Other Crap

Weekend Box Office Results for October 13–15, 2006

• The overall box office was very healthy compared to last year. It was up almost 40%.
• The Gridge 2 petered out after an excellent Friday to finish below analysts' expectations. It is headed for a gross in the $50-60 range, which makes it a severe disappointment compared to its predecessor.
• The Robin Williams movie did better than expected, thus justifying the studio's decision to market it as a zany comedy in the trailers and TV spots. (It isn't. It's a political thriller in which the main character is a comedian.)
• The biblical epic called One Night With The King did twice as well as expected. Films marketed outside traditional media, particularly within the Christian or minority sub-cultures, often fool the experts. The niche marketing channels are obviously more effective than they are generally understood to be, and the analysts are still trying to get a handle on this.
• Scorsese's The Departed, presumably buoyed by effusive reviews and good word-of-mouth, dropped only 30% in its second week, thus nearly hanging on to the top spot.
• In contrast to Scorsese's endurance, the Chainsaw movie dropped about 60% from last week.
• LIMITED (or trial) RUNS. Three true stories tested the waters. The second Capote film, Infamous, did very poorly in a 179-screen trial, averaging only $2400 per screen; the Idi Amin film scored a more encouraging $5900 per screen in its own trial run; the Queen Elizabeth film was the champion in this league, raking in an impressive $22000 per screen.