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SUNDAY AM: Even though they’re getting a divorce after two dysfunctional years, Steven Spielberg and Paramount have still had a successful marriage with films starring Shia LaBoeuf, including Disturbia, Transformers and Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. (I suspect DreamWorks and Paramount will work out joint custody of the 22-year-old action star…) Now Shia is in another of their joint PG-13 thrillers, newcomer Eagle Eye, which wound up the #1 pic in North America this weekend with $9.8 million Friday and $12.3 million Saturday from 3,510 theaters for a $29.2M FSS. It was the 4th best September opening of all time. Even so, studios felt the U.S. presidential debate dampened Friday’s box office with young and older males, but numbers bumped up 25% for Saturday. (Paired with the film was the new trailer for Tom Cruise’s Nazi Christmas movie Valkyrie, and UA/MGM boasted to me that it ”killed”.)
After a heavy TV marketing campaign, Warner Bros’ mature romantic tearjerker based on the Nicholas Sparks novel Nights In Rodanthe starring Diane Lane and Richard Gere opened surpisingly well. It was No. 2 with $4.7 million Friday and $5.5 million Saturday considering it was only playing in 2,704 venues. Its weekend was $13.5M thanks to the older female quadrant which studios are now starting to recognize and respect. Holdover Lakeview Terrace from Screen Gems/Sony grabbed the #3 spot with a $2.0M Friday and $3.3M Saturday for a $7M weekend and new $25.7M cume.
A big surprise at the box office this weekend was the 4th place opening of Provident/Samuel Goldwyn’s Fireproof, the small budget and limited release pic about a firefighter who recommits to his marriage and his faith. The movie is the latest from Sherwood Pictures, a nonprofit ministry of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, that previously put out the popular Facing the Giants and the lesser-known Flywheel. 
Samuel Goldwyn Films is the theatrical distributor, while Provident Films handled Fireproof‘s outreach and marketing to Christian audiences. It debuted to a $2.3M Friday and $2.6M Saturday for a $6.5M gross weekend though released into only 839 dates and costing just $500K. The reason why is that the pic used grassroots methods to directly reach evangelical churches and target Christian audiences to go see the PG film starring the grown-up TV child star of Growing Pains, Kirk Cameron. (The ultra-religious actor claims he donated his pay to a camp for seriously ill kids he runs with his wife.) It had the year’s highest grossing opening weekend return of any film (except 3-D Hannah Montana) released on 1,000 screens or less. Faithbased “Action Squads” bought up blocks of tickets. “Just between you and me, keep your eye on the Fireproof per screen averages this weekend,” a source at Grace Hill Media, which markets to the religious community but wasn’t involved with this movie, tipped me. “On Sunday, I think there will be some distribution execs around town who will be asking ‘What the hell is Fireproof?’ ” That’s exactly what the studios did. But what’s interesting about the pic’s success is that not all Christian-themed movies do well: in fact, most don’t, especially those made by the majors trying to cash in on Mel Gibson’s blockbuster The Passion Of The Christ. Hollywood still can’t figure out what works and what doesn’t for faith-based audiences. Today, Fireproof is still going strong with advance ticket sales, accounting for the largest share — 22% — of all sold, according to big online ticketseller Fandango.com. “Because of the sold-out screenings and strong word-of-mouth, we expect next weekend’s ticket sales for this movie will be equally healthy,” 
spokesman Harry Medved told me.
Burn After Reading from Focus Pictures snuck in at #5 with $1.6M Friday and a $3M Saturday for a $6.1M weekend. No. 6 Igor from Exodus Film Group/MGM experienced a minimal 2nd week drop of only 30%. Three R-rated new movies also opened in limited release, including Spike Lee’s drama about black soldiers who fought in World War II, The Miracle Of St. Anne. The director’s attempt to repudiate Clint Eastwood came in No. 9 for the weekend with $965K Friday, and $1.5M Saturday, for a $3.5M weekend. Lionsgate’s The Lucky Ones about returning Iraq war vets Tim Robbins and Rachel McAdams and Michael Pena made $142K from 459 theaters this weekend. And Fox Searchlight’s dark comedy Choke with Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston took in $1.3M from 434 venues. The weekend will total over $93.7M, which is +10% over last year’s.
1. Eagle Eye (DreamWorks/Paramount) NEW [3,510 theaters], wkd $29.2M
2. Nights In Rodanthe (Warner Bros) NEW [2,704], wkd $13.5M
3. Lakeview Terrace (Screen Gems/Sony) Friday [2,467], wkd $7M, cume $25.7M
4. Fireproof (Provident/Samuel Goldwyn) NEW [839], wkd $6.5M
5. Burn After Reading (Focus Features) [2,649], wkd $6.1M, cume $45.5M
6. Igor (Exodus/MGM) [2,341], wkd $5.5M, cume $14.3M
7 Righteous Kill (Overture) [3,011], wkd est $3.8M, cume $34.8M
8. My Best Friends Girl (Lionsgate) [2,636], wkd $3.8M, cume $14.5M
9. Miracle at St Anna (Touchstone/BV) NEW [1,185], wkd $3.5M
10. Tyler Perry’s Family That Preys (Lionsgate) [2,642], wkd est $3.1M, cume $32.8M
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Shia recently said that he knows he’s been lucky and said Indy and Transformers obviously would have been just as successful without him.
If Spike Lee’s film is great, people will see it. Truly great films usually find an audience. Sadly, shit films too often make money, but that’s Hollywood for you. But if a great film is made, people will come.
Yes ddog, this is very bad for The Dark Knight and it is now a huge bomb.
When the country is at war, movies about any kind of war don’t fare well. It’s not like it was during WWII and the Korean war when the war movies were made to inspire patriotism. I’m surprised anyone is greenlighting any kind of film dealing with the subject. With all that’s going on, the public wants to escape when they go to the movies. That’s why mindless fare such as Eagle Eye does well. Hopefully Spike’s next “pure entertainment” project will be more successful.
I like Kirk Cameron and I plan on seeing his movie.
I am not religious but am not SCARED to go see a religious movie..It had almost no press ( I didn’t know it was out till yesterday)
But to slam Kirk Cameron because he is religious serves no purpose but to show how small minded some people are. I am glad it did well.
I also agree that Nicholas Sparks novel Nights In Rodanthe helped get people into the theater.
Since the reviews of the movie were horrible.
I don’t think the debates hurt boxoffice since most people have the ability to tape the shows on TV they want to see.
ps Hollywood has a HISTORY of being racist and as far as Gays they would not have to be in the closest if they were not afraid of not getting jobs by the people in power who give money to liberal causes so as to give them cover. Hollywood is a sexist town and always will be.
Conservative/liberal, Christian/agnostic – whatever. Making movies is a business and for a business to succeeed you have to budget intelligently and market strategically. Last week, I never heard of Fireproof and saw a few dozen trailers for Eagle Eye. But Fireproof cost a half a million and made six and a half million. Eagle Eye cost 80 million and made 25 million. As a business person that makes me stand up and take notice – and as a movie goer it makes me want to take a look. And if some people are supposed to ignore what Bill Mahar and Tim Robbins and Spike Lee say and go see their movies anyway, the same should go for Cameron – when you sell a movie, Christian dollars are as good as anyone else’s, right?
Re: the performance of MIRACLE AT ST ANNA at the box office. If you consider
1) It is an R-rated film & therefore available to be seen by a smaller audience.
2) At two hours and forty minutes, theatres could show less screenings of the film per day. Spike has a problem editing himself, in public and on the screen, but this was still shorter than other war epics like Schindler’s List & Saving Private Ryan and only a few minutes longer than Flags of Our Father.
3) Miracle was shown on less than half of the screens compared to all of the other films in the TOP TEN (with the exception of FIREPROOF, which is the true winner for the week) and still came in at #9.
While Eagle Eye, since it is an action thriller, will be expected do well internationally, it is left to be seen if overseas audiences will support a film about black WWII soldiers in Europe and how it will perform (if at all). But at $45 million, Miracle cost less than half of the money Eagle Eye was made for & had much less P&A. All things being equal, when you can pump multiple screenings of a 2 hour or less film onto 2400-3500 screens, you have greater chances for a higher box office compared to a two & a half hour, R-rated film on 1100 screens.
Rather than be gleeful at Miracle’s success or failure, the real story is FIREPROOF, a film made for less than a million dollars (half a million according to some reports!) than was able to make over $6 million a little more than 800 screens. Forget the Hollywood elite, Jewish versus Black. It’s the oft ignored Christian audience who showing they can drive the box office. Let’s be honest, in the hands of any other producer FIREPROOF would have been a tv movie on the Hallmark Channel. Instead it ends up in the Top 5, showing up the likes of Spike Lee, Al Pacino, & Robert De Niro & out-performing films with 100+ times its budget per screen!
People associate Spike Lee with “downer” movies. Right now, with the economic crisis, America is already in a bad mood. They’re not going to waste $10 on a preachy Spike Lee movie. ( I haven’t seen Miracle, but aren’t all Spike Lee movies preachy?)- I admit I’m not a fan of Spike Lee, and I certainly have no experience in the movies, but here’s my advice for Spike: he should make an uplifting/”happy” film for his next movie. And for Pete’s sake, don’t pick a fight with a Hollywood icon like Clint Eastwood b4 the release!
Kyle- are you kidding me with the Hollywood is racist theme? Barbra Streisand just headlined a million dollar campaign event for him. David Geffen kneecapped the Clintons in primary season in favor of Obama. Come on!
“Will Smith,who would rather be cast with a white or hispanic love interest in his movies”
Maybe Smith is just trying to act with the best actresses or those who fit their roles the best. It’s called color-blind casting. had smith been cast with only African-American costars, that would be racism.
Maybe Eagle Eye’s number were down because it was announced on Tuesday Sept 23rd that the film will be released on DvD and Blu-ray on December 16, 2008. That’s why I sat home instead of going to see Eagle Eye. It’s coming out in 2 and a half months. Why spend $10-25 now when in 2 months I can spend the same and watch it in the comfort of my home, and without the teenagers talking on their cell phones the entire movie
Next time we complain that Hollywood doesn’t make enough good mid-budget movies, and keeps swinging for the fences with crap, please direct yourself to the box office of “Ghost Town.” Despite good reviews, it is out of the top ten it was barely in after only a week.
Maybe the problem isn’t so much Hollywood as it is us.*
*us = you personally
Wow Mrcommonsense, you actually would rather hire someone based on ethnicity and not experience. THAT is why Hollywood is going right into the toilet folks. You heard it here first, “I ALWAYS try to favor minorities and veterans, blah, blah, blah.” Did you just throw in that part about the veterans so the reast of us would chastise you?
Oops (so the rest of us wouldn’t chastise you)