'Fat' fuels September B.O.
IFC pic sets record for month
Not only was IFC's "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" the highest-grossing film for the month with $69 million, pic fueled the highest September ever: $540 million for the span of Aug. 30 through Sep 29.
"Greek Wedding" is in its 24th week. September's take repped a 15% uptick over the same frame last year, even outstripping 1999's high of $483 million for the early autumn month.
While Disney was September's champ with $85 million from 11 films, IFC grabbed second place primarily from "Greek Wedding" grosses.
In a month where summer carryovers typically generate half of the total receipts, former IFC topper Bob Bernie saw an opportunity to maximize the audience for "Greek Wedding" beyond its summer arthouse aud.
"We didn't see anything in front of us that could conflict with our demographics going into September," said Bernie, who continues to advise the arthouse label on the pic's distribution and marketing. "Last month was truly IFC's shot."
"Greek Wedding" peaked its weekend grosses during the Labor Day period with $14.8 million. Since then, the film has had modest weekend-to-weekend drops, with a bulk of its monies being generated by repeat auds.
Aside from the "Wedding" gifts, September gains were made at the box office, thanks to distribs' lack of juggling pics' release dates this year vs. last-year's jostling due to the after-effect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The result: New wide releases totaled $224 million, 12% more than last year, while the average bow for big pics followed a similar increase to $11 million.
No doubt, Disney's record bow of "Sweet Home Alabama" this past weekend contributed to the effect. In recent years, distribs have held their big-gun pics for the final weekend of September so as to gain some playability ahead of the Columbus Day weekend tentpoles. Furthermore, distribs last September restrained themselves from opening pics in more than 3,000 engagements, a plan ignored by Disney's "Alabama" and DreamWorks' "The Tuxedo" last weekend.
The top 10 pics for the month: IFC's "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," $69 million; MGM's "Barbershop," $51 million; Disney's "Signs," $43 million, and "Sweet Home Alabama," $36 million; Sony-Revolution's "XXX," $29 million; Fox's "Swimfan," $27 million; Fox Searchlight's "One Hour Photo," $26 million; Warner Bros.' "City by the Sea," $22 million; Miramax-Dimension's "Spy Kids 2," $20 million; and Fox Searchlight's "The Banger Sisters," $19 million.
