'Funny People' draws in modest audience

By Sarah Sluis

With its mix of comedy and drama, Funny People baffled industry analysts and challenged audience expectations. At the end of the weekend, the Judd Apatow-directed comedy brought in $23.4 million, performing steadily throughout its first three days. That's slightly better than Apatow's 2005 directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which made $21.4 million in its opening weekend. However, that comedy posted below-average drops of 20% for several weekends to reach its $109 million cumulative gross, a performance that appears less likely for Funny People, which also needs to make back its $70 million budget.

Sci-fi kids comedy Aliens in the Attic opened at number five with $7.8 million. Kirk Honeycutt praised the family film for "[taking] good advantage of digital effects and an athletic cast to make the action virtually nonstop," but it appears the movie--or its marketing budget--was unable to pack audiences into theatres.

Opening just outside of the top ten at number eleven, The Collector grossed $3.6 million. However, if audience responses are as negative as its reviews, it should fall out of theatres quickly.

Adam, The Cove, and Thirst, each at four locations, posted strong opening weekends. Fox Searchlight's Asperger romance did the best, earning $16,575 per location for a total of $94,800. Dolphin documentary The Cove brought in $13,875 per location, an auspicious start, and was closely followed by Thirst, which made $13,800 per location. All three films are well-positioned for expansion, and their generally positive reviews should help their performance over the next few weeks.

Among holdovers, Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince continued its reign at the number two spot, adding another $17.7 million to its Gringotts vault. The Hangover, in its ninth week in the top ten, dropped just 21.4%, making it the word-of-mouth and box-office hit ($255 million so far) of summer 2009. (500) Days of Summer continued its expansion, increasing its box-office take 68% from last weekend and more than doubling the number of theatres. It earned $2.7 million at the number twelve spot and a healthy $10,338 per location.

The Hurt Locker and In the Loop also expanded. With just a $3,654 per-screen average, the Kathryn Bigelow-directed war film may be burning through its audiences. In the Loop's $8,829 per-screen average was higher than any film in the top ten this weekend, and its $309,000 gross was a 61% increase from last week.

This Friday, G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra will got to battle with boeuf-y Julie & Julia. Horror flick A Perfect Getaway will round out the offerings in wide release.

'Funny People' looks out for number one

By Sarah Sluis

While almost everyone in the industry thinks Funny People (3,008 screens) will be able to grab the number one spot this weekend, its exact gross is more uncertain, with estimates ranging from $20 to $30 million. The film itself is similarly ambiguous, uneven and not immediately satisfying. It's the kind of movie you keep on thinking about after the lights go up. While I liked it far less than The 40-Year-Old Virgin or Knocked Up, it's a film I would want to revisit a few more Judd Apatow pictures down the line. Since Universal announced today that it signed a three-picture deal with Apatow, including an option for him to make films outside the studio, it looks as though the writer-director will have several more chances to add to his body of work. FJI's Executive Editor Kevin Lally called the death-centered comedy Apatow's "most ambitious film, which is both a good and bad thing for the audience. Good, because he's not playing it safe and repeating himself; bad, because the movie falls short of fulfilling its risky ambitions." I suspect this movie will underperform, but its risk-taking increases my respect for Apatow as a director.

Going to battle against the numerous kid films in release, Aliens in the Attic will open in 3,106 theatres. It's expected to perform below Harry Potter 6 and G-Force, making it a likely candidate for the number four spot. With its horror-lite tone and High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale, the movie is likely to do best among young boys.

Horror film The Collector will scare audiences in 1,325 theatres. While the movie wasn't screened for critics, its trailer has rather striking visuals, and the tale comes from the writers of the Saw sequels. The premise is intriguingly moralistic: a thief breaks into a house, only to discover that the family has been held captive by something or someone far more sinister--and he helps save the family he intended to rob.

On the specialty front, documentary The Cove opens in 4 theatres. The filmmaking activists pursue their goal--to record the inhumane slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan--Ocean's Eleven style, adding suspense and allowing the audience to viacriously join the crusade. Vampire film Thirst opens on 4 screens. I adored the "cinematic maelstrom of bloodlust and sensual obsession projected through Park Chan-wook's runaway imagination," but its graphic, depraved representation can be difficult to watch and is certainly not for everyone. Adam, a "sensitive but not sentimental" romance in which one party has Asperger's, opened Wednesday on 4 screens, and Lorna's Silence, a Danish film from the award-wnning Dardennes Brothers about the relationship between a drug addict and the woman who married him for immigration reasons, will appear on 6 screens in New York and L.A. For family audiences and those seeking specialty fare (I would almost count Funny People in that category), it's another jam-packed summer weekend.