Other Crap

Major new films disappoint at the box office.

• Despite a built-in cult audience and respectable reviews, Joss Whedon's Serenity failed to ignite a box office fire, pulling in an all-too-serene $10 million on its opening weekend, thus falling far short of expectations.
• In the wake of some scathing reviews, Into the Blue sailed poorly as well, demonstrating that people will not attend movies for eye candy alone.
• The pleasant surprise of the week was Cronenberg's A History of Violence, which received mostly outstanding reviews and exceeded expectations. It finished #1 by far in the important "revenues per screen" category.
• Jodie Foster's personal charisma seemed to be enough to hold last week's Flightplan on a steady course for the #1 spot again.
• Disney's golf movie performed approximately as expected, opening in the #9 slot.
• The Oscar hopeful Capote kicked enough serious ass ($29,000 per screen) to reach the #20 spot despite being in only a dozen theaters!!
• Polanski's $60 million Oliver Twist bombed completely, finishing 18th and taking in less than a million dollars.
• I have warned against comparisons to 2004, which is filled with roller-coaster results, but for the record, this year was down about 25% because last year included a blockbuster opening for Shark Tale and a very strong debut for Ladder 49. Those two films alone did almost as much as all of this year's films added together! In the more sensible comparison to a 2003 baseline, this year was down about 5-6%, reflecting the minimal appeal of this year's two major new releases.