Other Crap

Wedding Crashers officially moves up to #1

• The two films from two weeks ago (Wedding Crashers and Wonka) held on to the top two spots for the third straight week.
• Last week's releases all but dropped off the map. Each of the four dropped more than expected. Each of the four dropped at least 50%. The Devil's Rejects suffered the worst fate by following a disappointing opening with a precipitous 62% fall-off
• This week's releases were mediocre, opening in the 3-4-5 slots. Sky High was probably the most positive surprise among the new releases, in that it was predicted to finish last among the three, but actually finished as the best of the three. That was not the kind of news to prompt a general V-E day level of rejoicing, however, since it was still within 20% of the prediction, and could muster no better than a tepid third place.
• The penguin movie again did quite well. It stayed in the number ten slot despite losing to the three new releases, because it managed to pass three other films which beat it last week! Overall, the penguin film was #2 in revenues per screen, losing only to Wedding Crashers.
• The massive failure of big budgeters like Stealth and The Island will have to force Hollywood to look past "explosion films" for their summer line-ups. That's OK by me. I'd rather see them make twenty films for seven million each than one for 140 mill. Maybe there will be five interesting films in that bunch instead of a single mega-bomb. I do think that the studios have to think about the possibility that their future revenue equation may include an ever lower percentage of earnings from theatrical revenues and constantly greater dependence on DVD sales and rentals. If they lock on to that equation, they should start making better choices about how to spend their money.