Napoleon Dynamite

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Fox Searchlight's Napoleon Dynamite, a low-budgeter aimed at 25-and-unders, was facing a bit of a touch-and-go situation at first, but it caught on and may actually hit the $40 million mark before running out of steam. Sundance know-it-alls were predicting marginal business last January, and it clearly hadn't enchanted the over-40s I spoke to back then...but kids made it into a quasi-phenomenon. Things weren't looking all that fantastic at first for Open Water either (not conventionally scary enough, not enough twists, etc.), but now it's a safe bet to top $30 million. The prime goal for distributor Lions Gate was to hit at least $18 million (what with prints and ads); now they're looking at something like $15 mil over and above.