The two big success stories of the weekend are Spike Lee ‘s Inside Man and Jason Reitman‘s Thank You for Smoking. Lee’s bank-robbery drama was projected to do $25 to $30 million this weekend, and current estimates (based on yesterday’s figures) project a $28.6 million tally, having done about $9.5 million on Friday. And Smoking took in $262,000 in 54 theatres yesterday, averaging about $20,000 a print. I’m sorry to report that V for Vendetta is falling…projected to earn about $13.1 or $13.2 million for the weekend, which is a reduction in business of 47% from last weekend. (Word-of-mouth obviously isn’t fantastic). The Wachowski Bros. film may wind up with $70 million domestic when all is said and done. Touchstone’s Stay Alive, a horror flick, will take in about $11.7 million for the weekend, having done about $4,128,000 yesterday. And Failure to Launch, the Matthew McConaughey-Sarajh Jessica Parker romantic comedy, will do $11.4 for the weekend ($3,474,000 yesterday). No accounting for taste out there…this is a total piece of shit and it’s at $64 million and climbing. Friday’s Variety story by Ben Fritz said the big competish might be between Inside Man and Larry, the Cable Guy. Playing in about 1700 theatres, the latter will do about $6,525,000 for the weekend….a little under $4000 a print.
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