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

September 14, 2008 Weekend Estimates Domestic Market Share Top Domestic Releases Pyromaniac's Revenge In a hotly contested weekend race, the political comedy Burn After Reading emerged as the box office leader with an estimated $19.2 million. Two other debuting titles were right behind with Tyler Perry's relative drama The Family That Preys grossing $18 million and the DeNiro-Pacino cop meller Righteous Kill posting a $16.4 million box office. The session's fourth freshman - an update of 1939's The Women - had to settle with leftovers of $10.8 million. The weekend was also crowded with regional and exclusive bows including near moribund results for the non-fiction Proud Americans of $103,000 in 750 theaters. Best of the limited openers was the darkly comic Towelhead that grossed $54,100 at four sites with an OK return of $17,700 for the doc Flow for start up distributor Oscilloscope. Other debuts including Greetings from the Shore and Tired of Kissing Frogs appeared on the fast track to DVD and VOD. Following last weekend's movie going burn out attendance rallied, bolstered by the flow of seasonal product. Still, one could see sharp declines for the summer holdovers with the most profound drop of 70% experienced by last weekend's leader Bangkok Dangerous. The Coen Brothers Oscar follow up Burn After Reading wasn't expected to top the charts and with critical response generally tilting to the negative its supremacy was all the more surprising. It wound up being the siblings best ever opener and edged ahead of the crowd as a result of wider general appeal than the competition. The latest Afrocentric mix of comedy and angst from Perry - The Family That Preys - that was expected to lead the frame opened with comparable strength but not quite the $20 million that was being tracked. Similarly the older aud appeal of Righteous Kill played to anticipated business. But The Women came up short and pundits were at a loss to explain why the cast and subject matter didn't translate to the fall equivalent of Sex and the City or Mamma Mia! And there's not any talk of the possibility of a second act for this second act. Weekend revenues bounced back to roughly $100 million for a sizeable 54% improvement from last weekend. It was also 33% better than the 2007 session when the bow of The Brave One led with $13.4 million; 3:10 to Yuma held well with $8.9 million and the freshman Mr. Woodcock followed with $8.8 million. Holdover movies largely took it on the chin with erosion rates ranging from 40% to 60%. The only niche that bucked the trend was family fare and especially the 3D engagements of Fly Me to the Moon and Journey to the Center of the Earth. While there's little question that the industry wants to push on from the prevailing doldrums of late summer, it's atypical that audiences should be in lock step. Neither mainstream nor niche movies that caught the last part of the seasonal wave seem likely to have much of a presence by month's end. It's not surprising that anxiety levels have ramped up as the release schedule through Thanksgiving offers little with definitive commercial appeal. Summer box office just scraped by and the prospect of significant drops in attendance through the end of the year would inject a significant psychological shakeup; particularly among theater owners. - Leonard Klady Weekend Estimates - September 12-14, 2008 Title Distributor Gross (average) % change * Theaters Cume Burn After Reading Focus 19.2 (7,250) - 2651 19.2 The Family That Preys Lions Gate 18.0 (8,720) - 2070 18 Righteous Kill Overture 16.4 (5,210) - 3152 16.4 The Women Picturehouse 10.8 (3,400) - 2962 10.8 Tropic Thunder Par 4.2 (1,430) -42% 2927 103 The House Bunny Sony 4.1 (1,490) -25% 2763 42 The Dark Knight WB 4.0 (1,840) -27% 2191 517.7 Bangkok Dangerous Lions Gate 2.4 (890) -70% 2654 12.5 Traitor Overture 2.1 (1,030) -52% 2014 20.7 Death Race Uni 1.9 (940) -49% 2007 33.1 Mamma Mia! Uni 1.8 (1,170) -38% 1517 139.3 Babylon A.D. Fox 1.7 (810) -60% 2062 20.2 Disaster Movie Lions Gate 1.5 (850) -50% 1802 12.6 Fly Me to the Moon Summit 1.3 (1,930) 0% 698 9.8 Vicky Christina Barcelona MGM 1.2 (1,690) -42% 726 18 Pinapple Express Sony 1.1 (1,040) -53% 1030 86 Journey to the Center of the Earth WB 1.1 (1,410) -14% 751 98 Mirrors Fox .87 (860) -51% 1008 29.1 Star Wars: The Clone Wars WB .81 (800) -52% 1005 33.8 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Empire Uni .61 (890) -59% 750 101.5 The Longshots MGM .58 (680) -58% 858 10.7 Wall-E BV .53 (1,050) -32% 504 220.1 Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) $96.10 - - - % Change (Last Year) 33% - - - % Change (Last Week) 54% - - - Also debuting/expanding Elegy IDP .24 (1,770) -50% 136 2.8 Bottle Shock FreeStyle .22 (890) -57% 250 3.6 Proud American Slow Hand .10 (140) - 750 0.1 Towelhead WB 54,100 (13,520) - 4 0.05 Greetings from the Shore FreeStyle 44,300 (1,430) - 31 0.04 Il y a longtemps que je t'aime Mongrel 28,800 (4,800) - 6 0.03 Flow Oscilloscope 17,700 (8,850) - 2 0.02 Tired of Kissing Frogs First Look 9,300 (660) - 14 0.01 Moving Midway First Run 6,700 (3,350) - 2 0.01 Domestic Market Share - To September 11, 2008 Domestic Market Share (Jan. 1 - Sept. 11, 2008) Distributor (releases) Gross Mrkt Share Warner Bros. (20) 1435.9 20.50% Paramount (13) 1221.3 17.50% Universal (16) 946.1 13.50% Sony (19) 936.4 13.40% Fox (19) 773.2 11.10% Buena Vista (11) 652.9 9.30% Lions Gate (11) 225.5 3.20% Fox Searchlight (5) 150.9 2.20% MGM (12) 77.8 1.10% Paramount Vantage (10) 72.9 1.00% Focus (5) 64.6 0.90% New Line (4) 61.8 0.90% Miramax (6) 54.5 0.80% Overture (5) 50.6 0.70% Summit (3) 43.4 0.60% Picturehouse (6) 36.3 0.50% Other * (236) 191 2.70% * none greater than 0.4% 6995.1 100.00% Top Domestic Releases - To September 11, 2008 Title Distributor Gross The Dark Knight WB 513,664,611 Iron Man Par 318,039,924 Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Par 316,286,130 Hancock Sony 228,056,698 Wall-E BV 219,549,391 Kung Fu Panda Par 214,301,367 Horton Hears a Who Fox 154,529,439 Sex and the City WB 152,619,616 The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian BV 141,659,011 Mamma Mia! Uni 137,573,335 The Incredible Hulk Uni 134,592,596 Wanted Uni 134,211,795 Get Smart WB 128,635,792 Juno * Fox Searchlight 115,568,583 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Uni 100,917,725 You Don't Mess with the Zohan Sony 100,042,437 Step Brothers Sony 99,709,149 Tropic Thunder Par 98,790,664 Journey to the Center of the Earth WB 96,949,173 10,000 B.C.  WB 94,819,450 * does not include 2007 box office