Local films strong in Europe
'Horton,' '10,000' have competition
In the U.K., Caveman epic “10,000 BC” dragged home the kill for WB with a chart-topping opening of $3.8 million at 431 locations. Roland Emmerich’s prehistoric actioner also posted the weekend’s best location average: $8,896. Positive result was in line with industry expectations.
Demonstrating Brit auds growing appetite for 3-D cinema, female teen-skewed “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus” pocketed $478,404 from just 65 screens. Location average of $7,360 trailed only “10,000 BC.”
Brit horror “The Cottage” banked an underwhelming $601,325 at 260 for Pathe. Result for the “18” certified horror starring Andy Serkis met bookers’ modest expectations.
Colin Farrell starrer “In Bruges” continues to rustle up more than decent trade in Ireland. It followed up its punchy bow with a soph sesh decline of just 19% for a running cume of $1.7 million. Pic opens in U.K. on April 18.
Promising previews for “Horton Hears a Who!” and “The Spiderwick Chronicles” this weekend have bookers enthused about prospects for B.O. biz over upcoming Easter weekend.
In Italy, “10,000 BC” didn’t nail the numero uno spot, which was retained by local comic Carlo Verdone’s smash hit “Grande, grosso e Verdone” (Big, Bad and Verdone).
But “10,000 BC” did score the Italo frame’s highest per screen average — $6,330 — opening at number two with $2.9 million from 454 via Warner Bros.
Veteran Verdone’s assemblage of skits revolving around some of his revived stock characters pulled $4 million from 693 for a big, bad $14.7 million cume via Aurelio De Laurentiis’ Filmauro.
Meanwhile, Sidney Lumet’s noir “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” opened at a lively $1.3 million off 277 via Medusa at number three.
Sony’s “The Water Horse” rode into Italy making a decent splash with $645,000 from 176 via Sony at number 5.
Russian mob saga “We Own the Night” didn’t particularly excite. Brooklyn-set James Gray pic debuted at number 6 with a mere $480,000 from 202 via BIM Distribuzione.
Winona Ryder starrer “Sex and Death 101” also failed to elicit much excitement, pulling a paltry $253,000 from 91 via Moviemax.
But the Italo frame’s biggest B.O. stinker was New Line founder Bob Shaye’s kid pic “The Last Mimzy,” which only drew $40,000 from 69 screens via Eagle Pictures for the weekend's lowest per-screen average of $580.
In Spain, Fox’s second-placed "Horton Hears a Who!" opened limply at $1.9 million on 477 for a $4,187 copy average. "10,000 BC” retained top spot for the second weekend on the trot with $2.2 million at 475 screens toward a cume of $7.8 million. UPI's "The Spiderwick Chronicles" took $1.1 million from 292 and placed third.
"Fox didn't hit the nail on the head,” said a local booker. “They didn't exploit 'Horton's’ smart humor. Most people guessed it was a pic just for families and tykes."
Sony's "The Water Horse" sunk a disappointing 58% in its soph Spanish sesh for a $1.6 million cume.
" 'Horse' has a really off-putting title in Spanish (“My Monster and Me,” literally). Can you imagine a father alongside his son at the ticket booth: ‘Please, two tickets for ‘My Monster and Me,’ " a distribber joked.
Nazi concentration camp-set "The Counterfeiters" opened strongly, taking $549,537 at just 98 via Wanda. The claustrophobic thriller, which collected the foreign-language Oscar, posted the weekend’s best copy average — $5,784.
Boosted by its buzz at Sundance and plenty of media coverage at home in Germany, Dennis Gansel’s local drama “The Wave” capsized last weekend’s champ “10,000 BC,” taking the top spot with $3,271,602 from 279.
The Constantin Film pic, a remake of a 1981 ABC TV movie about a high school experiment that goes awry, turning a political science class into a group of neo-brownshirts and its charismatic teacher into a modern-day Fuehrer, scored an excellent per-location average of $11,726.
Fox’s “Horton Hears a Who!” came in a close second with $3,269,129, but from a much higher copy count of 809.
The Dr. Seuss adaptation was far behind the first-weekend results of Fox’s “Ice Age” and “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown,” but on par with Fox’s 2005 “Robots.”
Universum/Disney’s hit eco docu “Earth” continued its strong performance through its sixth frame, raking in $2.1 million from 421 for a running cume of $23.1 million.
“10,000 BC” dropped 34% to fourth, garnering $1.9 million from 728 toward a $5.6 million total.
Constantin’s “Step Up 2 the Streets” rounded out the top five with $1.7 million and a $4.3 million cume.
The only other new opener, Turkish comedy “Recep Ivedik,” took in $916,705 from only 62 copies, giving it the best per-location average of the week ($14,785). Pic’s success underscores the box office might of Germany’s sizeable Turkish community.
Down only 13% on the week in its third frame, French smash “Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis” is still selling four times the tickets of its nearest rival. Averaging 3,050 viewers per screen nationwide, its cume now totals a mind-blowing $109.5 million for Pathe — putting it well on the way to being the biggest domestic grosser in French history.
New releases still managed some decent returns though. “10,000 BC” earned $3.5 million in its first five days on 562 for Warners. Local cops and robbers caper “MR 73,” toplining Daniel Auteuil, made Gaumont $2.8 million on 622 over the same period.
Continuing the quite remarkable box office dominance being shown by local product, “Female Agents” (Les Femmes de l’ombre) fell off 28% in it second frame, cuming $4.3 million for TFM.
Gallic helmer Pierre Morel’s kidnapping/spy tale “Taken” was down only 12% on the week in its third frame. The cume for EuropaCorp stands at $5.9 million.
Additional reporting by Ed Meza (Germany), Emilio Mayorga (Spain), Nick Vivarelli (Italy) and David Hayhurst (France).
