The Weekend Report: February 22, 2010

Still Crazies (After All These Years)

The tremor continued in the marketplace as Shutter Island prevailed over two incoming missiles with an estimated $22.3 million weekend. Still the freshmen entries were close behind with buddy flics in Cop Out entering (but not breaking) the scene with $18.4 million and the redo of the 1972 apocalyptic thriller The Crazies wigging out with $16.1 million.

Limited and exclusive openers were highlighted by strong openings for France’s Oscar-nominated The Prophet with a gross of $121,000 at seven cells and the documentary The Art of the Steal generating $40,300 from three galleries. Teen Patti on the Bollywood circuit had a disappointing $47,500 at 50 venues and American indies Formosa Betrayed and The Yellow Handkerchief dabbed no better than passable initial box office.

Overall business experienced an upturn from last year while dipping behind last weekend’s revenues.

Tracking was pretty much on target for both freshmen entrees entering the weekend. No one expected Cop Out to exceed $20 million while The Crazies performed right into the anticipated $15 million to $17 million range that’s virtually pro forma for the genre and sensibility it inhabits. The two films definitely gave off the whiff of the fungible for any young male looking for an Olympic diversion. The marketplace could definitely do with a little bit more on the distaff side.

Ticket sales pushed to roughly $117 million that translated into a 12% decline from seven days past. It was however 9% improved from 12 months back when the second weekend of Medea Goes to Jail trumped The Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience with respective weekends of $16.2 million and $12.5 million. Show spot with $12 million went to Slumdog Millionaire in the seconds leading up to its Oscar glory.

This year’s contenders aren’t expected to receive any sort of domestic theatrical boosts regardless of their statuette outcome. Avatar has been holding beyond belief from day one and its future now has less to do with awards than the loss of stereoscopic screens as Alice in Wonderland usurps those playdates next weekend. The Hurt Locker continues to do token business on 100 plus screens and the likes of The Blind Side, Up in the Air and An Education continue to experience modest weekly declines as the big day counts down from seven.

By dint of the process of elimination the ironic Oscar beneficiary remains Crazy Heart, a likely winner for actor and song. Still one suspects its larder could have been fattened with more attention accorded the film’s myriad qualities rather than its almost exclusive attention to music and performance. It ought to have been in the discussion for direction, screenplay and picture.

-by Leonard Klady