Auds catch chill
'Covenant's' $9 mil tops slow sesh
|
"Covenant," by far the widest new release of the weekend, easily beat Focus Features' gumshoe pic "Hollywoodland."
Pic -- which had a per-screen average of $3,357 -- was a shoo-in to top the charts, but couldn't match the potency of Sony's crossover "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" a year ago.
Buena Vista's holdover gridiron drama "Invincible" took the third spot in the charts, as the NFL kicked off its season. Expanding slightly by 66 engagements, pic scored $5.8 million, skidding about 50% to bring its cume to $45.7 million after three weeks in release.
Cume for the top 10 pics of the frame barely topped an anemic $49 million: A year ago, thanks to "Emily Rose's" $30 million bow and holdovers "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Transporter 2," top 10 B.O. for the same frame swelled to roughly $70 million.
Frame, if estimates hold up, would mark the lowest weekend B.O. since Sept. 5-7 three years ago, according to Nielsen EDI. But studio brass said it was just this weekend's pics that didn't click, and they're not concerned about any overall seasonal weakness.
"This is a good playtime," one studio distribution head said. "A year ago, 'Emily Rose' crossed over all over the place. Frankly, the films just didn't excite the audiences. It's a good weekend, but these films didn't tap into the zeitgeist."
Other studio honchos agreed the films in the marketplace over the frame segmented auds sharply and appealed to narrow demos.
"I think this was a typical post-summer slowdown," added Paul Dergarabedian, prexy of Exhibitor Relations. "It's not a very strong way to start off the fall moviegoing season, but to be compared to a film like 'Emily Rose' is tough. You don't want to see this type of performance every weekend, but I think that people are getting ready for all these fall films over the next few weeks."
Nevertheless, the "Covenant" perf marked Sony's ninth No. 1 finish for the year to date, tying a record the studio previously set in 2003.
Lame frame -- the first of fall, with kids back in school and more serious adult fare landing in cinemas -- saw no pics approaching the $10 million bar.
"Hollywoodland" finished with $6 million from 1,548 screens, a per-screen average of $3,881.
Focus had been hoping for a result in the $7 million-$8 million range for the Adrien Brody topliner. Brody's last pic, the big-budget "King Kong," opened to more than $66 million in 2005. His previous pic, "The Jacket," bowed to $2.7 million in limited release early last year.
Universal specialty arm's distrib prexy Jack Foley said he was encouraged that "Hollywoodland" was playing strongly in daytime engagements, and with the boomer set. Focus was aiming to be first out of the gate ahead of a fall specialty pic glut.
Two other specialty pics -- "The Illusionist" and "Little Miss Sunshine" -- were neck-and-neck just outside the top five, with Edward Norton starrer "Illusionist" barely trumping Fox Searchlight's "Sunshine."
From Yari Film Group, "Illusionist" slid a mild 26% in its fourth week, expanding from 971 to 1,362 screens to take $4.6 million for a cume of $18.1 million, building on a younger demo. Per-screen average on the pic was $3,406.
"Sunshine," Searchlight's summer specialty breakout, added $4.4 million to its take from 1,560 screens. Pic has a cume to date of $41.6 million after seven weeks in play; it contracted by 42 screens over the frame.
The Weinstein Co.'s R-rated martial arts pic "The Protector" kicked up just over $5 million in its bow to land in the No. 4 position, ahead of Lionsgate holdover "Crank."
TWC picked up domestic and Latin American rights to "Protector" for about $2 million.
Actioner "Crank," meanwhile, cranked up another $4.8 million in its second frame, sliding 54% for a cume to date of $19.9 million.
A spate of smaller specialty pics hit screens, including IFC Films' Maggie Gyllenhaal vehicle "Sherrybaby." Pic played five screens to bring in $34,175, with a per-screen average of $6,835.
Set to get in the mix to try and boost upcoming biz are Universal's "The Black Dahlia," DreamWorks' "The Last Kiss" and Sony's "Gridiron Gang."
