Sleeping through the weekend
Moviegoers turned their attention to holiday shopping during the typically slow post-Thanksgiving weekend. Awake — the only new wide-release movie to pick from — managed just a fifth-place finish and $5.8 million, and the Disney fantasy Enchanted retained the top spot with $16.4 million, bringing its total to $70 million.
The up side
While overall box-office receipts were down about 8 percent from the same weekend last year, year-to-date revenue is still up nearly 5 percent compared with last year. So take that, 2006!
Bomb Squad
It’s tough to pick too much on Awake — as stated previously, the weekend after Thanksgiving is always a dud. But when you’re the only new choice out there, it seems like breaking $6 million would be an attainable goal. And yet, it wasn’t.
Swami Sez
Looks like you spent all your money on presents.
Prediction: Awake opens at No. 3 with $10 million.
Result: Not in its wildest dreams
Prediction: Enchanted retains the crown with $21 million.
Result: The crown cost $5 million less than expected.
Which direction for ‘Compass’?
The Golden Compass has hardly needed to advertise itself — all of the debate over its possible anti-religion agenda have done the job for it. But will a bit of controversy feed the coffers or take away from them?
Prediction: An easy No. 1 at $45 million, but it won’t approach the rarified openings of similar fantasy films like The Chronicles of Narnia ($66 mil.) or the first Harry Potter film ($90 mil.)
Starting small
Atonement, a shoo-in best-picture nominee, opens in 26 theaters around the country, including the Dallas Angelika. With such a small opening, per-theater average is really what we are concerned with here.
Prediction: Atonement manages a healthy $25,000 per theater, positioning it for a wider opening in the coming weeks.
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Comments
Posted by Joyce Saenz Harris @ 5:02 PM Thu, Dec 06, 2007
I'd like to see The Golden Compass just to witness Sam Elliott in the heroic role of Texan aeronaut Lee Scoresby. (Lee's "daemon," or animal soul companion, is a Texas jackrabbit voiced by SMU alum Kathy Bates.)
There's a new interview in the LA Times, revealing why Sam's always being cast as a Texan, and why his Texas accent is so authentic:
...His affinity for those kinds of characters did grow out of his family heritage, however. "My family on both sides for several generations all hailed from Texas," says Elliott. "My dad was with the Fish & Wildlife Service and got transferred from West Texas to Sacramento. I was born the year after they got there. I never heard the end of the fact I wasn't a Texan. In fact, my dad referred to me forever as a prune picker, which is kind of a positive slang term for being a Californian.
"I spent a lot of time around ranchers and real-deal cowboys and sheepmen. There is something about that sensibility in general that appeals to me."