By Scott Rosenberg Nov 27, 2006, 1:20 GMT
When movie distributors sit around their planning calendars, lattés and bagels at hand, they should pay more attention to the mood of the country as opposed to just positioning of openings around holiday slots.
Thanksgiving weekend in the USA is a time for family, friends, football and a “good time” feeling. Thus it should be time when folks head to movies that leave them “feeling good” or with some sense of good triumphing over evil.
Newcomers at the box-office over the long Thanksgiving weekend did not fair so well – only two preems, Denzel Washington’s ‘Déjà Vu’, an action adventure (good over evil) opening in third place with $20.8 million plus an additional $9 million from the Wednesday opening and Fox’s ‘Deck the Halls’ (feel good but dumb) with a total $16.9 million for the long weekend giving it a forth place berth –both films top five box-office positioning.
But that being said, the studios seem to be content with ticket sales for the year.
The five-day Thanksgiving weekend pushed ticket sales to $8 billion so far this year, 5% ahead of sales this time last year. Studio execs are looking for ticket sales to surpass 2005's total of $8.8 billion.
"I think we've turned the corner," says Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros. "There's been so much talk about movie going being dead. I think we can stop that (talk) now. Good movies are always going to rise to the top- people will come back when you make them."
And come back they did for two second week performers – Warner Bros. ‘Happy Feet’ an animated, feel good pic about singing and dancing penguins and Sony’s new James Bond flick ‘Casino Royale’ starring Daniel Craig – an on screen “hero” that we all wish would take care of “terror” facing the world today.
“Feet” came in first place, from positioning at 3,804 theaters taking in $37.9 million bringing its two week total to $100.1 million. Second week take was off 9% from its debut.
“Royale” on the other hand, dropped 29% coming in second place with a $31 million take from 3,443 locations – a total of $94.2 million domestic US in its 10 days of release. Bond has also drawn crowds overseas generating approx. $128 million.
"The reviews and word of mouth are really carrying us along," said Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures exec in charge of distribution. "When the weekend is this big, second place is just fine."
In fifth place, still pulling in respectable figures after four weeks on the screen is Sasha Cohen’s “Borat” taking in $10.4 million from 2,552 locations for a total cume to date of $109.3 million.
Distribution execs should have thought more about placement of Fox’s sci-fi-romance pic ‘The Fountain’ which opened in tenth place with $3.7 million from 1472 locations.
Execs also missed the mark with Jack Black’s ‘Tenacious D: the Pick of Destiny’. Probably positioned to catch the “testosterone” on break from colleges around the country, they failed to factor in TV football games which kept this demographic glued to their sofas at home.
“Tenacious D” took in only $3.1 million from 1, 919 locations coming in eleventh this long holiday weekend.
Ticket sales for the top 10 movies this weekend reached $142 million, matching the same weekend last year.
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