Specialty releases pack sold-out theatres; 'Day the Earth Stood Still' earns $31 million

By Sarah Sluis

The $31 million earned by The Day the Earth Stood Still seems just about right for me.  The so-so
reviews drew disaster, alien, and special-effects fans (especially to see the film on IMAX) but didn't fool anyone into thinking they would be seeing something on par with Keanu Reeves' performance in The Matrix--this was more like a Constantine.

Four Christmases continued to do strong business (I need to see this film!), with the solid comedic team of Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn ensuring a pleasant repose after a long day of holiday shopping.  The storyline about endless, annoying relatives seems apt after the difficult task of finding the perfect gift for everyone on your list.

Much to my relief, no one showed up for Delgo.  Earning $424 per screen, that means roughly 40 people came to see the animated disaster (not to one showing...over the whole weekend).  I can believe that 40 people in a given area would have no better way to spend 88 minutes than at that movie, so I feel satisfied about its sub-$1 million performance.

Four awards-bait films opened this weekend, and all earned above $10k per screen, a great performance out of the gate (compare this with the winner of the week, The Day the Earth Stood Still, which posted only $8,708 per screen).

     Top Six Per-Screen Averages

1. Gran Torino: $47,333/per screen, 6 locations



2. Doubt: $35,000/per screen , 15 locations



3. Che: $30,050/per screen, 2 locations



4. The Reader: $30,050/per screen, 8 locations



5. Frost/Nixon: $16,154/per screen, 39 locations (2nd week)



6. Slumdog Millionaire: $13,154/per screen, 169 locations (5th week)

Not on this list is Milk.  Shut out of a Golden Globe nomination for Best Drama, which drained the movie of some of its buzz, the Gus Van Sant film earned $8,037 per screen, finishing just below the per-screen average of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Riding its wave of Golden Globe nominations, Slumdog Millionaire boosted its per-screen average even as it increased the number of screens in its release, settling the film in that elusive sweet spot of awards material with commercial recognition.  Releasing so much earlier than other rewards fodder has paid off so far for the film.  I saw it over six weeks ago, and its unusual story and superb execution still bring a warm glow of appreciation to my mind.  Without any backlash ("sappy" will be the mud of choice), and growing box-office receipts to support its buzz, this film is my awards favorite so far.

Still, all of the award-baiting films in the top five have yet to expand their release, so the relative success of one film over another will play a part in the allotment of Oscar nominations, which won't be announced until January 22nd.  Also, Golden Globe nominees Revolutionary Road and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button have not yet been released, still making this a wide-open race.

Full studio estimates available here.

'Gran Torino,' revving up, but 'Day the Earth Stood Still' should conquer box office

By Sarah Sluis

Alien-takeover remake The Day the Earth Stood Still will invade the box office this weekend, playing on 3,560 screens and ensuring at least some people will opt to enter one of those hourly multiplex showings.  Keanu Reeves does his blank-faced best as Klaatu.  Like The Matrix, the movie appears to be heavy with religious symbolism, with Reeves once again playing a Christ figure who raises people from the dead and walks on water.  The 1951 version used the national fear over the atom bomb to great effect; the remake replaces bombs with our environmental problems, but falls short, leading our Daniel Eagan to conclude that director Scott Derrickson "didn't find a way to make The Day the Earth Stood
Still
meaningful for a modern-day audience."  If you've worn out your copies of those alien disaster movies of the past twelve years--Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, or The War of the Worlds--you'll probably get more of the same-old here.

Gran Torino releases today in 6 theatres, joining The Reader, which opened Wednesday on 8 screens.  The movie has garnered some positive reviews, with critics assenting that it's a good Eastwood film-- our Rex Roberts notes the director has "the singular ability to turn bombast into poignancy."  But, like Changeling, the film is certainly not Clint's best work.  Eastwood plays a racist holdout in an ethnically diverse neighborhood, who befriends a young Hmong neighbor after the boy is bullied into playing out Grand Auto Theft with Eastwood's prized car.  Taking a note from those teen actresses that parlay their popularity into recording deals, Eastwood sings a song over the credits.  Of course, given that it's Clint, there's considerably more dignity involved.

The Debra Messing/John LeGuizamo-starrer Nothing Like The Holidays will open on 1,671 screens.  A serviceable, "clich-ridden story," its execution and attention to detail redeem the home-for-the-holidays plot.  Our David Noh praised the script for details like Messing's "desperate assimilating attempts to speak Spanish with a torturously 'correct' accent."  Much of Beverly Hills Chihuahua's heat came from Hispanic viewers, but whether Overture Films will be able to successfully mobilize this demographic for the movie will have to wait until Monday.

Animated fairy tale Delgo (2,160 screens), a multi-millionaire's pet project, opens today, and I sincerely hope audiences avoid this debacle.  Didn't someone tell the millionaire that your anthromorphized
characters are supposed to look cute?   Featuring the ugliest dinosaur-esque creatures, rendered in "videogame-quality CGI," according to Frank Lovece, the film seems terribly wishy-washy, ending with a climax that "flogs the verity of compassion, touting it as a good and important thing...and then shows how you're an idiot for being compassionate."  The film's ten-year gestation film is also apparent through its casting choices.  Erstwhile teen stars Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt no longer have the same draw they did back in 1997's I Know What You Did Last Summer, and the memorable actress Anne Bancroft passed away before the film's completion.  I wouldn't even pick up the film in a $4.99 DVD bargain bin, because then I would have to look at those awful dinosaur things.