..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

March 25, 2007 Weekend Finals Domestic Market Share Target: Cowabunga ... TNMT - aka Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - led weekend movie going with an estimated $25.6 million. In a session dominated by openings of six national releases box office grew but there was no getting around the fact that the preems weren't quite at peak box office potential. Shooter, the Mark Wahlberg political thriller ranked third with $14.4 million while the kid lit fave The Last Mimzy was two rungs down at roughly $10 million. Less boffo were the horror retread The Hills Have Eyes II with $9.8 million, the off-the-groove Adam Sandler vehicle Reign Over Me grossing $7.8 million and the African American sport sage Pride treading water at $3.7 million. Activity in the niches was equally fierce with good returns for the Bollywood entry Namestey London of $250,000 as well as a $140,000 bite for the shark documentary Sharkwater and a $17,000 plus screen average for Journey from the Fall, the saga of Vietnamese refugees in 1975. Casualties included John Malkovich's star turn in the black comic Color Me Kubrick and the talky ensembler What Love Is. Overall box office revenues approached $140 million for a tidy 19% boost from seven days earlier. It was even more buoyant with the comparative 2006 frame with a 29% uptick. However, a year ago there were just three freshmen offerings with Inside Man and Stay Alive ranked first and third with respective grosses of $29 million and $10.7 million. The glut of new product has the year to date 12% improved from the prior year's pace. Fourteen years after the last cinematic excursion of the Turtles, the resurrected TNMT debuted to roughly the same box office as the second outing in 1991. That film topped out just shy of $80 million and a similar path for the current incarnation would be not unwelcome with foreign and ancillary revenues in the pot. The film bowed day and date in the U.K. and Australia but largely got shellacked by the competition. 300 slipped to second spot with an impressive $20.2 million for the session. The film is also dominating international screens with top rankings in its weekend bows in France, Mexico, Spain and Great Britain. Fueled by strong reviews and a young male audience, Shooter edged ahead of Wild Hogs in its opening weekend. While it posted better than average potency, one can't help but feel its full force was blunted by the volume of new product. That wasn't quite the case with the horror sequel The Hills Have Eyes II but its burn out quotient is expected to be relatively extreme. The frame's two biggest marketing challenges also proved to be its biggest disappointments. The more serious inclined Adam Sandler-Don Cheadle Reign Over Me wasn't drawing in Sandler's core crowd and potential new converts could in no way makeup up for the defections. Pride, starring Terrence Howard as an inspirational coach, was perhaps too familiar a template despite the unusual milieu of aquatic sports. Competition in the alternative arena was equally demanding, particularly for films bowing in a handful or fewer locations. Foreign-language entries included Offside from Iran and the French entry The Page Turner had respectable respective per theater averages of $3,600 and $8,900 but neither reached the heights to escape the confines of the art house circuit. Similar assessments apply to the counter culture doc Air Guitar Nation, the gay themed Boy Culture and the American indie First Snow that had initial engagements in two or three theaters. However, the apotheosis of the current cutthroat environment for alternative fare is best exemplified by Color Me Kubrick. The idiosyncratic comedy-drama based on the true story of a man who posed as the famous filmmaker received generally strong critical support and had a recognizable lead performer to promote. However, the combined noise level of new movies both in the mainstream and niches pretty much drowned those assets out and the film failed to generate even $2,000 from 19 venues. - Leonard Klady Weekend Finals - March 23 - 25, 2007 Title Distrib Weekend % Change Theaters Cume Wks 1 New TNMT WB 24,255,205 - 3110 24,255,205 1 2 1 300 WB 19,862,491 -40% 3280 161,706,146 3 3 New Shooter Par 14,523,571 - 2806 14,523,571 1 4 2 Wild Hogs BV 13,850,542 -27% 3401 123,303,817 4 5 New The Last Mimzy New Line 10,024,819 - 3017 10,024,819 1 6 New The Hills Have Eyes II Fox 9,686,362 - 2447 9,686,362 1 7 3 Premonition Sony 9,562,739 -45% 2831 31,653,484 2 8 New Reign Over Me Sony 7,460,690 - 1671 7,460,690 1 9 New Pride Lions Gate 3,533,300 - 1518 3,533,300 1 10 4 Dead Silence Uni 3,440,415 -56% 1806 13,216,140 2 11 5 I Think I Love My Wife Fox Searchlight 2,769,349 -51% 1794 10,048,530 2 12 6 Bridge to Terabithia BV 2,323,868 -55% 2010 78,873,979 6 13 7 Ghost Rider Sony 1,678,864 -60% 1560 113,216,624 6 14 12 Amazing Grace IDP 1,476,109 -30% 932 16,790,093 5 15 17 The Namesake Fox Searchlight 1,306,819 83% 117 2,640,299 3 16 8 Zodiac Par 1,168,965 -64% 872 31,639,642 4 17 9 Norbit Par 965,543 -65% 1006 94,053,460 7 18 10 Music and Lyrics WB 875,423 -61% 875 49,163,340 6 19 15 The Lives of Others Sony Classics 742,648 -7% 232 5,672,720 7 20 New Namastey London Eros 578,224 - 65 578,224 1 21 14 Night at the Museum Fox 563,540 -33% 427 246,926,396 14 22 13 Breach Uni 505,095 -66% 457 32,427,985 6 23 19 Happy Feet WB 395,313 -36% 405 197,207,309 19 24 11 The Number 23 New Line 335,403 -84% 505 35,063,732 5 25 28 The Host Magnolia 269,884 10% 94 1,057,280 3 26 22 Pan's Labyrinth Picturehouse 251,003 -45% 207 36,673,437 13 27 29 La Vie en Rose TVA 230,071 -6% 42 632,564 2 28 32 Deep Sea 3-D WB 211,166 2% 35 25,208,963 56 29 27 The Pursuit of Happyness Sony 196,518 -22% 283 163,872,868 15 30 16 The Ultimate Gift Bigger Picture 191,399 -76% 183 3,018,257 3 31 39 The Wind That Shakes the Barley IFC/Christal 158,537 59% 39 398,703 2 32 30 The Messengers Sony 155,094 -32% 255 35,585,820 9 33 23 The Last King of Scotland Fox Searchlight 152,661 -58% 136 17,170,865 26 34 34 Miss Potter MGM 149,791 -20% 77 1,669,927 13 35 31 Charlotte's Web Par 134,416 -39% 251 82,734,184 15 36 33 Blood Diamond WB 132,669 -31% 195 57,194,978 16 37 20 Daddy's Little Girls Lions Gate 130,318 -78% 152 31,339,647 6 38 New Sharkwater Alliance 124,167 - 25 124,167 1 39 21 The Astronaut Farmer WB 117,543 -78% 225 10,682,489 5 40 26 The Queen Miramax 117,419 -63% 143 56,002,774 26 41 40 Avenue Montaigne (Orchestra Seats) Thinkfilm/Seville 107,685 14% 29 806,557 26 42 18 Black Snake Moan Par Vantage 102,206 -85% 136 9,188,883 4 43 24 Because I Said So Uni 93,540 -73% 152 42,544,915 8 44 New Journey from the Fall ImaginAsia 87,442 - 4 87,442 1 45 43 Epic Movie  Fox 74,265 -11% 122 39,598,585 9 46 36 Stomp the Yard Sony 70,114 -48% 135 61,466,753 11 47 42 The Painted Veil WIP 68,350 -24% 81 7,848,366 14 48 44 Volver Sony Class/Seville 61,227 -23% 70 13,698,504 21 49 41 Fido TVA 60,740 -34% 48 181,481 2 50 35 Dreamgirls Par   60,710 -65% 103 103,011,182 15 51 25 Reno 911!: Miami Fox 60,183 -82% 126 20,216,440 5 52 52 Roving Mars BV 51,837 -13% 14 6,512,872 61 53 38 Notes on a Scandal Fox Searchlight 48,105 -53% 65 17,333,306 13 54 45 Ma Fille, Mon Ange Alliance 40,721 -48% 40 2,265,476 6 55 51 Eragon Fox 40,402 -33% 71 74,989,944 15 56 49 Breaking and Entering Weinstein Co. 39,178 -42% 50 880,510 9