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

July 15, 2007 Weekend Finals Domestic Market Share Ashes to Ashes, Gold to Gold ... Hari Potter, Harry Potter Potter, Potter, Hari, Harry To no great surprise Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix, its fifth screen installment, went to the head of the class with an estimated $76.8 million. The only other film to venture out nationally was the oft-delayed Captivity that registered a weak fettering of $1.4 million. The session also included excellent debuts for limited releases including the historical drama Talk to Me and Interview, based on the controversial Dutch film by Theo Van Gogh. For no obvious reason, HP5 bowed last Wednesday and entered the weekend with $62.6 million in the bank. However, the spur for the jump start was clearly the international marketplace where many territories debut new films on Wednesday or Thursday. Warner Bros. is projecting the first seven days domestically will exceed $160 million and that would be the fastest pace for any film in the series (though admissions would trail those of chapter #4). The latest screen edition has also served up a tremendous amount of free publicity and awareness for author J.K. Rowling's seventh and final (?) Harry Potter novel that hits book stands imminently. Despite the significant chunk of change Harry transposed to the mid-week, weekend revenues climbed for the first time in more than a month. Close to $180 million was spent on movie tickets during the current session to register a modest 2% bump from seven days earlier and a more impressive 12% boost from 2006 when the second Pirates of the Caribbean entered its second frame with $62.3 million and freshmen arrivals Little Man and You, Me and Dupree followed with grosses of $21.6 million and $21.5 million. Transformers experienced close to a 50% decline but with a domestic tally of more than $220 million the picture is well ahead of expectations and the key question to confront is when to date the sequel. In a season that's largely been characterized by sequels and retreads not quite living up to inflated expectations, the surprises so far are the much writ about Knocked Up and 1408. The latter, adapted from the Stephen King canon, has taken the industry off guard and not simply because it was released by MGM. Scary movies are supposed to experience 50% declines and disappear from the marketplace after four weeks. Now in its seventh weekend, 1408 had as good a hold as any wide release (-31%) and at its current pace should gross about $80 million. The true life antics and inspiration of 60s era D.C. radio personality "Petey" Greene proved unexpectedly potent for Talk to Me, generating about $398,000 from 33 venues. Still, there's little question that the material is a difficult sell and significant care will be required as it expands nationally. One can see the strains already for Rescue Dawn that debuted on July 4 and added 32 theaters in its second weekend. While its per engagement average remained potent, a big question looms as to whether the expansion has been too cautious considering the attention its received. The sessions other limited newcomers played well in the niches with the French import My Best Friend (Patrice Leconte venturing into Veber territory) racking up roughly $45,000 from three screens and Interview ringing up better then $40,000 in six head to heads. - Leonard Klady Weekend Finals - July 13-15, 2007 - - Title Distrib Weekend % Change* Theaters Cume Wks 1 New Harry Potter & the Order of Phoenix WB 77,108,414 - 4285 139,715,157 1 2 1 Transformers Par 37,027,901 -47% 4050 224,009,583 2 3 2 Ratatouille BV 18,012,196 -38% 3625 142,997,082 3 4 3 Live Free or Die Hard Fox 11,279,135 -36% 3201 103,322,580 3 5 4 License to Wed WB 7,311,297 -30% 2715 30,379,749 2 6 6 1408 MGM 4,934,516 -30% 2206 62,127,222 4 7 5 Evan Almighty Uni 4,895,055 -44% 2697 87,790,505 4 8 7 Knocked Up Uni 3,676,500 -30% 1710 138,217,270 7 9 9 Sicko LGF/Alliance 2,604,139 -28% 756 15,830,046 4 10 10 Ocean's Thirteen WB 1,984,323 -44% 1244 112,506,702 6 11 8 Fantastic Four: Rise of Silver Surfer Fox 1,633,612 -61% 1312 127,192,730 5 12 New Captivity FreeStyle 1,429,100 - 1061 1,429,100 1 13 11 Pirates of Caribbean: At World's End BVI 1,396,749 -54% 928 304,454,423 8 14 12 Evening Focus 1,156,407 -51% 760 10,842,501 3 15 13 Shrek the Third Par 662,041 -57% 644 318,079,835 9 16 24 You Kill Me IFC 589,368 139% 247 1,514,156 4 17 17 La Vie en Rose TVA/Picturehouse 537,399 -11% 172 6,720,304 17 18 21 Spider-Man 3 Sony 512,393 69% 447 335,002,361 11 19 New Talk to Me Focus 402,000 - 33 402,000 1 20 15 Nancy Drew WB 390,766 -57% 425 24,183,030 5 21 29 Rescue Dawn MGM 363,093 229% 38 591,998 2 22 18 Once Fox Searchlight 326,664 -26% 116 5,082,298 9 23 14 Surf's Up Sony 308,042 -69% 403 56,869,271 6 24 20 Waitress Fox Searchlight 271,236 -30% 190 17,896,730 11 25 19 Nitro Alliance 223,769 -47% 98 2,404,649 3 26 39 Joshua Fox Searchlight 214,153 318% 151 288,743 2 27 22 Disturbia Par 200,099 -34% 232 79,654,902 14 28 16 A Mighty Heart Par Vantage 198,755 -69% 176 8,837,910 4 29 23 Wild Hogs BV 192,580 -23% 253 167,729,718 20 30 25 Paris je t'aime First Look 145,543 -29% 91 4,429,608 11 31 27 Deep Sea 3-D WB 141,243 -16% 30 29,756,966 72 32 28 Blades of Glory Par 98,998 -30% 175 118,344,900 16 33 56 Introducing the Dwights WIP 94,423 240% 35 148,293 2 34 33 Broken English Magnolia 84,807 12% 28 356,705 4 35 35 Golden Door Miramax 78,115 10% 30 708,562 8 36 59 Lady Chatterley Kino 72,660 267% 16 192,097 4 37 30 Are We Done Yet? Sony 72,575 -26% 141 49,956,902 15 38 26 Mr. Brooks MGM 62,066 -57% 114 28,141,974 7 39 New Naqaab Tips 58,025 - 25 58,025 1 40 40 Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia Sky High 52,771 14% 9 649,857 16 41 51 Magnificent Desolation Imax 46,099 45% 5 20,132,282 94 42 32 The Invisible BV 45,834 -43% 99 20,524,319 12 43 New My Best Friend IFC 45,246 - 3 45,246 1 44 34 Delta Farce Lions Gate 43,203 -41% 81 8,429,343 10 45 42 Wild Safari 3-D nWave 43,350 3% 10 13,988,904 119