Posted on 01/20/2006 10:16:53 AM PST by Lee_Marvin
Jumping off a big win at the kudofest Monday and helped by an otherwise weak field, "Brokeback Mountain" garnered the impressive achievement of a solid No. 1 win at the box office Tuesday and Wednesday despite playing just 682 theaters. With about $740,000 both days, Focus' cowboy love story beat "Glory Road," which was on 2,222 playdates, by approximately $50,000 Tuesday and $100,000 Wednesday.
That puts "Brokeback" in a very strong position as it expands this weekend to 1,194 playdates -- a significant boost from the 800-900 Focus was planning before the Globes victories.
...
Focus has been regularly expanding "Brokeback" by 100-200 playdates per week for the past few weeks, but decided to take advantage of excitement among exhibs and the public after the Globes.
"We have the opportunity now with these exhibitors to play at least through the Academy Award nominations," said Focus distrib toppertopper Jack Foley.
If, as expected, "Brokeback" garners a slew of Oscar noms on Jan. 31, it could go significantly wider then.
Pic will push into remaining small cities, as well as further into the suburbs, this weekend.
"Brokeback" also has a big weekend overseas, where it's opening in Spain, Italy, France, Norway and Taiwan. It's cumed $6.1 million foreign so far, mostly via two strong weeks in the U.K., where it's playing on 275 screens.
Pic bowed Wednesday in France with 155 prints, becoming the No. 2 pic in the country and the highest-ranked in Paris with 15,397 admissions. In all of France, it finished with 37,331 admissions, missing the No. 1 spot by about 1,000.
http://www.variety.com/VR1117936467.html
LOL!
Assume the average ticket is $7, that's only 155 tickets per theatre per day. Is that the new definition of a blockbuster? Is that all it takes to qualify for #1?
Every so often a somewhat notable movie is released via limited distribution. Typically, it means you can only see it in places like NYC, LA, etc. Movie studios understand these are usually low budget movies with limited appeal or, perhaps, it's a movie not controlled by a major studio & thus not getting wider release.
Every once in a while, these small films become much bigger. Someone mentioned "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" which is an excellent example.
And it's also not unusual at all for a studio to release a movie via limited distribution so that it qualifies for that year's awards shows. All along planning to release it to a wider audience, particularly if they think it will win awards & motivate ticket-buyers.
The kind that is released into whatever theaters they can find before the end of the year so that it's eligible for awards, and not put into general release until later.
What do I win?
I heard on the radio this morning that the lead actor in End of the Spear is gay and is very vocal about it and been in other gay themed movies. Funny he is playing a Christian, I guess since straight ( sissy ) guys play queers it's okay.
I recall Leno's monologue joke about an upcoming lesbian cowboy movie: Really Butch Cassidy.
"Is that all it takes to qualify for #1?" That depends on what the meaning of the word "blockbuster is". ;-)
Hollywood knows Brokeback Mountain has a very limited appeal and that, while it is doing well for an independent film, it is seeing nowhere near the success of more, main-stream, family pictures. Compared to the box office receipts of Narnia, King Kong and Harry Potter, Brokeback Mountain is earning very little. ($33 million total gross to about $300 million each for the other three over approximately the same time period.)
Hollywood is merely promoting the gay agenda here and to be honest here, I wouldn't put it past them to inflate the numbers to make the picture appear more successful than it really is. At best this is PR flackery of the worst kind.
I never seen a move more pushed. I can't turn on my radio here in Atlanta without hearing a commercial for it and how ACCLAIMED it is. How it's one nearly every award known to man. Blah Blah Blah
They show it at #1 Tues and Wed -- but the kicker --- all other movies Tue and WED have actual Box office totals, BAREBUTT has only an ESTIMATED BOX OFFICE for Tue and Wed.
IOW they do not know what the Actual figures for TUE and WED are for BAREBUTT they are just Guessing!
No, that's what was going on in the first couple of weeks when every stat was "per theater", but now it's playing on 700 screens and beating all other movies based on the Golden Globes and the fact that casual moviegoers don't go out on Mon-Weds.
A spate of homo movies.
>>>Tell that to all those who were shouting that "Narnia" should beat BM for all the awards because it earned a bazillion times more money.>>>
Narnia should win because it's an excellent darn movie! I've seen it three times and I never seen a movie more than once in a theatre. My kids LOVE it.
Why do I think this is BS? Maybe our country is more messed up than I think -- If that is correct, look for hill to be your next pres.
>>>And People did an atricle on real Gay cowboys! What's sad is the men they picked out look like a bunch of child molester's!>>>
When???
Yawn. Who cares about gay sheepherders? Here is a clue-those of us in middle America dont..
Fandango says it's playing in Dallas, Grapevine, Plano, and Arlington.
This is trumped up hype to try and get non-gays to go see this POS movie. I was reading this morning that it won't even get it's production and marketing costs back by 1/3 the amount....
Hype, propaganda, subterfuge, and crap all....
On a Tuesday in January, when all the kids' movies opened weeks ago, yeah.
No, I just found it amusing that a couple of weeks ago folks here were shouting "BM isn't any good, it hasn't made any money, Narnia has earned 50 times more," while on this thread we had a couple saying "Just because it is making money doesn't mean it is any good."
As for Narnia, I think it would've been much more impressive if I saw it before the LOTR movies. Kinda suffered by comparison.
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