falling less than 60% are good. Saying that, the similarly themed Alien Vs. Predator lost 68% of its audience in Australia - the same as in the U.S. - and although it was a similar genre, it's great opening somewhat determined that large fall. Doom's opening is by no means 'great', so will its moderate opening result in a flow-on into weekend two or has the movie already spent all its good will? The opening for Doom topped the similar Resident Evil by a healthy 45% and the opening of its sequel Resident Evil: Apocalypse by 22%. Both films saw some eerily similar holding trends - most likely because its audience was made up of almost exactly the same group of patrons - and ended with respective final totals of $2.7m and $3m and opening to closing ratio's of 37% and 40%. AVP's ratio was 49%. For The Rock, the opening was down on the $2.19m launch of 2004's Welcome to the Jungle, which ended with $7.55m. Compared to the U.S. pace, Doom's Australian opening frame comes in a slight 6% down. That's not too bad considering the ratio of the film's mentioned above. in 2002 Resident Evil opened 43% down* while its poorly conceived sequel opened 48% behind*. Anderson's abortive pairing of the classic Alien and Predator properties opened 21% lower* here. That's some consolatory news for UIP on a film that should, could and would have done so much better had it been approached from an angle other than simply fooling the fans into believing it was a good way to spend their money. Given its higher launch, Doom looks set to shoot up over $3m in Australia but will most likely fall short of the $4m mark. Compared the results of the weekend forecast, Doom's $1.46m opening weekend came in 86% accurate against my $1.7m prediction. 
Taking second place was last weekend's top dog, the prim and proper Pride and
Prejudice. Long with Doom, the G-rated flick made it a one-two combo for ditributor UIP/Universal, who'll
be quite happy with the Keira Knightly-starring film's performance so far. The Jane Austen drama was largely unwilling to
give up much ground in its relationship with Australian audiences, off a quite tight 24%.
Collecting $1.12m, the film about a family of girls who run into the good fortune of some lads finally showing interest in them now has $3.73m. This total bring into position 50 on 2005's releases, passing the $3.42m of leggy Brit-flick Ladies In Lavender and is now poised to pass the $3.80m final of the Austen-inspired namesake Bride and Prejudice. Thanks to previews and its excellent second-weekend hold, Pride and Prejudice has been able to keep track with the all-star Closer, which like Pride enjoyed a few pre-opening weekend sales. After this weekend Pride and Prejudice is tracking less than 1% behind, up from the 5% smaller post-opening weekend margin of last weekend. However it's fallen a little further behind 3the strongly performing In Her Shoes, now 7% behind, out from last weekend's 3% smaller pace. Compared to rom-com fluff Kate and Leopold it's now tracking 15% ahead, up from last weekend's 13% better pace. 
Sony fell short of allowing The Exorcism of Emily Rose to acheive a
respectable opening in Australia, with their publicity efforts convincing only $0.94m worth of willing patrons. The film
about a trial of a preist who's actions during an exorcism are suspected of contributing to Emily Rose's death became the
eighth film to bow in the $0.9 - $1m range this year, somthing that didn't happen once last year or in 2001. Opening on
207 Screens, it was 20 more than its competitor Doom, although it averaged
over $3k less per screen at $4,539.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose was a very well reviewed film. It bowed in the U.S. with spectacular results, and although a few U.S. number 1's of 2005 have gone on to bomb due to distributor neglect - some of them rightly didn't deserve time or place - this film had potential. Now, although Emily Rose certainly didn't suffer through Boogeyman-type results, one has to ask why it performed worse comparatively* than Transporter 2 in Australia. That monkey vomit opened 58% down* in Australia, whilst compared to the U.S. pace, The Exorcism of Emily Rose has opened a hideous 69% down*. Incredible. Why. Was there something arwy with the advertising approach? Was there an advertising approach? Did Sony let two half-spastic guerillas handle their latest Australian release's campaign again? True, it's not the first horror film to open significantly down* in Australia this year, a decent effort was waged with The Amityville Horror and it opened 58% down*. As a slickly produced horror and a remake of a classic, it was destined to follow the lead set* by films like Dawn of the Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Each of these films sold themselves as feircely as possible on their horror elements and drew crowds to compliment that. Sony, like all responsible distributors, knows that that audience is limited. The aforementioned films define that audience quite concisely. What could have been done differently? What was done to set the film apart from recent horror films, and more importantly from recent dud films concerning exorcism? The Exorcism of Emily Rose holds as much in the way of drama as it does anything supernatural, modestly it should have performed more like a Hide and Seek ($1.65m) than a Final Destination 2 ($0.93m). Can the film turn around its opening misfortune and show some solid legs? Fox did well in April with good holds from Amityville after a similar opening of $1.00m, going on to collect $4m, while in 2001 Warner Bros.' The Exorcist: Director's Cut collected $3.42m all up after a $1.38m bow signifying soft holding power. Compared to my weekend forecast, Emily Rose's opening of $0.94m came in only 61% accurate to my $1.55m prediction. 
Scoring the third-best hold in the top ten and continuing its very solid run was the audience-pleasing flick
In Her Shoes. The Fox film has now gone on to brilliantly capitalise on the
promotional faith that was invested in the film, with a third weekend haul of $0.96m, off only 27%. It's current cume now
totals $5.42m.
In Her Shoes is now tracking 13% behind where Miss Congeniality 2 was after three weeks, up from the 19% defecit last weekend and the 14% smaller post-weekend one. In Her Shoes should looks to now have enough steam to eventually pass the final of the uneccessary Bullock sequel which finished with $8.1m in Australia. For formaliy's sake, Shoes is now standing 40% ahead of The Hours, on par with the 39% lead of last weekend. For Cameron Diaz, Shoes passed the total of The Sweetest Thing and has the $7.48m of Vanilla Sky on her list next. Currently it's tracking less than 1% behind her 2003 drama Gangs of New York, up from its 4% dearth last weekend. That too points to a final of somehwere around $8m. For Toni Collette, the weekend's takings lifted In Her Shoes to position five on her Australian chart, passing the $4.41m of her local hit Japanese Story and the $5.23m of 2000's Shaft. Compared to the U.S. pace, In Her Shoes is now tracking 107% ahead* in Australia, up from last weekend's 100% better* pace and the 62% better* first frame. The third weekend in Australia was the most profitable comparatively, up* a huge 141% on the U.S. third. The film was down by 36% in its third frame in the U.S. 
The 40 Year Old Virgin continued its charmed run, down only 32% in its
fourth weekend. It's difficult to peg exactly what the forces are behind its good holding power, immediately assuming
that since it held so well in the U.S. it's destined to do the same here night not be 100% true, especially considering
that almost every other significant film in the chart is pulling some pretty good weekly decline figures too. So it's
a question of high figures and fast burn through September or lower weekend results and good legs - a reflection of the
time of year and a distributor's gamble to release a film now and hope that customers speak well of it.
An $0.76m fourth weekend and $7.32m cumulative total isn't a blockbuster result, but it's one of the more solid showings of 2005, now ranking in position 26 for the year and set to keep rising as it looks for $10m. Currently it's tracking 19% behind Bewitched after four weeks, up from its 26% smaller pace last weekend and is now 1% ahead of Miss Congeniality 2 after last weekend's 1% defecit. However, compared to Dodgeball it's now 12% behind, out from the 7% smaller cume last weekend. Dodgeball didn't do anything extraordinarily bad from this point and wound up with $9.7m, that puts a dampener on Virgin's quest to be the 15th benchmark title of 2005. Compared to the U.S. pace, The 40 Year Old Virgin is now tracking 11% down* in Australia, down slightly on last weekend's 10% negative* margin. Although there still hasn't been a weekend where the film has seen a stronger frame in Australia than the U.S., this weekend was pretty close*, down* only 2%. A sight better than weekend three's 15% weaker* session, the 32% decline in Australia trumped the 42% post-holiday fourth weekend in the U.S. - Into The Blue - Wolf Creek - Cinderella Man - Must Love Dogs - Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit The top 20 films collected $ Last Year Shall We Dance Collateral Resident Evil: Apocalypse Two Years Ago Intolerable Cruelty Freddy Vs. Jason Weekend Coming 3rd - 6th October 2005 
Wolf Creek
Elizabethtown
* 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. |