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SUNDAY AM: Twentieth Century Fox’s The Day The Earth Stood Still opened to an excellent $11.5M Friday and $11.8M Saturday (+2%) and an estimated $7.6M for Sunday for a solid $31M weekend. IMAX accounted for 12.5% of the opening weekend gross with $3.8M from 123 screens. Internationally, the day-and-date release opened in 90 markets (but only 11 of the top 16) and made $39M. So that’s a worldwide total after its first weekend of $70M. However, rival studios tell me that the pic’s Cinemascore was the hard-to-achieve “C-” (when it’s rare to see anything below a “B”), with moviegoers over age 25 giving it a “D”. No wonder the PG-13 pic has only 21% positive reviews by top critics on Rotten Tomatoes, despite starring Keanu Reeves, and Oscar winners Jennifer Connelly and Kathy Bates. Since the sci-fi film has this weekend all to itself (after Will Smith’s Seven Pounds vacated the date), it had a veritable guarantee of getting past $30M if not a total stinker. For weeks now, this reimagining (no one ever calls it a remake anymore) of the 1951 black-and-white sci-fi classic had been tracking well. Encouraging, since Fox was running only 35% of its TV ad money at the time. There was “very strong” wanna-see with older males followed by younger males, even registering a solid “first choice”. On the other hand, there was virtually no female appeal. But the studio then spent 65% of its TV ad money over the last 8 days, and interest among gals picked up going into Friday’s release. 
The studio had other reasons to be bullish: it had 120 Imax runs, and 12:01 AM Friday plays in about 500 locations of its overall 3,560 theaters, and a day-and-date release into 90 overseas markets this weekend. So the pic should break the studio’s losing streak that began at the start of the summer. “Fantastic opening, better than we were looking for. We’re in for a great run because its $80M negative cost means a very profitable pic,” one Fox exec gushed. But the concensus in Hollywood is that The Day The Earth Stood Still is unlikely to get to a $100M box office lifetime domestically with all the competition coming up — including Fox’s own Marley And Me which is tracking like a blockbuster.
But the real news of the weekend is the Warner Bros’ opening of Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-buzzed Gran Torino Friday night in 6 theaters (3 in NY, 3 in LA). The drama grossed $75K Friday and $112.5K Saturday for a total $269.6K with the best per screen average — $47,340 — of all the weekend films. That’s TWICE as much as his Best Picture-winning Million Dollar Baby made on December 17, 2004 in the same theaters ($37,208 total, per screen average $6,201.) “Clint is the man!” a top Warner Bros exec gushed to me this morning. Also, the Miramax Oscar-touted Doubt opened with $525K this weekend and a giant per screen average on 15 screens of $35,002. Box office was driven by strong reviews, the quality of the ensemble cast including Meryle Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and a great marketing campaign. The exit polls were “very strong”, I hear.
In fact, all the smaller Oscar-touted pics in release already are doing remarkably well. Focus Features’ Oscar-buzzed Milk widened into 328 runs for a $2.6M weekend — good enough for 9th place — and a $7.6M cume. It experienced another strong weekend with a sizeable 58% bump from Friday to Saturday revealing “sustained, positive word of mouth”, according to the studio. Core houses are contributing 50% of the gross to the weekend total with the expansion markets strongest in smart-house/art-house and college markets. Imagine/Universal’s Week #2 limited release of Frost/Nixon made $630K at 39 theaters with a per theater average of $16,160. Its cume to date is $878K. Friday to Saturday saw a 70% increase demonstrating the film’s strong word of mouth, the best jump of any other adult choice this weekend. The pic will expand on Christmas Day into the top 100 markets (about 350 theaters) with a full wide break in January. And Fox Searchlight’s Slumdog Millionaire took in $2.2M this weekend from 169 runs for a new cume of $8M.
Two other films were released this weekend. Overture Films’ Latino-flavored Nothing Like The Holidays, with its unlikely pairing of Debra Messing and John Leguizamo, opened No. 7 in 1,671 venues which don’t necessarily need another dysfunctional family laugher when Four Christmases is still in cineplexes. Formerly titled Humboldt Park, the PG-13 pic debuted with $3.5M for the weekend. And Fathom Studios’ children fantasy toon Delgo released by Freestyle into 2,160 dates missed the Top 10 entirely and opened to an abysmal $465K weekend.
As for the holdovers, 2nd place went to Warner Bros’ Four Christmases (3,540 theaters) which has good hold with a $13.2M weekend and new cume of $87.9M. Hanging on for No. 3 was Summit Entertainment’s Twilight (3,649) in week #4. It made $8M over the weekend playing in 3,649 theaters for a new cume of $150.1M. Disney’s Bolt (3,133) was #4 and added another $7.5 million this weekend — helped by an original Pixar short for Cars — for a new cume of $88.8M. No. 5 went to 20th Century Fox’s Australia (2,703) epic which earned $4.2M for a new cume of $37.8M. MGM/Sony’s latest Bond actioner Quantum Of Solace (2,635) took in $3.8M this weekend an 6th place for a fresh cume of $157.6M. in #8, DreamWorks’ sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2,768) made $3.2 million this weekend for a huge new cume of $170M. And, rounding out the Top 10, Lionsgate’s Transporter 3 (2,541) made $2.2M this weekend for a new cume of $29.2M.
For more estimates listed by title, see box office results here...Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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I saw the movie and I actually wished I could have my money back. I was expecting action and I what I got was a 2 hours of drivel that put me to sleep. The main theme repeated over and over was about how we are killing the planet. We’ve gone from worrying about killing each other in the 50′s to killing our plant’s in the 21 century as our chief concern… Stay home do not watch this film unless you are Al Gore.
It is just another “Hollywood Humanity Hater” film. I’m sick of these elitist kinds of movies.
just another hollywood commerical on how bad the white male is and his progresses in society, 2hr. long infomercial on global warming, acting was fake, whole theme of the movie was anti-american, otherwise another typical liberal hollywood were doomed movie!
The original has always been one of my favorite sci-fi movies. So i was ready to trash this…especially since I am not a Keanu Reeves fan.
They stayed fairly true to the original characters and to some of the scenarios (professor Barnhart) so i was actually ready to give it a positive spin. BBUUUTTTT WTF was up with the ending?? Hated the ending..killed the vibe for me.
One of the best parts of the original was Michael Rennie’s speech at the end when he had everyones attention and said..”hey, if ya dont shape up…we’re gonna come down here and f*** ya up real bad.
So i wanted to see how they handled the speech at the end and it never came.
I liked the idea of the ‘Ark’ scenes though and savin the animals.
Nikki,
You’re my million dollar baby…you do fine!!!
it was good to see that guy from Mad Men in Day the Earth Stood Still. It was a small part though but that dude is cool. I could see him as a George Clooney type star.
I saw the Day the Earth Stood Still yesterday. For me,it stood still for almost two hours because that’s about how long this turkey is. What’s wrong with it? Uh, the question is what’s right with it. Drink a cup of coffee and take a barf bag with you when you go. If you like left wing environmental propaganda or you are an Earth First member you will love this movie. If not,then just go to Lowe’s buy a hammer and hit yourself in the head until you have a tremendous headache. About the same cost and about the same result.
Haven’t seen “Gran Torino” yet (it’s not out yet in most cities), but “Changeling” was indeed superb.
Poor you, Lefty, having to live in a country with all us dim bulbs. The heart bleeds.
Anyway, if I went to “TDTESS” (and I’ll actually probably wait till it’s on Netflix), it would be for Kyle Chandler. Keanu who?
Day The Earth Stood Still (C- rating) vs. Milk (good rating, but yuk). No brainer, watching even the poorest of acting beats out Milk any day! However, watching gays waste their money is a good time. Homophobic you say? –damn straight, get away from my children fruit people.
They totally turned the story into “evil humans on the brink of destroying the planet earth get last minute redemption from Christ-like Klaatu”.
The original movie was anti-war and was a little preachy in it’s message that we were becoming a danger to the rest of the peaceful universe, but this one has changed the message to how stupid and dangerous humans are to plants and animals and our mother planet and we deserve to die for it.
Spoilers:
Mankind has been judged and found wanting, so Klaatu is sent to earth, “born” as a human, in a sort of virgin birth (right at Christmas time) with the attendant wise men, is hunted by the government, sentenced to die, raises a man from the dead, walks on water, takes the death sentence punishment intended for the sinners onto himself (literally into himself), sacrifices his life to save mankind and then rises into heaven. And we know he’ll be back to judge us if we go astray.
Far superior to the silly robot in a silver jumper original. I loved the glowing globes, the enormous Gort, Reeves as Klaatu, and the message. Earth doesn’t belong to us.
I recently watched the original 1951 movie. Who could possibly say this re-imaging is inferior? I loved the glowing globes, the enormous Gort, Reeves as Klaatu, and the message. Earth does not belong to us. Was the 1951 movie sci-fi’s “Citizen Kane”?
Would today’s audience accept a male alien hanging out with a boy without the mother present? I knew the new version would have to correct that. And the classic line? Only the star of the movie could deliver the iconic “Klaatu barada nikto”. It’s as if the house maid had said, “Frankly, Scarlett, I don’t give a damn.”
(Pay attention since it’s easy to miss. It is not done as an “I’ll be back” moment. Klaatu says the line to Gort after he is wounded.)
I saw “DESS” in Imax and I will see it again. If you think Keanu Reeves is a little “stiff” as Klaatu, was Michael Rennie any more expressive? Klaatu is an alien without Earth-based emotions. And he’s serious about his mission.
If you don’t know the story, here goes a brief summary. Glowing huge globes suddenly land all over Earth. The U.S. one lands in New York’s Central Park! An alien alights from the glowing globe and is immediately shot at. This confirms that humans are hostile, violent beings.
The alien, Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), is protected by an enormous robot nicknamed “Gort” by the military. The military wants to destroy Gort, kill Klaatu and not bother asking any questions. Klaatu is merely injured and is sent to a military hospital where he meets astrobiologist Helen (Jennifer Connelly). Helen helps Klaatu escape. He meets an old friend slumming as a human.
The glowing globes cause mass riots, food famines, and everybody is jumping into the Express-to-Hell handbasket with their looted flat screen TVs.
In 1994 I conducted THE ALEXANDER UFO RELIGIOUS CRISIS SURVEY: THE IMPACT OF UFOS AND THEIR OCCUPANTS ON RELIGION for The Bigelow Foundation. The abstract states: The Alexander UFO Religious Crisis survey addresses just one of many problems facing the UFO Community: how would organized religions in the United States react to confirmation of contact with an advanced extraterrestrial civilization.
The results of this pilot survey are straightforward and remarkably simple. The theologians surveyed would not feel their faith and the faith of their congregation would be threatened. The following results, based upon a 23% return (230 surveys) should have a significant and meaningful impact on the UFO Community, its doctrines and attitudes. http://www.nidsci.org/articles/alexander/survey_religion.html
Helen is mother to peeved, nasty stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith, whose family needs his salary). Helen’s husband and Jacob’s father was killed in the Iraq War. Klaatu realizes that Earth’s humans are still hell-bent on war and destruction.
Klaatu is not here to save us but the planet. He wants one simple thing. He wants to address the United Nations. But stiff-necked, anal-retentive Secretary of Defense Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates) is unimpressed with having a visitor from a highly advanced planet as her guest. She tells Klaatu that to have him speak to the U.N. is absurd. And since no world leaders, the press, and public are not interested in him, when he escapes, Jackson uses the red phone. Arrest the illegal alien and destroy Gort with fire power and/or nuclear weapons. Whatever it takes.
Klaatu needs help getting around without money, so Helen (along with angry Jacob) takes him to meet Professor Barnhardt (John Cleese). When Klaatu fixes a complex mathematical problem for Bardhardt, he has the Nobel winner’s complete attention. But the professor doesn’t know anyone who will help Klaatu with his mission. He doesn’t even pull out a digital camera to memorialize the visit.
With no one listening to Klaatu, the planet’s humans are on course to be destroyed. The clock is ticking and no one cares.
“DESS” is directed by Scott Derrickson. I like the added dimensions and explanations that were added to the simplistic original. The feel is much more intense (then the original) and flows with an ominous note.
Visual effects supervisor Jeff Okun has given “DESS” a sinister look and alien-like texture. In fact, the visual effects are really outstanding. I especially liked GORT. And Reeves’s performance? Yes, it was tough to match Michael Rennie’s suave, smiling alien on a mission. Reeves’s Klaatu is far more menacing and goal-oriented. Jaden Smith’s role, as written, makes him an annoying, disrespectful kid. With Jacob’s behavior, I could easily see him joining Hitler’s Youth and snitching on his parents.
This movie sucks big floppy donkey dong, it Al Gore’s movie repackaged as a scifi flick! I’m so pissed off because the original was a dated but very good flick with a lot of potential.
Saw THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL last night and, sorry to say, it’s another stinker for Fox. Keanu playing an emotionless alien matches his wooden acting style precisely. Oscar winners Connelly and Bates were wasted as was Jon Hamm. Avoid.
On the other hand, I also caught MILK, which is first rate, with great performances from Penn, Brolin, etc.
This is just another eco-cult blast movie against humanity for destroying the planet. Al Gore will like it a lot. As propaganda, this movie couldn’t be better. If you think Al Gore is the greatest thing since sliced bread, you will like this movie. Please, see it.
Stupid ass movie. It sucked. It should be called the Barack Obama movie……….people of the earth suck and we can change….change….change. Keep the change!!!
The move “The Day Hollywood Stood Againt America” should be the title. Could have been a good movie if it wasnt for all the jabs about how terrable america is and how we have all ruin the world. It was stupid, ruined movie with no real ending.
My wife and I had planned to see this movie. But after reading that the movie plot was going to revolve around a preachy global warning theme, we have changed our minds. I’m tired of indoctrination movies. I go to the movies for escapist fun, not to be lectured.
This is the worst movie I have seen in 10 years. What a preachy piece of sh//!
The Day the Earth Stood Still? Was the day this movie was released> Dead on arrival> Lame! No way does it compare with original! Even beautiful Jennifer Connelly, can not bring any light nor hope to this terrible rewrite of the original screenplay? This remake was a big mistake!
The problem with this movie and why Hollywood really can’t make films that are either good or money-makers (most good films actually make money) is the social distance between Hollywood and the audience.
Hollywood is made up of clueless, socially isolated, fabulously wealthy, status-striving Yuppies. Who love nothing better than lecturing their social inferiors about how evil, racist, sexist, anti-environmental, and so on they are compared to the predestined “Saved” of Hollywood.
GRAN TORINO, DAY, it doesn’t matter, Hollywood is in the mood to lecture their social inferiors on how cool and better Hollywood really is.
The original DAY worked because people were afraid of being blown apart by global nuclear war. The original’s “Peace at any Price” theme worked well among nuclear war fears. By contrast, only rich Hollywood celebrities care about Global Warming and the Earth getting a degree hotter by century’s end.
Certainly not in a deep recession.
I’d love to see a fun movie. I don’t want a lecture on how evil and racist I am, and how much I “need” someone non-White to “redeem” me spiritually. Nor do I need a lecture on how “evil” I am for living my life from a bunch of private-jet, limo, and mansion dwelling celebrities. How much carbon did DAY require to make?
I saw TDTESS last night. The movie wasn’t too bad (I kind of enjoyed it), but I was really ticked off at how the whole thing turned out to be a silly global warming message. LAME!
I like Keanu and Conelly is/was beautiful, but this is a bad, bad movie. It’s annoying and preachy.
There are some people on this planet worse than rich, sanctimonious enviros … but not many.
The message is pretty hard-core humanity-hatred. Environmentalism is just a sick, twisted religion these days.
Saw TDTSS saturday afternoon, in a small casino bingo room at the Saddle West Casino in Pahrump, Nevada. No we don’t have a big screen movie theater in this community. The 20 or so people that were there for the afternoon showing were all over 50, so most like me were hoping that some of the original movie would show up in this one. Enough of the story line came thru, and maybe the story was more enviromental, but hey this is the news of the day, not WWIII as indicated in the first one. Keanu did alright as the emotionless Klatuu, but I would rate the movie a so-so maybe a c+.
The great twist of irony? THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, being called liberal propaganda et cetera et cetera, is a product of Fox. Delicious how idiotic you folks are.