posted 03-31-2007 09:35 PM                    

quote: Mike Schindler

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Maybe I'm going crazy, but I'd swear to God that when we opened CHICKEN LITTLE, we had a 3D version of that DLP snipe. Can anyone confirm this thing's existence?

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posted 03-31-2007 10:51 PM                    

quote: Steve Guttag

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Can anyone cofirm...the grosses on this movie aren't exactly living up to predictions nor commanding anything great because it is 3-D...and that is with a typical $2 surcharge in this area for the 3-D version.

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posted 04-01-2007 04:43 PM                    

quote: Steve Guttag

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Can anyone cofirm...the grosses on this movie aren't exactly living up to predictions nor commanding anything great because it is 3-D...and that is with a typical $2 surcharge in this area for the 3-D version.

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quote:

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By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer
1 hour, 22 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - Stars-on-ice Will Ferrell and Jon Heder took the box office gold for the weekend. Paramount and DreamWorks' "Blades of Glory," with Ferrell and Heder playing figure-skating rivals who become the sport's first men's pair, debuted as the No. 1 movie with $33 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Disney's animated adventure "Meet the Robinsons," about the time-traveling journey of a brilliant but lonely orphan, debuted in second place with $25.1 million.

The previous weekend's top movie — the Warner Bros. animated tale "TMNT," a revival of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" franchise — slipped to fourth place with $9.2 million, down a steep 62 percent from its $24.3 million debut. "TMNT" raised its 10-day total to $38.4 million.

After a monthlong surge, the overall box office declined. The top 12 movies took in $115 million, down 13 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Ice Age: The Meltdown" opened with $68 million.

"This is still a good weekend, a pretty healthy one-two punch with `Blades of Glory' and `Meet the Robinsons' at the top," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

Movie attendance is up 4 percent so far this year, Dergarabedian said.

Teaming with "Napoleon Dynamite" star Heder on "Blades of Glory," Ferrell scored the second-best opening of his career, behind last summer's "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," which took in $47 million in its first weekend.

"It starts with a great concept, and the whole picture was cast so well," said DreamWorks spokesman Marvin Levy. "Another part of the surprise was, we got a ton of very, very good reviews."

"Meet the Robinsons" played in about 3,400 theaters and did especially well in a 3-D version at 600 cinemas, said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney. The studio did not have a precise breakdown, but cinemas reported that screens playing the 3-D version pulled in about double the grosses of theaters running the regular 2-D version, Viane said.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Blades of Glory," $33 million.

2. "Meet the Robinsons," $25.1 million.

3. "300," $11.2 million.

4. "TMNT," $9.2 million.

5. "Wild Hogs," $8.4 million.

6. "Shooter," $8 million.

7. "Premonition," $5.1 million.

8. "The Last Mimzy," $4 million.

9. "The Hills Have Eyes 2," $3.9 million.

10. "Reign Over Me," $3.7 million.

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posted 04-02-2007 02:43 AM                    

quote:

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'Blades' Takes Gold, 'Robinsons' Merits Silver
by Brandon Gray
April 1, 2007

Two broad comedies, Blades of Glory and Meet the Robinsons, skated to the top of the box office as last weekend's releases slipped. After four up weekends in a row, overall business was down eleven percent from the same time last year when Ice Age: The Meltdown opened to a spectacular $68 million.

Taking a comparable tack as Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby but with figure-skating instead of car racing, Blades of Glory landed an estimated $33 million on around 4,400 screens at 3,372 venues. In the vicinity of DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story's debut, the over $60 million picture starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder scored the fourth highest-grossing start ever for a sports comedy and was the second-highest for Ferrell behind Talladega. Paramount Pictures distributed the DreamWorks and MTV Films co-production, which was also produced by Ben Stiller's Red Hour Films (Dodgeball).

In Blades of Glory, Ferrell reprised the over-the-top, boorish, wittily dim-witted type of character that served him well in Talladega Nights and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, his only post-Elf successes. Though Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) was promoted as the co-lead early in Blades' marketing campaign, television ads, posters and billboards leading up to the picture's release pushed Ferrell and excluded Heder. "You lead with your strongest hitter," said DreamWorks spokesman Marvin Levy, though he did not cede the Ferrell focus late in the game. Levy added that the audience was 53 percent under 25 years old and slightly female, according to the studio's preliminary exit polling, while moviegoer pollster CinemaScore's grade was "A-."

Meet the Robinsons launched at $25.1 million on 4,400 screens at 3,413 theaters, which included digital 3-D presentations on 587 screens at 484 locations. Though distributor Buena Vista didn't have a precise breakout, the 3-D presentations grossed twice as much on average as the regular version. The computer-animated comedy's debut was solid by the recently lowered standards of the genre, but it was significantly less than Chicken Little and Robots among similar movies.

"It's right on the expectation level [of $25 to $28 million]," said Chuck Viane, Buena Vista's president of distribution. "And of course we're playing into the Easter holiday which begins Monday and by Friday 80 percent of kids will be out of school." Buena Vista's polling indicated that the audience was 78 percent families and 53 percent female, while the CinemaScore was "A-."

Meet the Robinsons's manic ads sold the comedy, centering on gags involving a Tyrannosaurus Rex, singing frogs and a hyper lady with caffeine patches, but not the story, which could only be gleamed from the trailer.

Among holdovers, 300 was still in the fight, falling 44 percent to an estimated $11.2 million for $179.7 million in 24 days. Its IMAX runs accounted for $1.5 million of the weekend, down 29 percent, and $15 million of the total. March's other breakout hit, Wild Hogs, had its steepest drop yet, 39 percent, but nonetheless grossed an estimated $8.4 million. With $135.4 million in 31 days, it surpassed Bringing Down the House, which distributor Buena Vista had used as a model for its release.

Aside from Shooter, last weekend's slew of new releases plummeted in their second weekend. After being heralded as a franchise revival upon its No. 1 debut, TMNT devolved 62 percent to an estimated $9.2 million for $38.4 million in 10 days and, at its current trajectory, will likely be the least-attended of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies.

Particularly alarming was The Last Mimzy, the New Line Cinema family picture that was depending on word-of-mouth for long-term playability. It slid 60 percent to an estimated $4 million for a mere $16.2 million in 10 days. The Hills Have Eyes 2 dove 59 percent to an estimated $3.9 million, when its predecessor was down 49 percent in its second weekend with twice the gross. Two dramas, Reign Over Me and Pride, evaporated as well.

Shooter had a typical drop of 45 percent to an estimated $8 million. The $60 million-plus action picture's 10-day total stands at a flabby $27.2 million.

The weekend saw a marketing experiment from Universal Pictures. The studio re-issued Peaceful Warrior, a drama that made a meager $1.1 million last summer under Lionsgate's tutelage. To build word-of-mouth, Universal offered $15 million worth of tickets through retailer Best Buy that people could redeem for free at 615 theaters on this weekend only, and another $2 million was spent on prints and advertising. According to Universal, about 250,000 tickets were redeemed and the movie generated the equivalent of $2.1 million, 11 percent of which came from paying moviegoers. The unconventional release means the picture will not be listed on the box office charts, though it will continue for paying audiences through the week.

Also opening, The Lookout limped to an estimated $2 million at 955 sites, which ranks near the bottom among heist pictures.

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