** I was always skeptical a film like this would open with monster numbers.
Forget about the Internet blog hype. Its premise suggested it could be
afflicted with the "Arachnophobia" syndrome at the box office, e.g., a movie
of greater interest to GUYS, but NOT to most women, with a gross-out factor
that skews different than for even couples who are inclined to chase the
horror genre.
** You could canvas 10 of your relatives and friends to get a good idea as
to who would be inclined to PAY to see this. Opening at $15 mil. ensures
"Snakes" will pull in numbers that are lower next week. Even if the film
was across-the-board-critically acclaimed, there was no getting around the
"ick" factor with general audiences.
** Similarly, look at Oliver Stone's "WTC." It's putting up good numbers
and despite my mixed feelings about it, people are not inclined to PAY to
see a film like this when there's a choice between it and "Talladega" for a
fun time out. "WTC" -- even if it had been as partisan as Moore's
"Fahrenheit 911" -- tests an audiences endurance to pain, no matter how good
it is, no matter how good you feel when you walk out.
-koose.
======================
"Snakes on a Plane" fails to charm
Sunday, Aug 20, 2:19 PM (ET)
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - So much for the Internet hype. "Snakes on a Plane,"
a camp thriller that generated an unprecedented tsunami of online hysteria
during the past year, crawled into the No. 1 slot at the North American
weekend box office with estimated ticket sales of just $15.3 million, its
distributor said on Sunday.
New Line Cinema had hoped the movie would open in the low-$20 million range,
a spokeswoman said. While the Time Warner Inc.-owned studio was
disappointed, she said the film would be profitable. Hailed by celluloid
cognoscenti as being so bad that it's good, "Snakes" cost about $30 million
to make, a relatively modest sum.
The sales figure covers actual data from Friday and Saturday, as well as an
estimate for Sunday. It also includes $1.4 million from Thursday-evening
screenings.
Samuel L. Jackson plays an FBI agent trying to regain control of a plane
that the Mafia had filled with poisonous snakes in order to kill a protected
witness. The only problem was that the title so handily summed up the film's
plot that there was little incentive to see it, said Brandon Gray, an
analyst at boxofficemojo.com.
"This tells you that you need to have a compelling story or premise to get
an audience for your movie," he said.
Senior New Line executives were not available for comment.
The project had been in development since 1999, going through several
studios, rewrites and directors. It became a cause celebre last year when
Jackson publicly assailed New Line for changing the title to the nebulous
"Pacific Air 121."
The studio backed down, empowering Jackson and adoring online fans to
complain that the film was not violent enough. Scenes were added ratcheting
up the gruesome quotient. The bloggers' victory ensured plenty of media
coverage, seemingly turning the little B-movie into a preordained must-see
hit.
But filmmaking-by-Internet committee has its limits. Industry surveys in
recent weeks indicated only modest interest among the moviegoing masses. New
Line found itself both playing up the film's unusual backstory and playing
down its sales expectations. It did not screen the movie in advance for
critics, a common tactic when a studio fears the reviews will be less than
complimentary.
The box-office champion for the previous two weekends, "Talladega Nights:
The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," slipped to No. 2 with $14.1 million. The total
for Sony Corp.'s Will Ferrell NASCAR comedy rose to $114.7 million.
Director Oliver Stone's September 11 drama "World Trade Center" held steady
at No. 3 in its second weekend with $10.8 million and the two-week total for
the burgeoning hit rose to $45 million. The film was released by Paramount
Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.
The top-10 contained two other new releases, as well as an arthouse hit that
entered the top tier for the first time after expanding into national
release.
The college comedy "Accepted" opened at No. 4 with a solid $10.1 million.
The film stars Justin Long as a youngster who starts his own fake college
after he fails to be accepted into any real colleges. It was released by
Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal Inc.
The teen comedy "Material Girls," starring siblings Hilary and Haylie Duff,
opened at No. 9 with $4.6 million, in line with the modest expectations of
its closely held distributor, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
Doing considerably better was the family comedy "Little Miss Sunshine,"
which jumped five places to No. 7 with $5.7 million in its fourth weekend.
The crowd-pleaser has earned $12.8 million to date. It was released by Fox
Searchlight Pictures, the arthouse arm of News Corp.1 Twentieth Century Fox
unit.
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
___________________________________________________________________
How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List
Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L
The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
