..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 Wardrobe Challenge ... I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry celebrated an estimated $34.7 million to take a closely contested box office weekend. Also in the fray were the second weekend gross of $32.4 million for Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix and a debut frame of $28.2 million for the musical hijinx of Hairspray. The session also included good returns of $370,000 for the Bollywood circuit entry Partner and a potent gross for the science-fiction rumination Sunshine of $223,000 from 10 venues. There was just OK response for the historical drama Goya's Ghosts of $150,000 and, in Canada, the comedy My Crazy Aunt tallied up $140,000. Overall box office experienced a slight upturn from 2006 that was just enough to push seasonal revenues ahead of last year's pace. Entering the frame industry expectations were predicting that Harry Potter would prevail with Chuck and Larry clocking in with between $25 million and $30 million and Hairspray pushing hard to gross $20 million. Friday matinees tipped a far different result with the musical taking an early lead that began to dissipate as evening patrons began buying tickets. Though there was initial concern that the two premiering pictures would appeal to similar parts of the audience and eat into each other box office, the reality proved far different. Chuck and Larry was the clear choice for young males while Hairspray drew predominantly a distaff crowd. Both films had strong opening day response and experienced slight drops on Saturday. Meanwhile the fifth screen installment of the Harry Potter series saw its business decline by a larger than expected 58%; considerably more precipitous than it's experienced in the past. The publication of the seventh and final book in the series likely drew away devotees and one will have to wait a week to see whether faster readers will return to the multiplex for a refresher course. Weekend ticket sales approached $155 million that translated into a 16% rollback from seven days earlier. However, it stilled exceeded the 2006 frame when Pirates 2 held for a third weekend with $35.2 million and debuts of Monster House and Lady in the Water entered distribution with grosses of $22.2 million and $18 million. The current weekend pushed seasonal box office to $2.62 billion compared to last year's $2.61 billion for the same period. While the promise of a huge boost in movie going was predicted that clearly hasn't occurred though continued incremental weekly tallies could ultimately result in a slight boost in admissions by the Labor Day deadline. It's premature to give Fox Searchlight the hat trick though there's little question it's propelled Sunshine to a hot start following of the heels of its niche successes Waitress and Once. Certainly no company can claim such terrific mileage this season on films with single word titles. - Leonard Klady Weekend Finals - July 20-22, 2007 - - Title Distrib Weekend % Change* Theaters Cume Wks 1 New I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry Uni 34,233,750 - 3495 34,233,750 1 2 1 Harry Potter & the Order of Phoenix WB 32,511,350 -58% 4285 207,866,865 2 3 New Hairspray New Line 27,476,745 - 3121 27,476,745 1 4 2 Transformers Par 20,514,497 -45% 3762 262,978,000 3 5 3 Ratatouille BV 10,899,179 -39% 3402 165,519,955 4 6 4 Live Free or Die Hard Fox 7,101,638 -37% 2727 116,267,866 4 7 5 License to Wed WB 3,577,230 -51% 2525 38,495,133 3 8 6 1408 MGM 2,621,194 -47% 1451 67,453,524 5 9 7 Evan Almighty Uni 2,552,890 -48% 1779 93,567,015 5 10 8 Knocked Up Uni 2,292,640 -38% 1288 142,698,885 8 11 9 Sicko LGF/Alliance 1,945,723 -25% 1117 19,185,853 5 12 10 Ocean's Thirteen WB 1,012,427 -49% 750 114,533,366 7 13 11 Fantastic Four: Rise of Silver Surfer Fox 751,826 -54% 601 128,879,368 6 14 13 Pirates of Caribbean: At World's End BVI 730,059 -48% 517 306,034,458 9 15 New Partner Eros 584,285 - 58 584,285 1 16 17 La Vie en Rose TVA/Picturehouse 405,474 -25% 179 7,427,625 18 17 14 Evening Focus 397,034 -66% 396 12,004,435 4 18 15 Shrek the Third Par 384,110 -42% 408 318,937,940 10 19 19 Talk to Me Focus 355,680 -11% 36 909,289 2 20 21 Rescue Dawn MGM 349,842 -4% 57 1,117,279 3 21 12 Captivity FreeStyle 318,545 -78% 754 2,423,760 2 22 18 Spider-Man 3 Sony 315,483 -38% 318 335,625,539 12 23 16 You Kill Me IFC 306,609 -48% 252 2,064,987 5 24 22 Once Fox Searchlight 288,087 -12% 112 5,541,181 10 25 New Sunshine Fox Searchlight 242,964 - 10 242,964 1 26 62 Meet the Robinsons BV 220,955 1266% 231 97,002,175 17 27 23 Surf's Up Sony 190,516 -38% 241 57,329,096 7 28 New Ma Tante Aline Alliance 182,288 - 65 182,288 1 29 31 Deep Sea 3-D WB 171,636 4% 30 30,159,876 73 30 20 Nancy Drew WB 171,076 -56% 225 24,654,006 6 31 24 Waitress Fox Searchlight 167,923 -38% 165 18,223,592 12 32 New Goya's Ghosts IDP 159,671 - 49 159,671 1 33 29 Wild Hogs BV 157,456 -18% 221 168,005,066 21 55 The Lives of Others Sony Classics 153,721 487% 253 11,032,457 24 35 25 Nitro Alliance 127,041 -43% 74 2,850,690 4 36 27 Disturbia Par 115,691 -42% 190 79,886,463 15 37 34 Broken English Magnolia 89,940 6% 39 490,890 4 38 30 Paris je t'aime First Look 89,163 -39% 64 4,608,310 11 39 43 My Best Friend IFC/Christal 84,728 87% 13 152,858 2 40 28 A Mighty Heart Par Vantage 75,817 -62% 107 9,016,723 5 41 33 Introducing the Dwights WIP 72,458 -23% 70 263,040 3 42 32 Blades of Glory Par 66,046 -33% 139 118,425,692 17 43 RE Hostel Part II Lions Gate 65,634 - 149 17,657,661 7 44 36 Lady Chatterley Kino 62,293 -14% 22 296,266 5 45 35 Golden Door Miramax 57,174 -27% 33 799,673 9