Hmm, $15m is a real possibility now.

Simply ridiculous

If it turns out to be true, it'll be one of the hardest things to find an explanation for in my brief history of tracking box office numbers. Island, XXX2, KoH, Stealth, all are not hard to point to numerous factors. Continuous re-affirming of the tracking numbers pre-release is pretty much the only reason I predicted low for Poseidon.

So it appears that everyone is saving his/her hard-earned cash for the next two weeks. Poseidon is simply one of those "everything that could go wrong did" cases: terrible marketing, no interest from the public, not a good release date, no stars, no nothing.

Yup Davinci Code,Over the Hedge and X-3 will be the Shrek/DAT 2004, SW/Madagascar/Longest Yard of May although nothing could have beat last years middle of may records

Poseidon - 5/12/06
8:10pm showing
60% full (466-seat auditorium)

TRAILERS
The Lake House (some talk)
Waist Deep (silent)
Gridiron Gang (talk)
Superman Returns (silent)

It was "just ok"....nothin' special (I thought some parts were pretty lame). Crowd reaction was mixed --- a lot of laughing going on when it wasn't supposed to but there was some clapping at the end.

Theater was somewhat busy (looked like the holdovers, especially M:i:III, were doing alright) but the only sellout was Scary Movie 4 at 9:40.

A few crowd reports...







I'll have a report later tonight.

Ouch for Poseidon! I thought it would perform bad, but not this bad.

I'm not sure Poseidon tanking is really such a shocker.

I mean, was anyone *dying* to see it? It just looked so bland and unremarkable.

Not to mention these submarine/water/disaster-ish movies haven't been doing that well in the past few years. Witness Harrison Ford's K-19: The Widowmaker a few years ago.

Yes, one film flops and theaters across the country close in widespread panic. That makes so much sense.

Man.

But I agree with Libs, there was just no interest built up for this movie. The marketing was mostly absent, nobody I knew really wanted to see it at all. I should've trusted my instincts when the ad came on during Survivor, and all my friends started talking about how absolutely crappy the movie looked. Blah.

But that looked incredibly boring . This looked way more entertaining anyway. Still, I wasn't dying to see it either, but I do feel bad for it bombing so badly. It makes me want to see it more .

He just means that all of the disappointments and underperformers don't bode well for the rest of the movies coming out this summer. The Box Office is in a slump, and they're going to have to turn all theaters into IMAX ones or something to make the moviegoing experience an amazing one again and worth dishing out the money to go.

Here I am guys.

First off, I was sent home 3 hrs. early, then I went back to see a movie. Here is what I got (before 10)

Poseidon
12:00 - 33 people (including my dad (for free), in which btw, he like it alot).
12:55 - 16
1:50 - 27
2:40 - 28
3:35 - 22
4:25 - 32
5:25 - 84
6:15 - 81
7:10 - 101
7:35 - 87
8:00 - 173
8:55 - 269
9:50 - 240
10:15 - 87 with 15 mintues to go.
10:40 - 60 with 40 minutes to go.
(Actually, for being more of an adult movie, this isn't bad at all. This was the biggest performer all day (yes, it even edged out MI3), so it will at least do 20 million. This did about 45% of what MI3 did last Friday, which means I see a 7 million Friday based on this).

Just My Luck
12:15 - 10
1:45 - 3
2:45 - 6
4:15 - 22
5:15 - 47
6:45 - 66
7:45 - 65
9:15 - 144
10:20 - 65 so far
(Not as high as we hoped for, but not a total flop either. I see a 3 million opening day).

Goal (prepared to be really pissed)
2:10 - 28
4:55 - 21
7:40 - Sold Out (275 seater)
10:25 - Sold Out (275 seater)
(WTF. Though I can say that most of the audience were mostly Mexicans. So maybe this is skewed because this is a Mexican market).

Art School Confidential
12:45 - 8
3:15 - 7
5:45 - 3
8:15 - 26
10:45 - 12 so far
(Not a great expansion)

Saving Shiloh
4 tickets all day ($32)

Keeping Up with the Steins sold only 30 admits all day.

Among holdovers.

MI3 sold out the 8:30 (135 seater), 9:55 (155 seater), and the 10:25 (155 seater). It got 82% full for the 9:25 (160 seater). It did, however, drop 50%+, since all shows before 7 did 30 people at best.

Amercian Haunting sold out the 9:20 show (95 seater), but that too, got sliced by more than half.

RV held on well compared to last Friday. the 7:25 did 57 people. Satuday will be much stronger.

Ice Age and the Wild also got attendance in the 50's for it's night shows.

Akeelah and the bee also had a show with 55 people (thanks to the fact that at this chain, all school teachers got free admission to this movie).

Stick It is fading, as the big show got 52 people (compared to 92 last week).

United 93 and Sentinel had peak shows of 28 people.

Benchwarmers sold out the 9:30 (95 seater), though virtually doing nothing else in the eariler shows.

Silent Hill's 10:00 show got 99 people.

And finally, Hoot, sold only 16 tickets the whole day ($139 dollars) Off a full 75% from last week.

All in all, business was slower than last Friday from the look of it. Next weekend should kick butt.

Saw Poseidon at 12:30am in a 500-seater. It was around 30% full, which is not as bad as The Island or XXX: State of the Union, but not quite $25+ million either. I'd say around $20 million for the weekend.

BTW

I saw Art School Confidential.

I liked it alot. Pretty much, if you liked Ghost World, than you will like this.

Goal! was selling out its 11pm show here in south bay too. Unbelievable.

Watched M:I3 with a full crowd at 9:15pm. Excellent actions, and like the fact that they brought the double crossing back. A-/B+.

This slump mentality is annoying. These two bombs don't surprise me at all, in fact I was predicting them. These are the type of movies that did poorly last summer, but from TDVC to Pirates you have a great lineup.

70% of the business for Goal will probably be in California.

Poseidon
8:00 PM
About 450 seater; estimated 22% full - That's weak, what I would expect for a movie with a 4m Friday. Perhaps it's just doing poorly in this area.

Exactly.

If say MI3 was released in June and Poseidon in late July - they wouldnt have raised as many eyebrows as them being released in the first two weeks of summer. Poseidon was never going to be a hit anyway.

It was a generic looking movie that aimed at every demographic, but ended up getting none?

When you try to have something for everyone there might end up being no one that finds the movie particularly interesting.

The star of Goal! is a pretty big Mexican television star, so if you're in a market for that audience, it's definitely going to do well there. We'll see if Disney targetted just those markets and the business is that good in all theatres.

I think the mistake I made in predicting this movie was thinking the star was a white guy (As I thought I remembered from the trailer). I'm pretty sure that if that were the case, the gross would be one fifth as much. Over 90% of it's audience will probably end up being Mexican-American.

But the thing is that it will end up being frontloaded, rather than acting like a kids movie... just look at "La Mujer De Mi Hermano"... did a really good average opening weekend but then quickly tanked.