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SUNDAY AM: For most people, this week's stock market fall and rise was enough of a thrill ride. So I thought North American moviegoers would crave fresh comedy by Friday. Nope. They wanted even more suspense, so they turned out for Sony's PG-13 suspense film Lakeview Terrace [in 2,464 theaters] directed by Neil LaBute and starring Samuel L. Jackson. The No. 1 pic opened to so-so reviews but made $5.1 million Friday and $6.5 million (+27%) Saturday for a better-than-expected $15.6M debut weekend. Then again, LaBute has a widening reputation for unusual psychological films. Sony claims Overbrook Entertainment (Will Smith and James Lassiter’s production company) brought in the movie for just $20M. Focus Features' political spoof Burn After Reading [2,657], starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, held on to more than half its audience from a week ago (-47%) for the 2nd spot. It took in $3.4 million Friday and $4.6 million Saturday to score a $11.2M weekend and new cume of $36.4M. But Lionsgate's R-rated (for racy and rotten) My Best Friend's Girl [2,604]really fell apart at the box office. It opened #3, but what was supposed to be a weekend total in the mid-teens collapsed to just $8.3M. I'm now waiting for Hollywood to realize that Dane Cook is not a movie star. (In fact, a weekly MovieTickets.com poll showed that 37% of its filmgoers thought Cook should stick to stand-up comedy, while 36% believed he should keep acting. I say send him back on that HBO bus tour.)
No. 4 was newcomer Igor [2,339], the Exodus Family Group toon. Distributor MGM had only expected a $6 million opening, not the $8 million it earned. But there also hasn't been much new at the cineplex for the kids in a while. Despite playing in only 2,070 theaters, Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys almost tied for #5 with Overture's Righteous Kill which had 3,152 more dates: they earned $7.5 million to $7.7 million weekends and close cumes of $28.3M and $28.8M respectively. (I wonder how Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino feel about Tyler Perry' scoring the better per screen average.)
So let's now talk about The Women, that low-budget Picturehouse chick flick which would have come and gone if Warner Bros hadn't heard my plea to give it a wider release and target older females. It's hard for me to be objective, but after last weekend's $10M bow although critics mugged it, an insider told me Warner Bros was "very pleased with the solid opening against very strong competition" especially considering the pic's negative cost was only $16.5M. As a studio source echoed, "Glad we made the right call..." This weekend, The Women [2,995] came in No. 7 with a $5.3 million weekend and the second-best hold. It's new cume is $19.2M.
In 8th place, the Spyglass/DreamWorks/Paramount death-obsessed romantic comedy Ghost Town starring Ricky Gervais and directed by David Koepp was playing in only 1,505 theaters so its $5.1 million opening is mitigated. I don't agree with rival studios describing it as DOA despite good reviews. But a DW insider says the $20M film could make it up internationally. Warner Bros' The Dark Knight [1,905] finished the weekend #9 with $2.9M and a fat new cume of $521.9M. And Sony's The House Bunny [2,675] just keeps going, and going, eking out another $2.8M weekend and new cume of $45.7M.
Overall, it was a slow weekend box office, ending with $93 million total, down -4.19% from $97 million last year.
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Many people were wiped out financially because of the greedy and incompetent assholes so what makes you think people would be running enmass to a movie theater to flush more of their hard-earned money down the toilet?
In addition to Dane Cook, why do producers keep putting Kate Hudson in films? She reeks of box office poison. Is she really that beautiful and glamorous that movie-goers will overlook her horrible acting skills? I, for one, don’t see it.
Crystal…
If history is any evidence, the current difficulties are exactly why people go to flush their money down the toilet… they want to feel better and get away for a little while. And this isn’t just current history – it’s the history of human civ… checkitout at your local library (then again, don’t go there… you have the internet where you can bitch to your heart’s content).
Sometimes I don’t know which is worse… the “Greedy and incompetent assholes” or the “bitter, nay-saying douchebags”.
I guess we’ll just ignore the 25+ million WB had to sink in the marketing of THE WOMEN to get a “hit”. And it’s not like WB gets all of the 19 million it’s taken so far. The theater distributors get half as well.
I swear Nikki, if this was any other movie, you’d never be trumpeting it like this. This movie got reviews as bad as MY BEST FRIEND’S GIRL but I’m sure we’ll never hear you admit that.
C’mon, The Women is not a hit. Not by any stretch of the imagination. And if you think the movie’s negative cost was only 16 million–well, it wasn’t. These women may have done trick deals, but there are perks they will not step onto a set without–hair and make-up, costume design. One cannot make a union pic with major names for that price. Not possible and you know that!
Crystal: They usually do. Film, as we know it, was born from the great depression.
Also… is the Lakeview Terrace one sheet possibly one of the worst in recent memory? Ughh…
While I do believe critics unfairly panned the Sex and the City movie (really? SatC gets a 51% on RT and Indiana Jones 4 gets a 77%? REALLY?) the near-universal panning of The Women was completely justified.
I went to a showing with a friend who I went to SatC with this weekend at The Landmark. First of all, the majority of the crowd was over 65 (and they found a number of dull things someone hilarious). Second of all… the movie is a whirlwind of shoes, bad outfits, bad dialogue, and bad plotting. In fact, bad might be too positive an adjective.
I wanted to like it.
I loved SatC.
But for all those major actresses with big roles, the only one who brought anything resembling her B-game to The Women was Meg Ryan (and where has she been the last 5 years or so?)
And while I do get that the “there are absolutely no men in the movie, even extras” was practically the point… it just drew the movie straight out of reality.
I do hope Hollywood churns out more female-targeting, female-starring films in the future. But they need to be more like SatC and less like The Women.
I thought the trailer for “Ghost Town” was racist. The one where the “Big, Scary Black Guy”, comes bursting through the door to scare poor little Ricky Gervais? Why is this no name foreign, HBO guy getting to make a movie which is a rip off of about 5 other movies? Pacino, DeNiro, Kinnear, Dane Cook, Tea Leoni!!! These are NOT movie stars any more. Tyler Perry by all definitions is. His films should be treated to wider openings. The advertising is getting better, but Hollywood needs to wake up to the fact that minorities are the only ones who can save them and treat movies with minority actors better. Lakeview Terrace and Tyler Perry’s movie could have been #1 and #2.
Dane Cook was too much, too soon. Hollywood treated him like the 2nd coming of Jim Carrey. Even top draws like Will Ferrell & Vince Vaughn had to play 2nd banana before being gambled on as a lead. Cook never earned movie-headlining status, and as a result, he failed to attract an audience to all these Owen Wilson-rejected scripts like My Best Friend’s Girl and Good Luck Chuck.
Expect Dane Cook to be up-for-grabs during pilot season, because the film industry isn’t having him.
I saw Ghost Town today. Aside from the terrible title it was funny and actually poignant, which was a very pleasant surprise. I can only hope word of mouth will help as it deserves an audience. It was the perfect tonic after watching our reckless economic policies come home to roost this week.
Peggy brings up a good point. By all means, Hollywood should’ve been kissing Tyler Perry’s ass 3 years ago. He’s not my cup of tea, but he’s been consistent to his audience.
Why hasn’t he been given bigger budgets to work with, or at least afford bigger stars. There’s no excuse for Tyler Perry not being given the capital to work with someone like Denzel Washington or Will Smith.
Hell, a Tyler Perry-directed Will Smith drama could probably win an Oscar (as long as there’s no man-in-drag shenanigans.)
The fact that Lakeview Terrace and The Family That Preys aren’t one two is because they’re sub par at best, not because of racism.
Tyler Perry winning an Oscar? You could throw Morgan Freeman, Laurence Fishburn, and hell Sidney Poitier at him and he’d still resort to the same old song and dance. I’m tired of people trying idolize the guy like some new Spike Lee, as a black American, all of his movies just depress me. Maybe if he came up with a script that didn’t feed off of black stereotypes for cheap laughs and used his popularity amongst his target audience to actually say something of value for once, the studios would take him seriously. But no, instead of maybe doing something positive he continues to pump out Madea movies. Even when he goes for drama, it’s the tired old, “You’re white, I’m black, we sure are different, but still we have a lot in common” story. Quit making race the subject of your movies loser! The man is taking steps backwards, thank God he doesn’t have bigger budgets and better marketing.
Since we’re out of blockbuster season, it’s easy to see what went on this weekend. This is basically the date audience who went out to the movies.
The younger folks went to Lakeview Terrace. It’s a familiar story promising some thrills. The older couples and film enthusiasts went to see Burn After Reading. Single females probably went to see My Best Friend’s Girl. Families went to Igor. Tyler Perry draws the minority audience, but he’s becoming a crossover director. Righteous Kill attracted older men who remember De Niro’s and Pacino’s better days. The Women apparently attracted older women who saw the original movie or read the book.
The big loser is Ghost Town that apparently only connected with Ricky Gervais fans. I think the marketing failed. There weren’t any funny scenes in the TV ads, and it looked like every other ghost movie since Ghost. We’ve seen it before. The studio didn’t even promote the fact that Greg Kinnear and Tea Leoni were in it. The low screen count looks like the studio didn’t believe in it much.
I completely agree with peggy about Tyler Perry deserving more respect from Hollywood and it being an unfair place in general for minorities, BUT Ricky Gervais is no racist– that scene mentioned in the trailer that you felt was racist is a huge stretch, especially when you view the scene in context of the entire movie.
furthermore, Gervais is not just some “no name, foreign hbo guy”. “The Office” was a huge hit in the UK, had a strong cult following in the US, and resulted in the American version which has a wide audience– and anyone who dismisses another as simply being “foreign” just sounds like a xenophobe to me. He is greatly respected by comedians and directors in the industry and everyone wants to work with him– not because he’s white but because he’s funny (even if you happen to not get his humor). He’s turned down many offers, which makes him all the more desired.
ghost town was a good little movie. The trailer sucked, but anyone familiar with Gervais’ comedy knows it’s hard to boil it down to your typical trailer format.
The Women just plain blows, and it isn’t anywhere close to being a hit. Seriously, let it go.
Ghost Town was garbage. Unoriginal script, bland acting, need I say more. Apart from some racially offensive jokes (probably written by the scum sucking brit Gervais) which weren’t even funny targeted at the Chinese and as someone mentioned Blacks, you would do well to give this movie a pass, waste of time. Boring. Nuff said.