Brokeback Mountin Bombs at Box Office; Holiday BO smells

data from Box Office Mojo ^ | 12/17/05 | Dangus

[dangus]

A gross of $11,000 per screen is quite good. If you're an autumn Wide Release, opening on 3500 screens across the country. When a movie opens on only 69 of the nation's largest theaters in a few dozen of the largest cities, with almost all of your target audience within range of those theaters, it's pretty bad.

Brokeback Mountain played in fourteen times more theaters this Friday than last Friday, and made less than four times as much money, only $760,000. It looks like the movie will make considerably less than its $15 million budget before the Academy Awards come out. How many tens of millions of dollars in free promotion, reduced pay and credibility were spent on this film?

King Kong also appears to be a flop. I've seen this movie: Peter Jackson has mastered many movie-making techniques with the Lord of the Rings, and the movie is an amazing spectacle with much positive and true to say about human nature. But Jackson did not learn how to discipline his budgeting or story-telling. His movie is also bloated, over-long, too violent, very horrific and a bit tooo preposterous.

The early part of the movie centers around a movie director too obsessed with his story, prone to overkill, and swindling a movie company out of far more than they would have been willing to spend. Given that actor Jack Black even slightly resembles Peter Jackson, I can't help but to wonder if how consciously auto-biographical the film is. It will make many, many, many times more than Brokeback Mountain, and still become known as a flop. I sincerely hope Peter Jackson learns the right things from the experience; he is very talented, very passionate, and, from the messages of his movies, very decent. King Kong made $14 million last night... It will probably easily pass $100 million, but land short of its $200 million budget. On the other hand, it is precisely the sort of movie that translates well overseas, and does well on DVD. But it will not be the Box Office savior hoped for.

Chronicles of Narnia will apparently need a rebound in the Christmas vacations to be profitable. Except for a literally rushed ending, it's almost perfect, a purely magical delight. But it seems to have very weak legs; it's not surprising since everyone who wanted to see this movie knew they did so a long time ago, and most rushed out to see it immediately. Today's movie markets don't allow for the sort of excellent word of mouth that Narnia is getting.

That word of mouth means probably good DVD sales, and strong anticipation of a sequel, so Narnia's Box Office is by no means a failure... just it'll take some time to become profitable. Narnia sold about $9 million worth of tickets, down over 60% from last Friday.

But there doesn't seem to be any great challenger to Narnia for the Holiday season. The Family Stone opened weak ($4 million), Harry Potter is mostly played out ($1.5 million), as are Walk the Line ($1 million) and Yours Mine and Ours (under $1 million) Syriana also fell hard, too... ($1.6 million).

Don't look for any saviors at the box office next week either... Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Fun with Dick and Jane, The Ringer, and Rumor Has It all open, but none look too strong

[RavenATB]

"I know it's not Return of the Sith, but right now it is not the bomb you are making it out to be. As of today it's doing very well financially."

You may be right, but I suggest that the activist "gay community" was lined up (pretty tightly...) to see this movie at the very first opportunity, to try to make it a success. The "Gay Cabayeros " probably had quite a conga line formed while they waited for tickets. I suspect this movie will die very quickly, and do very poorly in overseas markets.

For anyone planning to see this movie, I've pasted "conga line etiquette" from "ehow.com" below:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4283_behave-conga-line.html

A conga line need not be a kitschy embarrassment. It can be fun.


Steps:
1. Wait for an appropriate song. Anything with a heavy beat will do.

2. Find a partner or join an existing conga line. Do not try to persuade anyone who seems reluctant to join a conga line.

3. Enter the line. Do not be first if you can avoid it.

4. With your hands, move the hips immediately in front of you artfully from side to side. The idea is that each person "leads" the person in front - you are not following the person in front of you. You are spontaneously choreographing her.

5. When someone joins the line behind you, move your hips as instructed by her. Your movements may not correspond to the movements of the person in front of you.

6. Snake around the dance floor. Kick each heel, as in the "Hokey Pokey," (hokey pokey...that's what we're talking about...)as appropriate.

7. Continue moving forward until you're tired of it.


Tips:
Athletic people make for a more lively conga line, but large people make for a more impressive one (thinking Ned Beatty here...).

[Balding_Eagle]

I thought we took a 'live and let live' position.

No true conservative take a 'live and let live' position when under attack.

I smell troll.

[jmcenanly]

A movie where Sarah Jessica Parker plays a conservative. I guess Hollywood is still working on the "suspend your disbelief" thing. Will they wake us up when they get there? You will notice that they hired an actress who bears a strong resemblence to the Wicked Witch of the West to play a conservative

[durasell]

A friend of mine -- years and years ago -- worked on a movie with Eastwood. So, he sees Eastwood alone one day eating lunch and kinda slips over and asks what he could do to help his career. Eastwood says, "Whatever they ask you to do, ride a horse, rolleskate, ride a motorcycle, whatever, say you can do it."

Apparently, Eastwood followed his own advice when it came to singing.

[FreedomCalls]

Chicago and the Austin Powers movies.

The Wizard of Oz
Caberet
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

[durasell]

Uh, not really.

Though not being gay, I personally think Caberet is brilliant. I'm a big Bob Fosse fan.

[Oberon]

You can't mean that. If it wasn't an allegory, then it either wasn't intended to a have religious theme or Christ really was a lion.

Sig sure as heck can mean that. The idea is that Narnia is an other world, but one just as real as this one. The Christ lives and moves in that world too; but when he does, it's in the form of a lion. Aslan.

So Aslan is literally Jesus.

[durasell]

OK then. I'll trust you on that.

[jonrick46]

I found this joke. I hope whoever created it won't object. I think it is fitting for all those mounting up and riding out to "Bareback Mount'n":

An old cowboy sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. As he sat sipping his drink, a young woman sat down next to him. She turned to the cowboy and asked, "Are you a real cowboy?"

He replied, "Well, I've spent my whole life, breaking colts, working cows, going to rodeos, fixing fences, pulling calves, bailing hay, doctoring calves, cleaning my barn, fixing flats, working on tractors, and feeding my dogs, so,yes, I guess I am a cowboy."

She said, "I'm a lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about women. As soon as I get up in the morning, I think about women. When I shower, I think about women. When I watch TV, I think about women. I even think about women when I eat. It seems that everything makes me think of women."

The two sat sipping in silence.

A little while later, a man sat down on the other side of the old cowboy and asked, "Are you a real cowboy?"

He replied, "I always thought I was, but I just found out I'm a lesbian."

[wtc911]

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Domestic Total as of Dec. 16, 2005: $1,726,000 (Estimate) Distributor: Focus Features Release Date: December 9, 2005 Running Time: 2 hrs. 14 min. Production Budget: $14 million MPAA Rating: R Marketing:$7 million

=====================================================

I don't believe the P&A number is just $7mil. Industry standard for a film like this would match the production costs. But even if the $7mil is right it means that BO has to reach $52 million to break even.

In that light, the number that counts is this one....Last Friday - $38k per screen. Yesterday - $11k per screen. Three Fridays from now? Gone.

[durasell]

You're thinking old school (only domestic box office with no DVD sales).

[Lawgvr1955]

Not bad!

[Windcatcher]

I don't know about anyone else, but if Jesus desides that He feels like spending His time in the form of a lion (whether on this world or another), I'm sure not telling Him 'no, you can only appear in human form'.

[wtc911]

A DVD sales deal will be based on BO and the studio sees a much smaller piece of that action. Foreign will be very limited and will likely not be too sweet a deal for the studio either. No one will see a dime more than he already has if this doesn't do in the $50mil range domestic BO (unless the stars have a deferred position out of dollar one of the gross).

[durasell]

I think it's probably going to make some money -- not a blockbuster type money, but enough for "proof of concept" that small movies targeted to a specific audience can turn a profit. Remember the movie Affliction? Same kind of deal.

[wtc911]

We disagree.

[durasell]

You don't believe a $14 mil movie can earn out, even if it is about gay cowpokes?

[wtc911]

btw....Affliction cost $6 million and did $6.3 million Domestic BO. Even without knowing the rental and foreign numbers I can say that it didn't come within $3-4 million of breaking even.

[durasell]

p.s.

I, for one, would like to see more small movies.