Strong B.O.: Progress Report

There’s more to the box office than opening weekend. So with analysts bored of talking about HARRY POTTER, I thought I’d look at how some recent releases faired in their nearly complete run.

Keep your eye on PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. With little support beyond the critics this British costume drama has earned over $20 million and shows no sign of slowing down.

Look for THE ICE HARVEST to make many lists of overlooked treasures. The respectfully reviewed picture was the victim of a horrid marketing campaign and will be lucky to hit $10 million.
After an opening that exceeded expectations, JARHEAD cooled considerably. Its $62 million dollar gross still doesn’t cover its budget and Oscar hopes have vanished like a mirage.

DERAILED opened with decent numbers, and looks to end up just under $40 million (which does cover its budget). I suspect this will do quite well on DVD.
While GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN’ wasn’t the hit Paramount was hoping for, its $30 million dollar gross is far from a disaster. What does suck for them is that the soundtrack didn’t make nearly the same impact as ‘Fitty’s” two CD’s.

SAW II had a massive opening and a surprising strong 2nd weekend for a horror film. But its blockbuster status was revoked now that the film has stalled at $86 million. (Still impressive for a horror film that cost less than $5 million.)

Does Warner Brothers not love George Clooney anymore? After never going wide with the release of O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU (the film made $45 million anyway) they now won't capitalize on the heat surrounding GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK and SYRIANA.
GOOD NIGHT has made back 3X its budget, but after 9 weeks is still on only 631 screens, increasing at a rate of only about a dozen screens a week. Now SYRIANA is amounting a massive per screen average making $1.2 million even though it only played on 9 screens last weekend and a whopping 2 the weekend before.

Warner Brothers gave the same treatment to KISS KISS, BANG BANG, pulling its planned wide release in order to secure more screens for HARRY POTTER. KISS KISS has scratched and clawed its way to $3.7 million, and will certainly recoup the rest of its budget on DVD. But come on Warner Brothers…you have four big films out now. Stop showing HARRY POTTER all the love.