Monday April 28, 2008

BOX OFFICE

Weekend Estimate

April 25, 2008 - April 27, 2008 (*millions)

	FILM	GROSS
1	Baby Mama	$18,271,455
2	Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo	$14,570,000
3	Forbidden Kingdom, The	$11,230,000
4	Forgetting Sarah Marshall	$11,014,065
5	Nim’s Island	$4,525,000
6	Prom Night	$4,400,000
7	21	$4,000,000
8	88 Minutes	$3,600,000
9	Horton Hears A Who	$2,410,000
10	Deception	$2,225,000

 

 

• Universal’s Tina Fey-Amy Poehler comedy “Baby Mama” was easily the No. 1 movie of the weekend, grossing an estimated $18.3 million from 2,543 theaters and giving the studio its first top opener of the year. Chick flick had no problem reaching its intended demo; a whopping 68% of the aud was female. Comedy overall was the success story of the frame, fueling a box office rebound just as summer tentpoles prepare to open. Weekend grosses were up a sizable 17.2% over the same sesh last year. New Line/Warner Bros.’ R-rated stoner sequel “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” came in No. 2, grossing an estimated $14.6 million from 2,510 theaters on the strength of young men. U’s raunchy R-rated laffer “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” declined just 38% in its soph sesh to an estimated $11 million from 2,799; cume is $35 million. Lionsgate’s Jet Li-Jackie Chan adventure-fantasy “Forbidden Kingdom” remained a worthy contender in its second sesh, narrowly edging out “Sarah Marshall” to take the No. 3 spot for the weekend. “Kingdom,” produced by Casey Silver and financed by Relativity Media, declined 48% in its second sesh to an estimated $11.2 million from 3,151. Cume for the movie that marks the first appearance of Li and Chan together on the bigscreen is $38.2 million. “Forbidden Kingdom” and the Judd Apatow-produced “Sarah Marshall,” which placed No. 4, could switch places on the B.O. chart when final weekend numbers are posted today. The weekend’s other new wide release, “Deception,” fared dismally. Produced by Arnold Rifkin and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the Hugh Jackman-Ewan McGregor thriller grossed a meager $2.2 million from 2,001 runs to place No. 10. “Baby Mama,” rated PG-13 and also starring Greg Kinnear, scored the second-best opening for a romantic comedy in April after “13 Going on 30,” underscoring the popularity of Fey and Poehler, who worked together on “Saturday Night Live.” “Baby Mama,” about the politics of surrogate motherhood and the maternal urge, is only the second live-action studio pic that Fey has starred in, after “Mean Girls,” which she also penned. Michael McCullers wrote and directed “Baby Mama.” Both younger and older females turned out, with 45% of the audience under age 25. Pic cost $30 million to produce. “American Gangster,” released in November, was the last Universal movie to open at No. 1. It is unusual for a studio to open two comedies back to back. U said the drop of 38% for “Sarah Marshall” shows that it wasn’t hurt by the entry of “Baby Mama” or vice versa. “Sarah Marshall” appealed to men more than “Baby Mama.” Among Apatow’s raunchy romantic comedies, “Sarah Marshall” had a better hold than “Superbad,” which declined 45% in its second weekend last summer, and was down only slightly more than “Knocked Up,” which declined 36% in its soph sesh last summer. “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” declined only 24%. But studio execs elsewhere say it’s anyone’s guess as to how much more B.O. biz “Sarah Marshall” or “Baby Mama” might be doing if they were playing solo on the marquee. On May 2, Sony bows romantic comedy “Made for Honor” in a counter-programming move against Paramount summer tentpole “Iron Man,” creating even more competish for female eyeballs. While “Baby Mama” got the women, “Harold & Kumar” worked magic with younger males. Men 18-35 made up 65% of the pic’s aud. Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg wrote and directed, while John Cho and Kal Penn starred. Sequel is destined to outpace the domestic B.O. performance of “Harold & Kumar go to White Castle,” which cumed roughly $18 million. “White Castle,” however, went on to become a sleeper hit on DVD, prompting New Line to pursue a second installment. “Guantanamo Bay,” which cost $12 million to produce, is the first New Line title distributed by Warner Bros. since New Line was disbanded as a studio and made a label within the Warners empire. Twentieth Century Fox senior VP of distribution Bert Livingston said the studio was disappointed in the results for “Deception.” Pic also stars Michelle Williams. On the specialty side, Samuel Goldwyn Films’ French drama “Roman de gare” scored a per-screen average of $12,773, grossing an estimated $25,454 from two locations in Gotham and L.A. ThinkFilm’s dramedy “Then She Found Me,” directed by and starring Helen Hunt, posted a per-screen average of $8,226 in grossing an estimated $74,395 from nine theaters in L.A. and Gotham. Errol Morris’ docu “Standard Operating Procedure,” about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, grossed an estimated $14,916 from two theaters for a per-screen average of $7,458. Overture holdover “The Visitor” continued to play strongly as it expanded to 76 theaters, grossing an estimated $508,000 for a per-screen average of $6,684. Pic showed a 100% Friday-to-Saturday increase.

PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

• Summit Entertainment has snapped up sci-fi action thriller “Arena,” penned by tyro scribes Toby Wagstaff and Darren Howell. Benderspink, along with the writers’ manager, Jim Thompson, set up the project. Story centers on a group of modern-day soldiers who are mysteriously transported from the thick of battle to a terrain-shifting landscape where they must fight the best warriors of all different eras and histories in a gladiatorial fight to the death — or be killed by the all-powerful operators of the “Arena.” Project is the second set up by Benderspink at Summit, where the shingle’s also producing the comedy “Sensei.” Benderspink’s also set up several projects in the wake of the WGA strike’s end including “Shell Game,” “Leap Year,” “Emma,” “Cutlass Islands” and “Spydust.” Thompson most recently produced “War” and the hip-hop documentary “Diamonds in the Rough.”

• Grosvenor Park has come on board to finance an untitled project from writer-director team Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (”Meet the Spartans”). Friedberg and Seltzer are directing from their script. The pic’s produced by Peter Safran, Friedberg and Seltzer with shooting starting today in Shreveport, La. Lionsgate will release the pic domestically Aug. 29. Cast includes Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, Carmen Electra, Kim Kardashian, G-Thang, Nicole Parker, Crista Flanagan and Ike Barinholtz. In addition to “Meet the Spartans,” Friedberg and Seltzer wrote and directed “Epic Movie” and “Date Movie” and co-wrote “Scary Movie.” Alliance Films will distribute in Canada, the U.K., Spain, Italy and Scandinavia. Grosvenor Park recently provided financing for the Ed Zwick film “Defiance,” with Par Vantage releasing domestically in the fall.

• Mike Judge will direct and Jason Bateman will star in the comedy “Extract,” the first project to be produced under Judge’s new shingle, Ternion Prods., which he formed with writer-producers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky. Ternion is fully financed to develop film, TV, digital and new-media projects through a finance and development deal with Media Rights Capital. The shingle will also produce films and TV projects through the traditional studio and network route. Penned by Judge, “Extract” explores what it’s like to be the boss when everything seems to be shifting around you. Miramax will distribute in North America. Altschuler is producing alongside Michael Rotenberg. Tom Lassally and Krinsky exec produce. Ternion is bringing its first series to the smallscreen under its deal with MRC. “The Goode Family,” which will air on ABC, was created by Altschuler, Judge and Krinsky, who are also exec producing along with Rotenberg and Lassally. The series is currently in production on its first 13 episodes and will bow in the first quarter of 2009. MRC has also preemptively acquired Altschuler and Krinsky’s spec film script “Brigadier Gerard.” Comedy is set in the Napoleonic era and is based on a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. Ternion is attaching a director to shoot in 2009. Judge, who wrote and directed “Office Space,” is the creator of “Beavis and Butthead” and “King of the Hill,” which he produced with Altschuler and Krinsky. Altschuler and Krinsky wrote “Blades of Glory” and are penning “Brothers of Invention” in addition to finishing work on “The Jetsons.” Bateman next will be seen in “Hancock” alongside Will Smith and in the Kevin MacDonald-helmed political drama “State of Play.”

ACQUISITIONS/ FESTIVAL NEWS

• Geoffrey Smith’s “The English Surgeon” and Isabelle Lavigne and Stephane Thibault’s “Junior” nabbed the Hot Docs Festival’s top prizes in Toronto on Friday night, which saw 10 awards and C$30,000 ($29,600) presented. “Surgeon,” aired by the BBC but attracting theatrical interest outside the U.K., picked up the Intl. Feature award. It follows Brit brain surgeon Henry Marsh on one of his regular visits to Kiev to aid a struggling colleague. Best Canadian feature winner “Junior”– about young hockey players — was cited by the Canadian feature jury as “a truly authentic drama that penetrates the lives of small town icons.” Bulgaria’s Boris Despodov picked up the new HBO Documentary Film Emerging Artist Award, given to a first-time director of a feature-length documentary in fest’s Intl. Spectrum program, for “Corridor #8,” about a misguided project in southeastern Europe. The special jury prize for international feature doc went to Tamar Yarom’s “To See if I’m Smiling” (Israel) about female Israeli soldiers. Special jury prize for Canuck feature went to “FlicKeR,” Nik Sheehan’s pic on artist Brion Gysin and the influence of his dream machine. “The Apology Line,” directed by Brit James Lees won honors for short documentary (up to 29 minutes), while best mid-length documentary (30-59 minutes) went to “It’s Always Late for Freedom,” which screened in the fest’s Spotlight on Iran program. Veteran director and cinematographer Richard Leacock took the outstanding achievement award, while the Don Haig Award, which recognizes a Canadian director whose work bridges fiction and non-fiction genres, went to Yung Chang, director of Canuck box-office hit “Up the Yangtze.” Toronto-based Elizabeth Lazebnik received the Lindalee Tracey Award given annually to a filmmaker who is informed by a sense of social justice and personal viewpoint. More awards will be unveiled on Monday.

• Foreign sales company Fortissimo Films has picked up int’l rights to Brillante Mendoza’s “Serbis” (Service.) Pic will play in competition in Cannes next month and is the first from the Philippines to be selected in 24 years. Pic is set in and around a clapped-out movie theater and involves multiple, criss-crossing stories about a matriarchal Filipino family. It was produced by Ferdinand Lapuz of Mendoza’s Centerstage Productions with executive production by French distributor Didier Costet of Swift Productions. Swift has distribution rights in France. Mendoza’s first film “The Masseur” shared a Golden Leopard at the 2005 Locarno fest. The Helmer followed up last year with “Slingshot” which was presented in Berlin and “Foster Child” which appeared in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section. The pickup is Hong Kong- and Amsterdam-based Fortissimo’s third movie in Cannes’ Official Selection. Company is also repping Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Tokyo Sonata” in Un Certain Regard and Wong Kar-wai’s “Ashes of Time Redux,” which is headed for a special screening.

BUSINESS NEWS

• With tentpole season about to start, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” topped the mildest frame of the year at the foreign box office, with $7 million at 1,000 playdates, edging out “21″ and “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!”  Overall international moviegoing saw a double whammy — a lack of launches other than a few targeted markets plus warm temps in Europe. But at least the former will change this week with the worldwide opening of Marvel’s “Iron Man,” starting with France, Italy and South Korea on Wednesday followed by virtually every other major market Thursday and Friday.  “Iron Man,” handled by Paramount in most markets, is expected to energize foreign biz. And the rest of May should see robust results from day-and-date launches for Warner Bros.’ “Speed Racer” on the second weekend in May, Disney’s “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” on the month’s third frame and Par’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” on the fourth.  In the meantime, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” launched impressively in the U.K. in first with $4.1 million at 393 for a 26% market share and the best Brit debut of any Judd Apatow pic. The raunchy laffer grossed more than double its nearest rival, the opening of “The Eye.” “Sarah” also showed impressive traction in its Australian soph sesh with a decline of only 7% to $1.6 million. It will avoid going head to head with next month’s tentpoles and won’t go into most major Euro markets until June. Sony’s “21,” which edged “Horton Hears a Who!” last weekend, took in $6.2 million at 1,775, mostly in holdover biz, such as $1.06 million from its third Brit frame to push its foreign cume to $30.7 million in 28 markets. The only launches for the gambling thriller came in the UAE with $250,000 and Venezuela with $145,000.  Fox’s “Horton,” which has topped studio expectations, also grossed $6.2 million, at 5,100 in 45 markets, led by its fourth French frame of $1.8 million. Though the big-hearted pachyderm was previously unknown outside the U.S., the CG toon’s been a family fave overseas with a $127.2 million cume — $20 million short of the domestic take — and a South Korean launch coming next weekend. Fox’s “Street Kings” shot down $6.1 million at 2,650 in 45 territories, led by its Spanish opening of $1.06 million as it battled “Fool’s Gold” for first. “Kings” has a foreign cume of $19.9 million — $4 million short of the Stateside take. Warner’s “Fool’s Gold” grabbed enough coin to finish with $5.1 million at 1,600 in 40 markets including modest launches in Germany with $962,000 for second place and Italy with $668,000. “Gold,” which opens this week in France, looks unlikely to see overseas grosses match its $69 million domestic take. Par’s “The Spiderwick Chronicles” led the rest of the pack with $4.4 million at 2,796 in 64 markets, paced by a moderate $1 million Japanese launch and a $1 million French second frame. “Spiderwick” has cumed $81 million overseas, $11 million ahead of the domestic total in a demonstration of the popularity of fantasy fare in foreign markets. French heist comedy “Cash” opened respectably with about $4 million at 522. Mega-hit “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” grossed $3.4 million at 850 in its ninth frame for a total of $195 million in France alone. In Germany and Austria, the second frame of Disney’s local drama “Sommer” led with $1.4 million. “Meet the Spartans” remained a decent overseas performer for Fox, with $3.2 million at 700, mostly from a first-place Italian launch of $2.3 million. “Spartans” has cumed $42.8 million offshore, $4 million ahead of the domestic total. The frame also saw Warner’s “10,000 BC” grab $2.2 million at 1,650, mostly from its $1.6 million Japanese launch. The caveman epic’s been the top 2008 title from Hollywood in foreign markets, with $164.5 million — nearly double its $93 million U.S. total. Disney’s 3-D concert pic “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus” remained a sturdy performer overseas given the scarcity of 3-D venues (only 330 available). It opened with $130,000 at seven Brazilian sites, lifting its foreign cume to $4.1 million from 135. 

• Cloud Ten Pictures, a faith-inspired film production company, has inked a distribution deal with New York-based Koch Entertainment and the Nashville-based CNI Distribution for its past and future feature films. Koch will replace Cloud Ten’s previous distributor, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, for North American retail distribution of Cloud Ten’s existing titles. CNI will act as the exclusive fulfillment and distribution agent for Cloud Ten Church Cinemas and as a distributor for all direct-to-churches, consumer and specialty market sales. All upcoming feature films produced or acquired by Cloud Ten will be released through Church Cinemas before being handled by either Koch or CNI.

STRIKE NEWS/ LABOR ISSUES

• Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild will have to decide this week if they want to make a deal — or keep Hollywood on edge about whether actors will strike this summer. Both sides have kept a tight lid on news about the negotiations, but it’s understood that minimal progress has been achieved after two weeks of negotiations. Unlike the WGA talks before and during the writers strike, however, the process with SAG has been cordial. The optimistic view is that SAG will have to start compromising in the next few sessions, since it faces a Friday deadline to reach a deal or face the prospect of rival union AFTRA signing a primetime deal next week that could lead to the guild losing shows to AFTRA. That’s a serious threat given the abysmal relations between the performers unions — which are negotiating separately for the first time in 27 years. The negative view is that SAG’s leaders may be willing to take that chance in hopes they can pressure the majors into a better deal as the June 30 contract expiration gets closer. SAG and the majors return to the bargaining table at noon today after taking the weekend off. Previous plans had called for negotiations to continue on Saturday, but SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers noted that last week’s move to extend the time frame for the talks until the end of this week had alleviated the need for the sides to work through the weekend. Although the guild hasn’t set a strike authorization vote for the 120,000 SAG members yet, the industry continues to fret about a work stoppage. The majors have remained unwilling to commit to starting new feature productions until a SAG deal is in hand — a situation that some in the biz are calling a de facto strike. After two weeks, the guild’s been unwilling to back down from two of its initial demands — that the companies increase DVD residuals and offer a shorter period of free usage for promotional purposes for streamed content than the 17- and 24-day windows in the DGA and WGA deals. The majors have insisted they won’t give in to either demand. It’s widely expected AFTRA would be willing to sign a deal that mirrors the terms of the DGA and WGA deals when it sits down with the AMPTP next week. AFTRA leaders — who tend to be much less assertive than SAG’s — incorporated parts of the DGA-WGA deals when they agreed last month to a new pact for AFTRA’s network code, covering most of the union’s shows outside primetime. SAG’s board and negotiating committee are controlled by the more aggressive side of the guild, based in Hollywood and repping about 60% of its 120,000 members. Though SAG’s stayed silent about the specifics of its proposals, it’s been making the case to members via three briefings sent last week that it needs a much better deal. The most recent missive, sent Friday, focused on residuals but offered few specifics as to the guild’s proposal. “Residuals are critical to an actor’s ability to make a living,” SAG said. “As a deferred payment for the use or reuse of an actor’s work, residuals are paid on a time cycle that allows many actors to receive income on a reliable basis. Residuals accounted for 53% of all pensionable principal earnings for middle-class actors under the TV and theatrical contracts in 2007.” SAG asserted that changes in industry business models — declining volume of repeats on the major networks, vastly increased Web streaming of primetime fare and the proliferation of unscripted programming — have severely cut into the residuals fees paid to working thesps. “Getting fair residuals formulas in new media, DVDs and other markets is a priority for the guild,” SAG said in its briefing. “Real earnings are on the decline, with average inflation-adjusted residual earnings decreasing 7% over the last five years. This has contributed to a negative annual growth rate in real aggregate earnings to actors over recent years. So, if it feels like you’re making less, it’s because you are.” SAG noted that the volume of primetime repeats is down 25.1% in the last two TV seasons, resulting in fewer residual payments to actors; total home entertainment consumer spending is projected to top $31 billion in 2012, up from $23.4 billion in 2007; the DVD market is forecast to remain viable for years to come, partly because of projected growth in the Blu-ray segment; and some series are Web streaming all episodes produced via ad-supported formats. SAG said it’s asking for “reasonable” residuals for DVD and homevideo, for content made for new media and for traditional film and TV content that is made available via paid downloads, Web streaming and other new-media platforms. It’s also seeking a formula for the burgeoning world of made-for-new-media programs released in traditional media — as NBC experimented with earlier this year in picking up the Marshall Herskovitz-Ed Zwick Web serial “Quarterlife.” In all, SAG said it was seeking a “sustainable residuals structure that ensures working actors can maintain a middle class income and represents an appropriate share of the value contributed by actors.” The AMPTP’s only disclosure came last week when it said that there were “significant gaps” between the two sides — with the caveat that it had sought and received approval from AFTRA to extend the SAG talks for another week in hopes of giving the guild the opportunity to make a deal. SAG has cancelled membership meetings in Hollywood and New York that had been set for Tuesday and Wednesday to update members about the negotiations.

TECHNOLOGY/ MULT-PLATFORM CONTENT

• FremantleMedia and Heavy.com are partnering on a “Dating Game” for the Internet age. “LoveRace,” a reality skein targeted at adults 18-25, is broken into two segments: casting, which begins in the fall, and the six-week competition, which begins in February. Femme contestants will submit their online vids and create their own profile pages on various social networks, including Facebook and MySpace. Aud members will then choose 12 women for the competish. During the competition, contestants will post videos trying to convince the men to go on a date with them; the men, in turn, will post videos attempting to convince the femmes that they are one to date. FMX, FremantleMedia’s new-media division, plans on integrating brand sponsors into the competish; if it lines up a mobile phone sponsor, for example, the competish would contain a texting component.  Contestants not chosen will move onto the second season of the Web skein, ala “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette.”  Fremantle hopes to establish a brand it can extend into other platforms, much the way it did with “Secret Girlfriend,” an online skein being developed into a TV pilot. Among the possible brand extensions: mobile versions or pay-per-view events tied to the skein.

• In a move that could lead to its eventual purchase of the British videogame publisher, Warner Bros. has invested some $30 million to double its stake in Sci Entertainment to 20%. As part of the deal, Warner will also start distributing and marketing all of Sci’s games, which are published under the Eidos brand, in the U.S. and Canada. Warner already provided some logistical services in the U.S. to Eidos, which is best known for the “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” franchise. WB’s investment is part of a larger $119 million stock placement that Sci is undertaking; the vidgame publisher has been severely short on capital in the past few months and looking for investors or to be acquired. According to reports, both NBC Universal and Warner considered buying the publisher outright. Deal would make it very easy for Warner to buy Sci in the future, however, and quite difficult for any other company to take control without its assent. Studio apparently wasn’t willing to take control now given the publisher’s financial problems but was sufficiently convinced of its potential to invest more money and help keep it alive. In a sign of how desperate Sci was for cash, the shares being bought by Warner Bros. and others represents a 37.5% discount over the publisher’s trading price on Thursday. Sci stock fell 16% to 47 pence (93¢) on London Stock Exchange on Friday as a result. Warner’s initial 10% stake in Sci, which it bought in December 2006, cost $86.8 million. Company plans to use the new capital to repay debt and for working capital to fund a recently downsized slate of games, which includes a “Tomb Raider” sequel coming this holiday season and new installments of its “Deus Ex,” “Kane and Lynch” and “Battlestations Midway” franchises, as well a new casual games division. Sci recently cancelled 14 titles in development and is moving its production services from London to Montreal in order to lower costs. Sci/Eidos is now the fourth videogame publisher working with Warner’s homevid unit to distribute games, along with fellow Brits Codemasters and Empire Interactive and L.A.-based Brash Entertainment.

• Video search provider ClipBlast introduced a new “Playbox” feature to combine video search and syndication into a unified experience across various providers, reports VideoNuze. The application also provides a recommendation feature, linking to related 3^rd party videos that are played directly from the site.

• White label mobile and IPTV streaming video service MobiTV raised an additional $5 million from Leader Ventures, according to VentureBeat, in addition to the $125 million it has already raised.  MobiTV says it now has more than 4 million subscribers and is adding 1 million new subs every 6 months.

• LeepFrog.tv launched an online music video discovery site offering video, audio sampling and full-length tracks for purchase from a range of labels including Interscope Records, Bad Boy Entertainment and Epic Records. The site will curate the platform to limit the focus to only 50 new releases at any one time.

• Political ad creation tool SaysMe.TV raised Series A funding from several VC funds including Intel Capital, Prime Capital and Ashton Kutcher’s Katalyst Films. The company plans to use the money to expand beyond politics into other ad businesses.

WEBSITES TO WATCH

You’ve got to love the Freedom of Information Act. Thanks to this far-reaching law, television writers, producers or concerned viewers actually get to see all the formal complaints lodged against programs, simply by asking to see the complaint forms. And now there’s a website called tvshowcomplaints.org that takes the heavy lifting out of the process of filing out the proper paperwork. Fill in the blanks of a simple form online and email it to the FCC or follow the instructions if you prefer snail mail. Check out the examples of complaints the commission gets every day for shows like The Daily Show, Law and Order: SVU and, of course, South Park. They give fascinating insight into what the FCC is up against.

SOURCES:

www.variety.com

www.cynopsis.com