SUNDAY AM: I can report that Spider-Man 3 will likely shatter box office records today. With Friday's $59+ million and Saturday's estimated $48+ million in U.S. box office, and its Asia and Europe blowout performance, the Sony mega-blockbuster looks to be spinning the biggest U.S. and worldwide weekend movie opening of all time. This would be a historic Hollywood moment and sensational start to the summer movie season. Expect a figure for U.S. gross around $140 million for Friday through Sunday, and for a global gross better than $255 million by today. This comes after Spidey 3 on Friday already set the biggest U.S. opening day record and scored the highest single day global gross.
SATURDAY AM: Peter Parker (aka Tobey Maguire) bested Jack Sparrow (aka Johnny Depp) at the box office Friday. I'm told Spider-Man 3 beat Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 for the biggest U.S. opening day ever in film history. The threequel shattered the $55.8 million mark set by P2 last year and took in $59 million. Based on the first day's performance, the studio believes the film will delivers in the +/- range of $135 mil to $145 mil for its first three days of release. A better estimate will emerge Sunday morning when the studio will release its full report with exit surveys and international figures to date. In addition, Sony estimated that SM3 grossed approximately $104 million worldwide yesterday, the highest single day gross in global box office history. The film delivered $45 million Friday in overseas ticket sales. This opening weekend, SM3 will definitely make more than SM1 ($114.8 mil) or SM2 ($88.1 mil) at U.S. theaters. "Today's early returns have been staggering," an insider explained to me Friday night. 
(FYI: Pirates 2 did $55.8 mil on its Friday bow, then did $44 mil on Saturday.) Domestic box office looks to be up over 60% from the same weekend last year when Mission Impossible 3 kicked off the summer movie season with a $47.7 mil gross for the first weekend in May. "So far, Hollywood's high stakes gamble is paying off," one studio exec told me today: this will be the highest grossing summer in Hollywood history, with predictions of $4.5 billion box office. Peter Parker set house records at several theaters across the country where sell-outs were common throughout the day Friday. The two highest grossing theaters in North America were the Lincoln Square (which includes an IMAX theater) in New York, which took in $158,158, and the Arclight in Los Angeles, which reported $144,926 worth of ticket sales. This is the first word of how the webbed wonder would fare in domestic box office as opposed to foreign where Spidey 3 set new records in Asia and Europe. Sony execs were unnerved by the only so-so reviews of the pic in this country -- that is, until more than 300 of the approximate 1,000 midnight showings Sony arranged with U.S. theaters Friday AM sold out online at Fandango, which sells movie tickets to more than 15,000 U.S. screens. And let's not forget that SM3 will be shown in 4,252 theaters, the widest release ever.
Now, back to those reviews: according to RottenTomatoes.com, of the 143 reviews counter, "Fresh" were 89, "Rotten" were 54, making the average rating: 6.2/10. Among that site's "Cream of the Crop" most influential reviewers, only 45% gave the pic a good review for an average rating of 5.6/10. 
So I went back and looked at Rotten Tomatoes' final tally for Pirates 2, last summer's highly anticipated blockbuster that also received only so-so feedback: of the 204 reviews counter, "Fresh" were 110, "Rotten" were 94, making the average rating 6/10. Among Cream of the Crop, only 42% gave the pic a good review for an average ratings of 5.3/10. But P2 went on to make $423.3 mil domestically in 4,133 theaters so the reviews didn't matter. As for Spider-Man 1, its final domestic tally was $403.7 mil, and SM2 $373.5 mil.
As if anyone cares, the only other major movie opening Friday was Warner Bros' Lucky You, a 2-year-old pic directed by Curtis Hanson and starring Drew Barrymore and Eric Bana and dumped opposite SM3. The poker pic only managed 6th place with $925K Friday from 2,525 theaters. The per screen average was an empty $366. Given that I'm told the film cost $58 million, plus another $34 million in promotion and advertising, this is a major wipeout for Warner Bros since the pic will probably make less than $3 mil its opening weekend. (Only comforted by the fact that it was co-financed with Village Roadshow). Money guys tell me the writedown should be around $40 million.
Editor's Note: Thanks to Nikki Finke for this report. I saw a 9:20 am showing of "Spiderman 3" and had a great time. I had a $6 ticket which wasn't bad but the $3.75 bottle of water made me regret not bringing more of my own bottled water. The candy at $3.75 is just highway robbery. My point, the rip-off price of concession food makes going to the movie prohibitive and the experience unnecessary. Home theater has to be the future because the movie theater experience is not satisfying for some of us. I even tried to fill my empty bottle with water from the fountain and when I held the bottle up to the light (because I suspected that the fountain water was tainted) only to see my bottle filled with a yellow cloudy substance. What a rip-off. And that's the essence of the movie going experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment