The Weekend Report: June 14, 2009

Hangover and Up once again dominated weekend ticket sales with respective grosses of $33.1 million and $30.7 million and that put the kibosh on new releases. The highly anticipated The Taking of Pelham 123 pulled into third spot with a just passable $24.6 million gross while the $5.6 million box office for Imagine That was too cruel to contemplate.

New movies in limited and exclusive patterns saw some torrid response including the meditative sci-fi Moon with $132,000 from eight pods and Coppola's dramatic Tetro in near capacity mode with $38,000 from singles in Manhattan and L.A. Also torrid were a pair of non-fiction entries. The nutritional Food, Inc. tallied up $48,700 from three bites and the musical Youssou N'Dour chanted up $28,200 from a soulful trio.

Overall sales were noticeably down from both last weekend and 2008 and that heightened industry fears of stepped up erosion that had been looming for weeks. General anxieties center on concerns that fewer pictures selections at the multiplex could result in a proportional decline in admissions … but appreciable change won't be apparent until late in the year.

The positive shock felt through the community was the 74% hold for top seller The Hangover. Minimally expectations were for a one-third drop from opening weekend for the raunchy antics and the sturdier result has industry pundits doffing their hats to the perfect timing for a significant and unserved audience segment.

The older appeal for incoming Pelham 123 is shaping up as a slow moving train. The high freight costs of the vehicle demanded a more competitive launch; especially in light of the more youthful tilt of the weekend's top sellers. Clearly too many patrons did not have the picture as their top choice.

Conversely Imagine That was on the "don't see" list for prospective buyers. The shift to family appeal movies for Eddie Murphy has lost steam and the performer is ripe for reinvention or a return to the hipper, bawdier humor that gained him initial recognition.

Weekend business approached $130 million and that translated into a 16% decline from the prior weekend. It was an even steeper 23% push back from 2008 when the debut of The Incredible Hulk topped the chart with $55.4 million and the other major freshman The Happening ranked third with $16.4 million.

The other big question mark of the frame is the ultimate fate of Francis Coppola's Tetro following upbeat response since its Cannes premiere. The filmmaker decided to self distribute the operatic family drama and mapped out a strategy unseen for decades. Following this weekend's exclusive bows in New York and Los Angeles, he'll add additional exclusive dates in 10 additional major markets next weekend. In interviews he's indicated that going the single screen route in the top 25 markets and letting the film play out should cover his bottom line. If he's correct a lot of independents are apt to follow suit whether this test case is a trend or an anomaly.

- Leonard Klady