12/6-8 Weekend Boxoffice

From boxofficemojo.com. Thank Brandon Gray for doing the real work.

5 Treasure Planet $5,547,431 -54.1% 3,227 $1,719 $23,650,217 7 Eight Crazy Nights $4,854,255 -48.5% 2,503 $1,939 $20,044,450 45 Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie $56,278 -62.9% 294 -32 $191 $24,740,518 55 Spirited Away $36,309 -37.1% 32 -2 $1,134 $5,273,241

The whole past week we've been inundated with news articles that kept repeating 'Treasure Planet is a bomb' over and over again. If everyone says it's that way then it must be true. So in its second week TP's bomb status becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. IMHO, 'Treasure Planet' is going to struggle just to reach the $50 Million mark ( For comparison, 'Return to Neverland' reached $48 Million. ). I still think that its first week showing was disappointing but not bomb level. I'd think that Disney would rise up in the face of adversity and then push 'Treasure Planet' hard for a good second week. Instead it dumped the movie quicker than a one-night-stand, and I get the feeling it helped along the bomb chorus. 8CN is also going to struggle to reach the $50M mark. But how much did this movie cost to make? $50M might not be so bad for it. One thing I noticed though: No one really cares. I haven't seen any news article talking about 8CN's boxoffice. I'm impressed with 'Spirited Away''s per theater average. It's over five times the pta of 'Jonah', and it's nearly two thirds the pta of the two wide release movies. Maybe Disney should've put 'I'm Still Here' on the SA soundtrack instead.

- Juan F. Lara

Hmm... well, I think the movie is a bomb, yet I went to see it this past weekend, along with three friends.

The drop wasn't unexpected. the post-Thanksgiving frame tends to have large drops for all movies, and new openers tend to be rather weak. Both held true this time around. The problem with TP wasn't that it dropped a lot... it's that it was dropping from a lower than expected opening. If it had opened to $30 million for last week's three day, and then dropped to $13 million, I think Disney would be satisfied (but not happy) because the film would probably have upwards of $50 million in the bank already, and be fairly well primed to ride out the rest of the holiday season with few small drops.

Instead, it opened to under $20 million, and now dropped to below $6. Even if it manages to now turn things around and get some legs it's still going to be a bomb... the difference is whether they're going to lose $25 million or $75 million. I don't think it's likely, but it is still possible... from last year, we can assume that Harry Potter won't display much in the way of legs, and The Santa Clause will probably likewise follow suit. The next family film to be released doesn't come out until December 20 - The Wild Thornberries.

Damien Roc

Given how much the film cost to make, it certainly WAS bomb level. I'll get to that.

Think of it this way: Did Disney see the film as another Emperor's New Groove, or another Atlantis? Or were the two films one and the same?

THIS might be why TP's considered a 'bomb'. Disney released the production cost to the press, and the press assumed that the film (unlike Waterworld, which was considered a disaster BEFORE opening, or Return to Neverland, which didn't get the same push) was a legitimate Disney blockbuster release, on a level with Lilo & Stitch and Atlantis. L&S got the good press, instead of the spiteful 'nowhere near Aladdin or Lion King' press one could have pushed. TP's getting the bomb notice because $180 million films aren't supposed to get one-FIFTEENTH of their investment back on opening weekend, with a per-screen-average worthy of a film in its third or fourth week of release.

Did 8CN publicize its production cost? If not, was it a preventive measure to keep the film from generating too much TP-sized anticipation?

'Cept the occassional critical blurb from the likes of Entertainment Weekly and The Washington Post, reporting the flushing sound of Adam Sandler's Oscar cred. In a few weeks, we'll hear a few reminders from the likes of Desson Howe, Stephen Hunter and (possibly) Richard Roeper WRT Punch-Drunk Love's '2002's Elite Films' status, and anti-reminders of 8CN in the process.

They'll wind up stealing 'Get Off My Back' from Dreamworks before that happens

Terrence Briggs, who's due for a Holy Trinity of Spirited Away viewings this weekend. Peace to you...