'Chicken' home to roost with $40 mil
Weekend boxoffice
Nov 7, 2005
If this weekend proves anything, it is that the sky isn't falling on the movie business. While the one-two punch of the Walt Disney Co.'s "Chicken Little" and Universal Pictures' "Jarhead" might not have exceeded last year's "The Incredibles" opening of $70.4 million, together the new films proved to the industry and its audiences that if you make movies that compel moviegoers, they will show up at the theaters.
With the marketing might of Disney behind it, Buena Vista Distribution opened its first homegrown CG-animated film, "Chicken Little," to $40 million. Exceeding the industry's modest expectations for the G-rated family film, "Chicken" reached its impressive opening numbers with the help of 84 digital 3-D-equipped screens, which alone earned an estimated $2.1 million for a per-screen average of $25,000.
Even more of a surprise was the $27.7 million earned by Sam Mendes' war chronicle "Jarhead." The gritty R-rated drama, budgeted at $72 million, exceeded all industry expectations and marked the highest opening numbers for Mendes and much of his male-dominated cast.
Last weekend's openers, Lions Gate's horror-fest "Saw II" and Sony Pictures' "The Legend of Zorro," also held on pretty well, with "Saw II" dropping 47%, about average for a horror film. Meanwhile, "Zorro," which opened below expectations last weekend at $16 million, dropped 39% to $10 million, even though the PG-rated film, whose gross now stands at $30.3 million, probably lost some audience to families heading to see "Chicken."
The other story of the weekend was the impressive numbers earned by two limited releases: Warner Independent Pictures' "Good Night, and Good Luck" and Buena Vista's "Shopgirl."
George Clooney's "Good Night," now in its fifth week in release, added 385 sites for a total of 657 theaters and grossed $3.1 million. The film, centering on Edward R. Murrow's public battles with Sen. Joseph McCarthy, seems to have struck a nerve with the public, which has turned out in solid numbers to give the film an overall cume of $11 million -- strong numbers heading into Oscar season. It entered the top 10 at the weekend's boxoffice derby with a solid seventh-place showing.
"Shopgirl," based on a novella by Steve Martin, reaped an additional $2.5 million for Buena Vista, which along with "Flightplan" gives Disney three films in the top 10. Starring Claire Danes, Martin and Jason Schwartzman, "Shopgirl" has grossed $3.5 million in its two weeks in release on fewer than 500 theaters.
Other holdovers didn't perform nearly as well. The R-rated "The Weather Man," starring Nicolas Cage, has had difficulty creating much of a storm. In its second week at the boxoffice, the Paramount Pictures release grossed $2.9 million on 1,510 theaters. Its gross now stands at $8.6 million.
Warner Bros. Pictures' "North Country" also has made little dent at the boxoffice. Still in 2,211 theaters in its third week in release, the Charlize Theron starrer grossed $2.2 million for an 11th-place finish, with a per-screen average of $974. The film, still angling for award consideration, has earned $15.6 million.
Disney had been faced with a must-win situation for the frame. Possibly facing a life without animation partner Pixar Animation Studios, it must be confident that it can produce successful animated product to insure that its illustrious history of family film domination remains intact. So, with all the marketing might it could muster, along with an aggressive effort to equip theater chains with revolutionary 3-D technology, Disney hit the marketplace with "Chicken" at full speed.
The results were solid for both the 35mm release and the 3-D effort. Time will tell whether the film -- featuring the voices of Zach Braff and Garry Marshall -- will hold up in a crowded holiday marketplace, but it certainly got off to a strong start.
"We love the Nov. 4 date," said Chuck Viane, president of Buena Vista Distribution, who has landed a holiday film on this date, or close to it, since its 1994 release of the Tim Allen-starring "The Santa Clause."
"It's the beginning of the first half of the holiday, with the second half starting on Dec. 9 with 'Chronicles of Narnia,' Viane said. "This will turn out to be a great year for exhibition."
The complementary programming of "Chicken" and "Jarhead" seemed to have struck a chord with moviegoers, who did much to make up the deficit the boxoffice has witnessed for most of the year.
Year-to-date the boxoffice remains down 6% from a year ago, but with eight weeks left in the year and Warner Bros. Pictures' next installment of "Harry Potter" coming down the pike along with Disney's "Narnia" and Universal's "King Kong," the widely reported boxoffice malaise might not be as extreme as originally prognosticated.
Universal president of distribution Nikki Rocco credits much of "Jarhead's" success to a compelling marketing plan and a strategic distribution effort. Rather than throwing the film out to as many theaters as possible, the veteran distributor scaled back to the 2,000 range, upping the film's per-screen average to an impressive $11,950.
"This is an R-rated film of an interesting but not a broad-family audience subject matter," Rocco said. "We wanted to be really careful of how broadly we went out in the smaller markets. It's not unusual for us to take a hard look at that."
National boxoffice for the week ending Nov. 3 totaled $141.3 million, a 1% uptick vs. $139.6 million for the same week a year ago. Year-to-date admissions still remain down by an estimated 9% compared with 2004.
With the marketing might of Disney behind it, Buena Vista Distribution opened its first homegrown CG-animated film, "Chicken Little," to $40 million. Exceeding the industry's modest expectations for the G-rated family film, "Chicken" reached its impressive opening numbers with the help of 84 digital 3-D-equipped screens, which alone earned an estimated $2.1 million for a per-screen average of $25,000.
Even more of a surprise was the $27.7 million earned by Sam Mendes' war chronicle "Jarhead." The gritty R-rated drama, budgeted at $72 million, exceeded all industry expectations and marked the highest opening numbers for Mendes and much of his male-dominated cast.
Last weekend's openers, Lions Gate's horror-fest "Saw II" and Sony Pictures' "The Legend of Zorro," also held on pretty well, with "Saw II" dropping 47%, about average for a horror film. Meanwhile, "Zorro," which opened below expectations last weekend at $16 million, dropped 39% to $10 million, even though the PG-rated film, whose gross now stands at $30.3 million, probably lost some audience to families heading to see "Chicken."
The other story of the weekend was the impressive numbers earned by two limited releases: Warner Independent Pictures' "Good Night, and Good Luck" and Buena Vista's "Shopgirl."
George Clooney's "Good Night," now in its fifth week in release, added 385 sites for a total of 657 theaters and grossed $3.1 million. The film, centering on Edward R. Murrow's public battles with Sen. Joseph McCarthy, seems to have struck a nerve with the public, which has turned out in solid numbers to give the film an overall cume of $11 million -- strong numbers heading into Oscar season. It entered the top 10 at the weekend's boxoffice derby with a solid seventh-place showing.
"Shopgirl," based on a novella by Steve Martin, reaped an additional $2.5 million for Buena Vista, which along with "Flightplan" gives Disney three films in the top 10. Starring Claire Danes, Martin and Jason Schwartzman, "Shopgirl" has grossed $3.5 million in its two weeks in release on fewer than 500 theaters.
Other holdovers didn't perform nearly as well. The R-rated "The Weather Man," starring Nicolas Cage, has had difficulty creating much of a storm. In its second week at the boxoffice, the Paramount Pictures release grossed $2.9 million on 1,510 theaters. Its gross now stands at $8.6 million.
Warner Bros. Pictures' "North Country" also has made little dent at the boxoffice. Still in 2,211 theaters in its third week in release, the Charlize Theron starrer grossed $2.2 million for an 11th-place finish, with a per-screen average of $974. The film, still angling for award consideration, has earned $15.6 million.
Disney had been faced with a must-win situation for the frame. Possibly facing a life without animation partner Pixar Animation Studios, it must be confident that it can produce successful animated product to insure that its illustrious history of family film domination remains intact. So, with all the marketing might it could muster, along with an aggressive effort to equip theater chains with revolutionary 3-D technology, Disney hit the marketplace with "Chicken" at full speed.
The results were solid for both the 35mm release and the 3-D effort. Time will tell whether the film -- featuring the voices of Zach Braff and Garry Marshall -- will hold up in a crowded holiday marketplace, but it certainly got off to a strong start.
"We love the Nov. 4 date," said Chuck Viane, president of Buena Vista Distribution, who has landed a holiday film on this date, or close to it, since its 1994 release of the Tim Allen-starring "The Santa Clause."
"It's the beginning of the first half of the holiday, with the second half starting on Dec. 9 with 'Chronicles of Narnia,' Viane said. "This will turn out to be a great year for exhibition."
The complementary programming of "Chicken" and "Jarhead" seemed to have struck a chord with moviegoers, who did much to make up the deficit the boxoffice has witnessed for most of the year.
Year-to-date the boxoffice remains down 6% from a year ago, but with eight weeks left in the year and Warner Bros. Pictures' next installment of "Harry Potter" coming down the pike along with Disney's "Narnia" and Universal's "King Kong," the widely reported boxoffice malaise might not be as extreme as originally prognosticated.
Universal president of distribution Nikki Rocco credits much of "Jarhead's" success to a compelling marketing plan and a strategic distribution effort. Rather than throwing the film out to as many theaters as possible, the veteran distributor scaled back to the 2,000 range, upping the film's per-screen average to an impressive $11,950.
"This is an R-rated film of an interesting but not a broad-family audience subject matter," Rocco said. "We wanted to be really careful of how broadly we went out in the smaller markets. It's not unusual for us to take a hard look at that."
National boxoffice for the week ending Nov. 3 totaled $141.3 million, a 1% uptick vs. $139.6 million for the same week a year ago. Year-to-date admissions still remain down by an estimated 9% compared with 2004.
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