..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

July 10, 2005 Weekend Finals Market Share Limited Releases It's Clobberin' Time .. Kinda' Fantastic Four was the fantastic one as it pummeled the competition with an estimated $55.9 million to lead weekend box office options. Combined with strong holdovers and a buoyant bows for the Quebec drama Aurore and Ingmar Bergman's cinematic swan song, overall business did the unexpected - it was on a par with 2004 for the first time in close to five months. The latest adaptation from the Marvel comic book canon, Fantastic Four proved to be more commercially potent than even the most optimistic industry pundits had anticipated. Entering the weekend, the aggressive marketing campaign was expected to translate into a gross of between $40 million to $45 million in the wake of scathing reviews. However, it's opening day gross of $21 million immediately raised the bar several notches. The frame also featured the bow of Dark Water, a chiller adapted from a hit Japanese horror movie. The high gloss programmer performed respectably if in an unexceptional manner with a box office of $10.2 million that placed it third in the lineup. Last week's holiday leader War of the Worlds was sandwiched between the freshmen with $30.3 million. Its 53% drop came as no surprise as marketing strategies that concentrate on opening weekends have evolved into steep second weekend drops. In the course of the past five years tent poles that were viewed anxiously when they fell by one-third are now considered buoyant performers. Weekend business should clock in with slightly better than a $150 million tally that is a virtual carbon copy of 2004's box office. As Fantastic Four wasn't expected to come close to a $50 million gross, the industry was digging in for a 20th consecutive week of declining grosses. While admissions still trailed past summers, there was a sense of, minimally, a partial victory and the vague hope that such upcoming releases as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Island and The Dukes of Hazard will provide a late summer surge. The marketplace leaders, including Batman Begins and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, remained relatively resilient with limited release alternative fare such as March of the Penguins and You and Me and Everything You Know expanding to great effect. In regional openings, the Quebec period drama Aurore had a strong debut of roughly $650,000. Based on a notorious court case centering on the possible murder of a young child, it resonated with local audiences. Niche entries were spearheaded by Ingmar Bergman's Saraband, a continuation of the characters from his 1973 Scenes from a Marriage -both originally produced for television. The sober-sided human saga generated a potent near $9,000 per screen from four locations. Also impressive was the documentary Murderball about wheelchair athletes that grossed about $54,000 from eight venues. Less encouraging were the Ecuadorian thriller Cronicas with $42,600 in nine theaters and The Beautiful Country grossing $22,700 from six installations. - by Leonard Klady