When it comes to the Fourth of July weekend box office, nothing sets off fireworks like a good ol' alien attack.
July 1, 2005 (Press Release) --
'War' is hell on box office opposition
Friday July 1 3:33 AM ET
When it comes to the Fourth of July weekend box office, nothing sets off fireworks like a good ol' alien attack.
When 20th Century Fox's "Independence Day" planted a flag on the weekend of the Fourth in 1996, it discovered that extraterrestrials blowing up the White House was a surefire holiday attraction. In 1997 and 2002, Sony Pictures followed up with comic close encounters as "Men in Black" and then "Men in Black II" dominated their respective dates.
This holiday weekend, Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" is already on the march, bowing Wednesday in 3,908 theaters to $21.7 million -- Paramount's biggest opening day ever.
The movie is, of course, the weekend's preordained winner: Once Paramount aimed the combined firepower of Spielberg and Tom Cruise on the movie's June 29 opening date, Fox, which had been planning to launch its sci-fi extravaganza "Fantastic Four" Friday, decided to move its movie out of the line of fire, shifting that movie's opening to July 8.
"War" is going to be big, but the question is: how big?
Any Monday morning box office quarterbacks who insist that "War" has to break all records lest it be dubbed a disappointment are setting the bar impossibly high because the record for the Fourth of July weekend is held by last year's "Spider-Man 2." The Sony film grossed $40.4 million on its opening Wednesday, $115.8 million during the four-day holiday weekend and $180 million in its first six days.
"War," which is skewing to a somewhat older audience, is not expected to hit those stratospheric numbers. For one thing, it doesn't carry the pent-up demand that surrounds a successful sequel. And with the Fourth on Monday, the day-to-day comparisons will play out differently, with the Spielberg sci-fi horror film looking to enjoy a comparatively strong Sunday but then hitting the usual holiday wall Monday, when Americans turn their attention to barbecues, fireworks and a quick dash back to work.
Still, industry handicappers expect the PG-13 adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells novel to pull in $65 million-$75 million during the Friday-Sunday portion of the holiday as it attacks a potential six-day gross that could reasonably top out in the $115 million-$135 million range.
Those numbers should establish personal opening-weekend bests for Cruise and Spielberg. Cruise's top opener is "Mission: Impossible 2," which enjoyed a four-day opening weekend of $70.8 million during the 2000 Memorial Day weekend. Spielberg's standard bearer is 1997's "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" which bowed to a four-day gross of more than $90 million. And "War" will handily surmount the first Spielberg-Cruise collaboration, 2002's "Minority Report," which registered an opening weekend of $35.7 million.
..........
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
Friday July 1 3:33 AM ET
When it comes to the Fourth of July weekend box office, nothing sets off fireworks like a good ol' alien attack.
When 20th Century Fox's "Independence Day" planted a flag on the weekend of the Fourth in 1996, it discovered that extraterrestrials blowing up the White House was a surefire holiday attraction. In 1997 and 2002, Sony Pictures followed up with comic close encounters as "Men in Black" and then "Men in Black II" dominated their respective dates.
This holiday weekend, Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" is already on the march, bowing Wednesday in 3,908 theaters to $21.7 million -- Paramount's biggest opening day ever.
The movie is, of course, the weekend's preordained winner: Once Paramount aimed the combined firepower of Spielberg and Tom Cruise on the movie's June 29 opening date, Fox, which had been planning to launch its sci-fi extravaganza "Fantastic Four" Friday, decided to move its movie out of the line of fire, shifting that movie's opening to July 8.
"War" is going to be big, but the question is: how big?
Any Monday morning box office quarterbacks who insist that "War" has to break all records lest it be dubbed a disappointment are setting the bar impossibly high because the record for the Fourth of July weekend is held by last year's "Spider-Man 2." The Sony film grossed $40.4 million on its opening Wednesday, $115.8 million during the four-day holiday weekend and $180 million in its first six days.
"War," which is skewing to a somewhat older audience, is not expected to hit those stratospheric numbers. For one thing, it doesn't carry the pent-up demand that surrounds a successful sequel. And with the Fourth on Monday, the day-to-day comparisons will play out differently, with the Spielberg sci-fi horror film looking to enjoy a comparatively strong Sunday but then hitting the usual holiday wall Monday, when Americans turn their attention to barbecues, fireworks and a quick dash back to work.
Still, industry handicappers expect the PG-13 adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells novel to pull in $65 million-$75 million during the Friday-Sunday portion of the holiday as it attacks a potential six-day gross that could reasonably top out in the $115 million-$135 million range.
Those numbers should establish personal opening-weekend bests for Cruise and Spielberg. Cruise's top opener is "Mission: Impossible 2," which enjoyed a four-day opening weekend of $70.8 million during the 2000 Memorial Day weekend. Spielberg's standard bearer is 1997's "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" which bowed to a four-day gross of more than $90 million. And "War" will handily surmount the first Spielberg-Cruise collaboration, 2002's "Minority Report," which registered an opening weekend of $35.7 million.
..........
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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