Stop the presses. An actual good, interesting movie debuted at #1 this summer. “District 9” seemed to come out of nowhere about two months ago, sans an attention-getting ad campaign or a major in-advance teaser trailer. Let this be a model for marketing people in Hollywood- a late-inning full court press isn’t the worst strategy. Audiences were probably intrigued by the cryptic ads selling the aliens, but there’s something to be said about the continued drawing power of Peter Jackson, who no doubt many people probably think directed this. In the mainstream film world, only three directors roughly bring in audiences, and that’s Steven Spielberg, Jackson and now in his later years, Martin Scorsese. James Cameron could be one of those guys depending on what form the last leg of “Avatar” marketing is. Is the fifth member of that troupe Quentin Tarantino? We find out next weekend.
Almost customarily, “G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra” fell off majorly, almost 60% from its so-so opening weekend. It’s already at $100 million, so you can play an extrapolation game — if a movie debuts with the $22 million “Joe” took in during this frame, and its bleeding 50%-60% per week, does it make it to $50 million? Paramount probably needs a $150 million gross for it to be considered a theatrical success, so we’ll see. It was bested by “District 9” handily this weekend despite having a thousand more screens, but “District 9” is a geek project, and those tend to fall off majorly after that first weekend, meaning the more regular-moviegoer audience for Stephen Sommers’ anti-critic toyfest might find it worth revisiting in week four or five. Or it dies a quick death and gets shuffled off to DVD, buried while word-of-mouth gives legs to the stacked competition in the next few weeks. The latter is pretty common, we’ll bet on that.
Debuting at #3 was one of New Line’s last castaways, “The Time Traveler’s Wife.” It’s not a major pull, but that’s pretty good considering the movie’s been sitting on the shelf for a very long time. Eric Bana’s exposure this summer certainly helped matters, but WB did a good job marketing this leftover with it opening strong enough to knock the wind out of “Julie and Julia.” The would-be cooking blockbuster sported a decent hold, but with only $12 million in week two, does it have enough juice to sustain a solid late-season run? At #5 was “G-Force,” which is starting to settle into an inexplicable “Paul Blart”-like run, dropping off little by little as it crosses the $100 million mark on Monday with gas still in the tank.
Debuting at #6 was a death twitch from Paramount Vantage in the form of “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.” You can sell these comedy ensemble films, but you need to have a solid A-or-B Lister in the cast. Jeremy Piven is strictly a TV actor, and an ad campaign where you devote character banners to the likes of Charles Napier probably isn’t going to boost business too strongly. Also debuting was Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo,” which was only given a modest release by Disney and landed at #9- not a sterling debut, but hopefully the beginning of a consistent expansion. Dying a hard death was “Funny People,” collapsing out of the top ten in only week three with a 60% audience loss even worse than last weekend. It barely missed out on the #10 spot, held down by “500 Days Of Summer,” the year’s highest grossing indie with $18 million in its coffers, and with 1000 theaters under its belt, wider mainstream exposure could make this a sleeper hit that lasts into the fall.
The season’s major loser has to be Summit Entertainment. They pathetically opened “Bandslam” this weekend to #13 in over 2000 theaters with $2.3 million, completely failing to sell the movie in any tangible way. This is the fourth straight film they’ve mismanaged this summer, and the widest release, considering “The Brothers Bloom” and “The Hurt Locker” both never even sniffed 600 theaters. While “Bloom” was an out and out failure, at least “Locker” made it to $10 million this weekend, but its weekend grosses are already below a mil, and it is tapped. What’s more is that all four films (including wide release “Next Day Air”), none of which will reach $20 million, are fairly commercial enterprises, not obscure arthouse larks. “Bloom” was the closest to being a tough sell, even then it was a heist film with two Oscar winners. Don’t weep for them, they still have the next “Twilight” coming up, but christ, no studio marketing company has employed as many numbnuts as they have this season.
In blockbuster news, outside of the top ten, “The Hangover” reached $265 million and will crawl to $270, while “Transformers” is still at $396 million and might need some extra Paramount support. Fox helped limp “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” to $190, while “The Proposal” is stunningly approaching $160 million. Opening in indie theaters was the Ashton Kutcher drama “Spread,” which did a pathetic $117k in 91 locations (that’s a per-screen average of $1.2k per screen), while the weekend’s best debut was “It Might Get Loud,” the rock doc with a per-screen average of $14k per on seven screens for a $101k take.
1. District 9- $37 million
2. G.I. Jane- $22.5 million ($99 mil)
3. The Temporally Displaced Husband- $19.2 million
4. Julie & Julia- $12.4 million ($44 mil.)
5. G-Force- $6.9 million ($99 mil)
6. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard- $5.4 million
7. Harry Potter With A Vengeance- $5.2 million ($284 mil.)
8. The Ugly Truth- $4.5 million ($78 mil.)
9. Ponyo- $3.5 million
10. 500 Days Of Summer- $3 million ($18 mil.)