Saturday numbers

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Borat's Sunday-night total will be just north of $25,000,000...maybe a bit higher when all is said and done. (It did $9,546,000 last night.) Flushed Away and The Santa Clause 3 will come in at #2 and #3 -- the former, off 15%, is projected to hit $15,918,000, and the latter, off 19%, will end up with close to $15,715,000.

The fourth-place Stranger Than Fiction will have an okay $14,576,000 by Sunday night with $6490 a print. (Nothing to frown about, but hold the champagne.) Saw III will be fifth with $6.046,000. Sixth-place Babel is doing fine in the blue cities but is being viewed as a hard sell in red America -- in 1200 situations it'll have a Sunday- night cume of $5,029,000, or $4020 per print.

The Return will have a Sunday-evening tally of $4,871,000, or $2460 a print. The Prestige will have $4,677,000 for a so-far cume of $46 million. (A mezzo-mezzzo hit -- obviously heading toward $50 million but well shy of heavyweight status.) The Departed will end up with $4,663,000 for a total cume of $109,202,000. And A Good Year, the Russell Crowe south-of-France reverie, is a stiff -- $3,652,000 or $1700 a print.

Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers , which lost 400 theatres, will end up with $2,717,000 for the weekend, or $1700 a print -- obviously dying on the vine with a so-far cume of about $30,856,000.

The Queen, still playing limited, will end up with $2,455,000. David Ayer's Harsh Times is a fizzle -- $1,926,000 for the weekend at a little over $2000 a print. Copy- ing Beethoven, the Ed Harris movie playing in about 26 theatres, wil end up with $68,000 or $2600 a print -- dead.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 11, 2006 at 9:17 AM

comment #1

The Winchester says ...

The Prestige is not a heavyweight hit, but following Nolan's Batman, it's on it's way to be his second biggest film.

What the hell is Copying Beethoven? (By stating this I prove Wells' statement of "dead")

Posted by The Winchester at November 11, 2006 10:45 AM

comment #2

AlexStroup says ...

I'd say the big winner is The Santa Clause 2. To put up a number like that four years after it was released is impressive.

It's weird. There are currently a lot of things I wanted to see now out in theaters but now that I'm facing actually getting out and seeing them I can seem to find the gumption. I'll be seeing Borat sometimes this weekend though.

Posted by AlexStroup at November 11, 2006 11:16 AM

comment #3

le corbeau says ...

Took the kids to see Flushed Away last night and I was shocked at what a blatantly rightwing film it was, pushing the notion of traditional England being literally flushed away in an act of terrorist "purification" by the fast-reproducing tide of Islamic immigration (with the connivance of the Frogs, of course). It's like Mark Steyn: The Movie or something.

Posted by le corbeau at November 11, 2006 11:25 AM

comment #4

Mike Schaefer says ...

I saw Stranger Than Fiction Friday in SF at a rather crowded 4pm show, so I'm surprised the numbers for it are that low. I thought it didn't quite work, but the audience laughed quite a bit.

Posted by Mike Schaefer at November 11, 2006 11:27 AM

comment #5

Mike Schaefer says ...

I saw Stranger Than Fiction Friday in SF at a rather crowded 4pm show, so I'm surprised the numbers for it are that low. I thought it didn't quite work, but the audience laughed quite a bit.

Posted by Mike Schaefer at November 11, 2006 11:37 AM

comment #6

Roddy Reta says ...

I think Flushed Away and Santa Clause 3 will do very well over the Thanksgiving Holiday and will both end up as winners once all the Borat hype thankfully fades away.

Posted by Roddy Reta at November 11, 2006 12:01 PM

comment #7

JD says ...

In a fall full of disappointments, I have to say The Prestige is one of the few films that really surprised me. I liked it way more than I expected to and, while it lacks the innovation and originality of Memento, it's definitely Nolan's best film since Memento. Like Marie Antoinette, it seems like it's being dismissed primarily by people who don't understand the director's intentions.

Posted by JD at November 11, 2006 12:12 PM

comment #8

Bart Smith says ...

A $25 million weekend is a bit low for a Friday take of $9.5 million -- especially for a movie in its second weekend. It had a 2.86 multiplier last weekend. Why would it drop at a 2.61 this weekend?

Posted by Bart Smith at November 11, 2006 12:32 PM

comment #9

The Winchester says ...

I agree with you JD, Prestige is a damn fine film, even with a poor Johannson performance. (Wrong thread I realize, but I have to put it out there). Although, not having seen Following yet, I have to say that I love every film Nolan makes. They grow on you and hold up on repeat viewings.

AS for Stranger Than Fiction, I also saw a 4:00 show in Burbank that was packed. The film got middling laughter, but I noticed a fair amount of younger viewers walking out. It's not Anchorman, and people are realizing it. (For the record, I quite enjoyed the film, and found it surprisingly touching, if not outright hilarious.) But Wells is right about Oscar talk being null and void, with possible Hail Mary of screenplay.

Posted by The Winchester at November 11, 2006 12:45 PM

comment #10

jjgittes says ...

"The Prestige" is a fine film but it won't make more money than "Insomnia" and it's not as good as "Insomnia" either.

"Follwing" is a great Nolan film......a must see companion piece to "Memento".

Posted by jjgittes at November 11, 2006 12:48 PM

comment #11

JD says ...

Following's okay, but it feels like Nolan is working out some things that he figured out a few years later with Memento. I don't mind Insomnia, but it's completely humorless and free of any real pleasure. It's a very functional movie, whereas there's an actual joy and excitement to the (admittedly kind of convoluted) storytelling in The Prestige. Batman Begins didn't do anything for me, unfortunately.

Posted by JD at November 11, 2006 1:35 PM

comment #12

Dixon Steele says ...

JD, so you thought INSOMNIA was "completely humorless"?

I didn't realize it was supposed to be funny.

Posted by Dixon Steele at November 11, 2006 6:01 PM

comment #13

nemo says ...

Nolan's American "Insomnia" with Al Pacino is good, but it doesn't hold a candle to the Norwegian original starring Stellan Skarsgard. Go rent the Skarsgard version if you can find it.

Yes, Skarsgard is Swedish, but "Insomnia" is set in northernmost Norway, and the director, writer, and all the other actors are Norwegian (and they're all first rate). Skarsgard's Swedish detective is a struggling fish out of water in far northern Norway in the same way that Pacino's LA cop is out of his element in Alaska.

Posted by nemo at November 11, 2006 6:38 PM

comment #14

JD says ...

Dixon, "humorless" doesn't mean a movie is failing to reach Adam Sandler levels of broad comedy, it means a movie is heavy-handed and/or self-important. Generally, even the most stark and serious dramas will have some degree of humor just to vary the tone, but Insomnia is just oppressively serious and I think this makes the movie kind of bland and off-putting. Look at something like Brokeback Mountain. It's a very serious drama, but the many moments of levity give it more emotional depth and credibility.

Posted by JD at November 11, 2006 7:34 PM

comment #15

Joseph says ...

Saw Babel last night here in Tampa; theater was only a quarter full. My entire group hated the film. Word of mouth will not be good.

Posted by Joseph at November 12, 2006 12:09 PM

comment #16

The Movie Man says ...

Why is grossing 50-60 million with a 40 million dollar budget (The Prestige) medicore but making 110-130 million (The Departed) on a 90 million budget a big hit? Don't get me wrong, I say this as a guy who really enjoyed both but the logic escapes me.

Posted by The Movie Man at November 13, 2006 6:25 AM

comment #17

The Movie Man says ...

Also I thought I would chime in on the Nolan debate. I think Nolan's take on Insomnia is largely (except for the contrived, let's send everyone home happy Hollywood horeshit ending) better than the original film.

The original has a squalid intensity, sort of a Tell-Tale Heart vibe, and a great lead performance, but Nolan's storytelling is better, more a classical fucked up detective picture. The relationship between good guy and bad (in Nolan's case Al Pacino and Robin Williams) is actually grayer in this version, with Pacino having a Hank Quinlin thing for framing people he knows (or thinks) to be guilty. This is also one of Pacino's best, most tortured, least likely to break character for theatrics, performances. I know we usually like to say the original is better but in this case it isn't true. Though both films are well worth watching.

Posted by The Movie Man at November 13, 2006 6:35 AM

comment #18