'Narnia' reclaims boxoffice crown
Posted on Tuesday, January 3 @ 08:39:45 Eastern
By Gregg Kilday
Buena Vista Pictures' resurrected lion and Universal Pictures' giant ape battled it out once more over the New Year's Day weekend. But while "King Kong" prevailed over the previous Christmas frame, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe" claimed a narrow victory this time around.
The seesaw battle saw Andrew Adamson's "Narnia" outgross Peter Jackson's "Kong" on Friday and Saturday and "Kong" climb above "Narnia" on Sunday. Then, according to estimates, "Narnia" bested "Kong" again Monday.
As the dust began to settle, "Narnia" had grabbed an estimated $32.8 million, while "Kong" picked up an estimated $31.6 million. The figures put "Narnia's" total gross to date at $224.8 million; produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, it crossed the $200 million mark Friday, its 22nd day of release.
As for "Kong," though its weekend total dropped 5% from the previous four-day frame, it has climbed to $174.3 million domestically, and it was set to pass the $400 million mark worldwide Monday.
Meanwhile, Sony Pictures could claim the top comedy in the marketplace, as Dean Parisot's "Fun with Dick and Jane," starring Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni, held on to the third spot for the second weekend in a row. Grossing an estimated $21 million, the film experienced a marginal drop from $21.6 million the previous weekend as its overall gross rose to $64.6 million.
"Dick and Jane" managed to widen its cumulative lead over 20th Century Fox's "Cheaper by the Dozen 2," which occupied the same fourth spot it held the previous weekend. Adam Shankman's "Dozen 2," starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, took in another $19.3 million, up 26% from the previous weekend, to bring its cumulative take to $55.1 million.
Entering the top five was Warner Bros. Pictures' romantic comedy "Rumor Has It," which attracted an estimated $11.6 million over the four-day holiday. The Rob Reiner-directed movie, which centers on a Pasadena family that might have been the inspiration for "The Graduate," debuted on Christmas Day and as a result had only two days to establish itself last weekend, when it ranked 10th. The cumulative gross for the Jennifer Aniston starrer now stands at $26.7 million.
Fielding a comedy about a family trying to confront newcomer Sarah Jessica Parker, Fox's "The Family Stone," directed by Thomas Bezucha, remained firmly lodged in sixth place. Its cume is $46.2 million.
Sony's "Memoirs of a Geisha," directed by Rob Marshall, played in 1,547 theaters and secured another $10 million -- dropping just 2% from the previous four-day weekend -- to bring its total to date to $30.4 million.
Fox Searchlight's "The Ringer," the Special Olympics-set comedy produced under the auspices of Bobby and Peter Farrelly, slipped from seventh place to eighth as it rang up another $8 million, bringing its haul to date to $21.6 million.
Hardy Warners holiday hit "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" again checked in ninth. The long-running fantasy film registered another $7.5 million as its mighty cume grew to $276.9 million.
Playing in 532 theaters, Steven Spielberg's moral thriller "Munich" scored $6.1 million, nearly a carbon copy of the $6 million it collected the weekend before. Its estimated cume now stands at $15.6 million as it prepares to expand Friday to between 1,485-1,600 theaters.
Two new features arrived in exclusive release to find a spot in the top 40.
Woody Allen's "Match Point," a London-set drama about social striving and infidelity, notched $517,000 over the four days in just eight theaters for a robust per-theater average of $64,625. The DreamWorks release, which bowed Wednesday, has $720,000 in its purse.
In just four theaters, the Weinstein Co. on Friday debuted Richard Shepard's "The Matador," starring Pierce Brosnan as a down-on-his-luck hit man. It took in $92,400 for a per-theater average of $23,100.
As the studios begin calculating their 2005 market share, Sony reported Monday that it crossed $1 billion in domestic gross as of the holiday weekend. To arrive at that figure, Sony includes the grosses from MGM's "The Amityville Horror," which grossed $65.2 million domestically. "Amityville" was released April 15, a week after a Sony-led consortium completed its acquisition of MGM. While MGM's marketing and distribution team remained in place during the transition, Sony said it oversaw the release, allowing it to add "Amityville's" grosses to the Sony tally.
For the four-day New Year's weekend, the top 12 films grossed $168.7 million, and The Hollywood Reporter estimates that the combined gross for all movies during the weekend will settle in the low- to mid-$180 million range.
For last New Year's weekend, a three-day boxoffice period, the total gross for all films was $146.7 million.
The national boxoffice for the week ending Dec. 29 amounted to $320.3 million, up 2% from $312.8 million for the comparable weekend in 2004.
The 2005 year-to-date total, which concluded with the past week, is $8.88 billion, down 5% from the 2004 total of $9.34 billion. For the same period, estimated admissions declined by 7.6% from the previous year.
Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter
|
| Content on this page was provided by Action Trip and was not written by, nor does it express the opinions of the Game Revolution staff. |
|
|
REVIEWS
PREVIEWS
VIDEOS
FEATURES
CHEATS
SCREENS
COMMUNITY
RSS FEEDS
