MEA CULPA: CYNICISM LOSES OUT

Fahrenheit 9/11 came in first after all, pulling in nearly $22-Million at the box office, according to early estimates. That’s more money in one weekend than Michael Moore’s last film, the Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine pulled-in throughout its entire theatrical run, and until this weekend, Columbine was the top-grossing documentary in history.

I was sure that White Chicks would be this weekend’s BO champ simply because of being in three times as many theaters. The Wayans’ Bros. comedy came in second with a perfectly respectable $19.6-Million and a per screen average of just over $7,000. Fahrenheit, meanwhile, averaged over $25K per its 860+ screens, which puts it in the same company as major blockbuster openings. (By comparison, Dodgeball‘s $30-Million in almost 2700 theaters worked out to $18,000 per; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban made $93-Million its first weekend in 3855 theaters for a nearly $32K average; and when The Passion of the Christ opened with nearly $90-Million in ticket sales in over 3,000 theaters, it’s average was around $27,000 per. Considering that many of Fahrenheit‘s screens were likely smaller art-house theaters – such as New York’s Lincoln Plaza Cinemas – that’s not bad company.) With Fahrenheit apparently selling-out everywhere through the weekend, it would be interesting to know what an even wider release might have meant. Did the distributors just nail the prefect number to equal demand, or had they been able to book the film on another 1000 screens, would we be looking at a $40-Million opening? That question will always remain unanswered, but we might get a little insight after the film finishes it’s first full week and second weekend in theaters. It is encouraging, however, that it seems like theaters nationwide did well with the film, as opposed to playing full in NY, Chicago, LA, San Francisco and empty everywhere else. But will it draw audiences who don’t already believe everything Moore is preaching? Only time will tell.

And just to finish up the line of “Aaron was wrong this weekend,” neither Dodgeball nor The Terminal had terribly huge drop-offs, and in fact, the apparently mild 27% fall for Spielberg’s film could indicate the movie has some legs. Of course, considering that it’s a bad movie, it distresses me that it’s obviously generating some positive word of mouth, but then again, at this rate, with only $40-Million after two weeks, it’s going to have a tough time getting to $100-Million with the competition becoming much tougher in July, and for a Spielberg-Hanks collaboration, that might as well be a flop.