posted 04-07-2007 06:40 PM                    

quote: John Wilson

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7 minutes is not enough time to go pee, buy popcorn and whatever...the second feature's start is going to be missed by a lot of patrons and they won't be happy.

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posted 04-07-2007 11:22 PM                    

quote: Aaron Mehocic

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Why does everything with these guys have to be so macabre or alternative?

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posted 04-08-2007 05:09 PM                    

quote:

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'Blades' Stays on Top With $23 Million

Sunday April 8 1:35 PM ET

Movie audiences were more interested in light comedy over Easter weekend than in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's "Grindhouse," a double-feature ode to bloody exploitation flicks.

Paramount and DreamWorks' figure-skating romp "Blades of Glory" remained the No. 1 movie with $23 million, followed for the second weekend by Disney's animated comedy "Meet the Robinsons" with $17 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"Grindhouse," a three-hour reinvention of the down-and-dirty B-movie double features Tarantino and Rodriguez grew up watching, debuted at No. 4 with $11.6 million.

It finished behind Sony's family comedy "Are We Done Yet?", starring Ice Cube in a sequel to "Are We There Yet?", which opened at No. 3 with $15 million.

Released by the Weinstein Co., "Grindhouse" fell well short of expectations. Box-office forecasters had figured the movie would premiere in the ballpark of Tarantino's two "Kill Bill" movies and Rodriguez's "Sin City," whose opening weekends ranged from $22 million to $29 million.

The weak debut for "Grindhouse" was a blow to the Weinstein Co., formed two years ago by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein after they departed their old outfit, Disney-owned Miramax. The "Grindhouse" directors were steady providers for the Weinsteins at Miramax, which released Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill" films and Rodriguez's "Spy Kids" movies.

"Grindhouse" presents two full films. Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" features Rose McGowan as a go-go dancer who becomes a zombie fighter with a machine gun for a leg. Tarantino's "Death Proof" stars Kurt Russell as a serial killer who stalks women with his beefed-up car.

"With these two filmmakers' pedigree and the overall cool factor that this film had going for it, you would have figured it would have done a lot more business," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

The movie's running time was an impediment, limiting the number of screenings theaters could fit in.

Harvey Weinstein said disappointing returns for "Grindhouse" resulted from the "novelty in America of releasing a double bill and asking an audience to make a three-hour commitment."

"Grindhouse" played to big crowds on the East and West coasts but failed to click with audiences in the Midwest and South, Weinstein said.

With theatrical receipts, overseas sales, television and home-video revenues, "Grindhouse" will turn a profit on its $53 million budget, Weinstein said. The company hoped that word of mouth from those who did see it would sustain it at theaters in coming weeks, he said.

"If you go see it with any audience, walk into any theater, you'll see people screaming and applauding like a rock concert," Weinstein said. "Maybe we didn't educate the audience that it's such an experience."

Movie-goers clearly were in the mood for something lighter. "Blades of Glory," starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as skating rivals who team up as the sport's first men's pair, raised its 10-day total to $68.4 million, its receipts dropping a slim 30 percent from opening weekend.

"There's a real hunger out there for something that you can go to and say, 'Hey, let me get away from the terrible things we have to watch and read every day,'" said Marvin Levy, spokesman for DreamWorks, one of the studios behind "Blades of Glory."

"Meet the Robinsons," the animated adventure of a time-traveling orphan boy, also held strongly in its second weekend, raising its 10-day total to $52.2 million.

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," $23 million.

2. "Meet the Robinsons," $17 million.

3. "Are We Done Yet?", $15 million.

4. "Grindhouse," $11.6 million.

5. "The Reaping," $10.1 million.

6. "300," $8.8 million.

7. "Wild Hogs," $6.8 million.

8. "Shooter," $5.8 million.

9. "TMNT," $4.9 million.

10. "Firehouse Dog," $4 million.

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posted 04-08-2007 10:56 PM                    

quote:

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'Grindhouse' Dilapidated Over Easter Weekend
by Brandon Gray
April 8, 2007

Grindhouse had a fawning barrage of media hype behind it and a seemingly built-in audience primed for its brand of nihilistic thrills, but Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez' attempt to revive 1970s schlock was mostly ignored over Easter weekend.

Instead, Blades of Glory held well to capture the gold for the second weekend. Down 30 percent, the figure-skating comedy drew an estimated $23 million, lifting its total to $68.4 million in ten days or about the same as DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story through the same point. Meet the Robinsons clung to second place with an estimated $17 million, off 32 percent for $52.2 million in ten days.

The top debut turned out to be Are We Done Yet?, a combination sequel to Are We There Yet? and loose remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House from 1948. The family comedy nailed an estimated $15 million at 2,877 locations for $19.1 million in five days. It packed less punch than its predecessor, the 2005 surprise hit Are We There Yet?, which opened to $18.6 million, but sequels in this genre seldom live up to their predecessors.

Grindhouse churned out a shabby estimated $11.6 million, the least-attended nationwide start for directors Tarantino and Rodriguez. At 2,624 theaters, the horror double feature wasn't the widest new release, but it had the highest screen count—an estimated 3,700 screens—making up for a showtime-limiting three-hour runtime. If many moviegoers had wanted to rip into Grindhouse, they had plenty of chances.

While nihilistic movies frequently open to higher numbers, Grindhouse rang particularly hollow. The last pictures from Tarantino (the Kill Bill movies) and Rodriguez (Sin City) each debuted to well over $20 million. Each was an unusual success, leading to expectations (including this writer's forecast) that a double-billed event could follow suit.

However, Grindhouse was sold on the directors' names, the style and the novelty instead of story or character. Much of the promotional campaign was dedicated to explaining the term "Grindhouse," blanking out on the point of emulating niche cinema from the '70s in the first place. It couldn't work as a spoof because it lacked identifiable references for today's audiences that patronize similar trash, and it suffered the usual horror comedy dilemma that afflicted Snakes on a Plane and Slither among others: too funny to be scary, too scary to be funny.

What's more, Grindhouse was essentially a horror anthology, and that sub-genre has never been big business. Grindhouse was also a self-referential movie about the movies, and such navel-gazing often leaves the public cold. The promise of lurid thrills can only take a picture so far.

For distributor The Weinstein Company, Grindhouse marks the ninth weak box office performer in a row. Their last hit was Scary Movie 4, which started with $40.2 million on Easter weekend last year. Despite Grindhouse's failure, overall weekend business this year was up five percent from that frame.

Also opening, The Reaping harvested an estimated $10.1 million at 2,603 sites for $12 million in four days. The Warner Bros. supernatural horror's opening was comparable to the studio's previous entry in the genre, last year's The Wicker Man remake.

Firehouse Dog fetched a meager estimated $4 million at 2,860 venues for $5.3 million in four days, which was below average for a live-action animal picture aimed at families.

Among holdovers, March stalwarts 300 and Wild Hogs remained strong, down a little over 20 percent each. 300 claimed an estimated $8.8 million for $193.9 million in 31 days, surpassing the final tally of Gladiator (which still has a five million plus advantage in attendance). Wild Hogs snared an estimated $6.8 million for $145.5 million in 38 days.

In limited release, Lasse Hallstrom's The Hoax hatched a modest estimated $1.5 million debut at 235 sites, while Paul Verhoeven's Black Book bore a soft estimated $120,000 at nine locations.

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