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

August 23, 2009 Weekend Estimates Domestic Market Share Natzi Schmooks The alphabetically/historically challenged Inglourious Basterds quashed the Hun with an estimated $38.4 million to lead weekend movie going. The session's other wide and limited releases were grappling with considerably more downbeat returns. The family targeted Shorts was sixth in the lineup with $6.5 million and the youthful romance Post Grad just tagged position 10 on a $2.7 million gross. And even with its 3D inducement X Games: The Movie trailed with $780,000. Best of the limited and exclusives was the rom-com My One and Only with just shy of $50,000 at four venues and there were OK results for a spectrum of pictures from the non-fiction Art & Copy to Oscar-nominated political thriller The Baader-Meinhof Complex. The Latino audience however failed to respond to Casi Divas with its $25,700 opening at 22 haciendas. Overall business clocked in at roughly $128 million for an 11% abatement from last weekend but a sizeable boost from end of summer 2008. Considerable attention was focused on Basterds in light of on-going financial woes at the Weinstein Co. as well as a mixed bag of critical blowback from its Cannes premiere. Rumors of a significant re-edit swirled but the film's theatrical version turned out to be no more than tweaking. It was expected to do about $30 million opening weekend and obviously topped expectations domestically and added an estimated $28 million in its first international exposures. Based on its opening strength and mid-week business some felt last week's chart topper District 9 might weigh in with just a 33% decline and provide Basterds with a weekend photo finish. But the film fell by a more predictable 51% along with other sophomore titles including The Time Traveler's Wife and The Goods. Late August has historically been a favorite dumping ground for the majors and it would be hard to argue that Shorts, Post Grad and X Games's positioning didn't have a slathering of "let's get a little bit of summer playtime and defray our losses." The latter sentiment is about as upbeat as the exercise gets. Weekend sales expanded 23% from last year when debuts of The House Bunny (a surprisingly commercially resilient movie) and Death Race opened respectively to $14.5 million and $12.6 million but Tropic Thunder's 2nd weekend generated $16.3 million. As Labor Day looms the commercial salve may rightly be that summer appears to have held onto its audience. In these trying economic times it's a bit presumptuous to be holding out for buoyant expansion. by Leonard Klady Weekend Estimates: August 21-23, 2009 Title Distributor Gross (average) % change * Theaters Cume Inglourious Basterds Weinstein Co. 38.4 (12,120) - 3165 38.4 District 9 Sony 18.1 (5,940) -51% 3050 72.7 G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra Par 12.0 (3,030) -46% 3953 120 The Time Traveler's Wife WB 9.9 (3,300) -47% 2988 37.3 Julie & Julia Sony 8.7 (3,710) -28% 2354 59 Shorts WB 6.5 (2,110) - 3105 6.5 G-Force BV 4.2 (1,650) -39% 2561 107.3 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince WB 3.6 (1,860) -30% 1936 290.4 The Ugly Truth Sony 2.7 (1,350) -40% 1971 82.7 Post Grad Fox Searchlight 2.7 (1,390) - 1958 2.7 The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard Par Vantage 2.6 (1,390) -54% 1849 11.1 Ponyo BV 2.4 (2,620) -32% 927 8.1 (500) Days of Summer Fox Searchlight 2.3 (2,370) -21% 988 22.1 The Hangover WB 1.5 (1,750) -26% 848 268.3 A Perfect Getaway Uni/Alliance 1.1 (820) -62% 1322 14.2 Funny People Uni .91 (980) -70% 932 50.5 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Par .89 (1,200) -45% 740 398.4 Bandslam Summit .83 (390) -63% 2121 4.4 The Proposal BV .80 (1,250) -39% 642 159.2 X Games 3D BV .78 (560) - 1399 0.78 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Fox .76 (1,460) -40% 559 192.4 Orphan WB .75 (1,140) -52% 655 39.9 Aliens in the Attic Fox .68 (820) -53% 830 22.2 Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) - $123.10 - - - % Change (Last Year) - 23% - - - % Change (Last Week) - -11% - - - Also debuting/expanding The Hurt Locker Summit .37 (980) -42% 379 11.1 Adam Searchlight .24 (2,550) 20% 95 0.88 In the Loop IFC .22 (2,470) -1% 88 1.6 Paper Heart Overture .13 (1,850) -27% 68 0.76 Cold Souls IDP .12 (2,340) 13% 53 0.33 My One and Only FreeStyle 49,800 (12,450) - 4 0.05 Casi Divas Maya 25,700 (1,170) - 22 0.03 Art & Copy 7th Art 18,100 (6,030) - 3 0.02 Baader-Meinhof Complex Vitagraph 16,300 (8,150) - 2 0.02 The Headless Woman Strand 14,300 (14,300) - 1 0.01 Five Minutes of Heaven IFC 4,920 (4,920) - 1 0.01 World's Greatest Dad Magnolia 4,200 (4,200) - 1 0.01 The Marc Pease Experience Par Vantage 2,810 (280) - 10 0.01   Domestic Market Share: To August 13, 2009 Distributor (releases) Gross Mrkt Share Warner Bros. (23) 1389.1 20.40% Paramount (13) 1252.4 18.40% Fox (13) 899.4 13.20% Buena Vista (13) 846.7 12.40% Sony (15) 728.4 10.70% Universal (16) 665.5 9.70% Lions Gate (7) 237.4 3.50% Fox Searchlight (8) 209.7 3.10% Summit (7) 157.2 2.30% Focus (6) 105.1 1.50% Paramount Vantage (2) 52.4 0.80% MGM (3) 42.3 0.60% Miramax (5) 41.3 0.60% Weinstein Co. (6) 34.5 0.50% Other * (194) 154.6 2.30% * none greater than 0.4% 6816 100.00%