Box Office Preview: "Talladega Nights" on Course to Finish First
Sony shoots for its industry-leading eighth number one film of the year with the Will Ferrell comedy "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" which is one of four new movies hitting theaters on Friday.
Paramount offers more laughs, but for a much younger audience, with its animated comedy "Barnyard: The Original Party Animals." Horror fans get blood and gore with "The Descent" from Lionsgate while Miramax releases the Robin Williams thriller "The Night Listener."
At long last, comedy gets to take over the top spot at the box office with "Talladega Nights" which is on course to finish in first place far ahead of its competitors. The PG-13 film finds Ferrell playing a legendary NASCAR driver whose career has gone through some outrageous ups and downs. John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Michael Clarke Duncan co-star while "Anchorman" director Adam McKay reteams with Ferrell for another funny tale of an outlandish character drowning in dumbness. The audience for "Talladega" is broad. Teens and young adults will make up a large portion, but older adults may take a ride too. Given the racing storyline, males might slightly edge out females, but interest from women should be solid too. And of course the population of NASCAR fans is enormous so expect many from that world to line up.
Sony's timing is perfect. The summer has alternated between action and comedy each month. May and July were ruled by action flicks and now it's time for August to give a repeat of June when laughers led the way. Ferrell provides ample starpower, trailers and commercials are funny, and the studio is spending heavily on marketing so the stars are aligned for Ricky Bobby to claim pole position. "Talladega" should appeal to the same moviegoers that came out for the male-oriented comedies "Anchorman," "Starsky & Hutch," "The Dukes of Hazzard," and "Dodgeball." Those PG-13 pics all opened in the tight $28-31M range and Ferrell's latest could follow. Racing into around 3,400 theaters, "Talladega Nights" might debut with about $30M this weekend.
Farm animals go nuts when the farmer's not looking. That's the premise behind Paramount's new animated comedy "Barnyard: The Original Party Animals." The third PG-rated toon in as many weeks features the voices of Kevin James, Courteney Cox Arquette, Danny Glover, and Wanda Sykes and comes from writer/director Steve Oedekerk ("Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls"). Competition for tykes will be tough with "Monster House" and "The Ant Bully" splitting the family pie in three. But "Barnyard" does offer the most comedy among the trio which could be key to getting in the target audience. The film has the kind of laughs parents expect when taking the kids on a trip to the movies, but it lacks a built-in audience that could send the numbers through the roof. Still, the marketing push from Nickelodeon will provide some valuable help and could put it ahead of Ant, but below "Monster" in overall strength. Opening in over 3,000 theaters, "Barnyard" might debut with roughly $12M.
Lionsgate unleashes what it hopes will be its latest horror hit in "The Descent," an ultraviolent thriller about an all-female caving expedition that stumbles upon frightening creatures when trapped underground. The R-rated pic aims to become the latest flick low on starpower, but high on brutality and gore, to become a winner with audiences. The distributor is no doubt one of the current kings of the genre and has banked $55.2M for Saw, $87M for "Saw II," and $47.3M with "Hostel." Early reviews have been among the best ever for recent fright flicks which is helping to spread a pulsating buzz throughout the horror community. Lionsgate has wisely been promoting itself as the studio behind "Saw" and "Hostel" in an effort to convince fans that they will be in for another gore-filled ride this time around. The tactic should work wonders and a creepy ultra-deep voiceover in the television spots will help lure in victims too. With "Lady in the Water" failing to scare many people, hardcore fright fans will certainly look to "Descent" to deliver the summer chills. The film is not going out too wide and Will Ferrell will certain take away many young men so there will be a limit to how high this weekend's opening will be. Dropping into around 1,800 locations, "The Descent" could dig up about $10M over the frame and post a solid average.
Robin Williams pops his head into theaters in the psychological thriller "The Night Listener" playing a radio host who gets tangled in a relationship with his biggest fan. Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, and Rory Culkin co-star. Miramax's R-rated release has not been backed by too much of a marketing push and it won't launch in that many theaters so expectations are low. Only older adults will take interest, but most that are curious will not find this to be worth paying top dollar for. The former Mork can be a box office draw in the right film, but in a vehicle like this, ticket buyers do not show up. His flops "Death to Smoochy" and "Jakob the Liar" bowed to just $4.3M and $2.1M, respectively. "The Night Listener" opens in around 1,400 theaters this Friday and could tune into about $4M.
Ricky Bobby plans to put Crockett and Tubbs in their place this weekend. Universal's "Miami Vice" enjoyed a solid debut last weekend opening a little higher than director Michael Mann's previous film "Collateral," another R-rated action thriller debuting in late summer. But word of mouth for "Vice" is not as strong so whereas the Tom Cruise assassin pic went on to gross four times its opening, the Jamie Foxx-Colin Farrell actioner should see a smaller multiple. A 45% drop would give "Miami Vice" about $14M for the frame and a ten-day tally of $50M.
Mid-summer juggernaut "Pirates of the Caribbean" is about to close the books on its first month of release. Another decline of 40% would leave Disney with $12M in the fifth frame and $380M after 31 days putting it in "Star Wars Episode III" territory. That would also send the global cume soaring past the $700M mark.
Fox's high school comedy "John Tucker Must Die" is sure to see a steep drop in sales this weekend, especially with "Talladega Nights" stealing away teens. A 55% fall would result in a sophomore frame of $7M and a respectable cume of $29M after ten days.
LAST YEAR The good ol' boys of "The Dukes of Hazzard" charged into first place opening with a powerful $30.7M to lead the first weekend of August. The Warner Bros. release ran out of gas quickly but still managed to reach a healthy $80.3M domestically. With no other new films hitting screens, holdovers rounded out the rest of the top five. New Line's sleeper smash "Wedding Crashers" placed second with $16M while the Warners kidpic "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" followed with $11M. The top three films were all part of the Time Warner family. Disney's "Sky High" took fourth with $9M and Warner Bros. appeared in fifth place again with "Must Love Dogs" which grossed $7.4M. In limited release, Focus cracked the Top 20 with its arthouse hit "Broken Flowers" which debuted with a stellar $28,904 average from 27 playdates on its way to a domestic tally of $13.7M.
Author: Gitesth Pandya, BoxOfficeGuru.com
Paramount offers more laughs, but for a much younger audience, with its animated comedy "Barnyard: The Original Party Animals." Horror fans get blood and gore with "The Descent" from Lionsgate while Miramax releases the Robin Williams thriller "The Night Listener."
At long last, comedy gets to take over the top spot at the box office with "Talladega Nights" which is on course to finish in first place far ahead of its competitors. The PG-13 film finds Ferrell playing a legendary NASCAR driver whose career has gone through some outrageous ups and downs. John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Michael Clarke Duncan co-star while "Anchorman" director Adam McKay reteams with Ferrell for another funny tale of an outlandish character drowning in dumbness. The audience for "Talladega" is broad. Teens and young adults will make up a large portion, but older adults may take a ride too. Given the racing storyline, males might slightly edge out females, but interest from women should be solid too. And of course the population of NASCAR fans is enormous so expect many from that world to line up.
Sony's timing is perfect. The summer has alternated between action and comedy each month. May and July were ruled by action flicks and now it's time for August to give a repeat of June when laughers led the way. Ferrell provides ample starpower, trailers and commercials are funny, and the studio is spending heavily on marketing so the stars are aligned for Ricky Bobby to claim pole position. "Talladega" should appeal to the same moviegoers that came out for the male-oriented comedies "Anchorman," "Starsky & Hutch," "The Dukes of Hazzard," and "Dodgeball." Those PG-13 pics all opened in the tight $28-31M range and Ferrell's latest could follow. Racing into around 3,400 theaters, "Talladega Nights" might debut with about $30M this weekend.
Farm animals go nuts when the farmer's not looking. That's the premise behind Paramount's new animated comedy "Barnyard: The Original Party Animals." The third PG-rated toon in as many weeks features the voices of Kevin James, Courteney Cox Arquette, Danny Glover, and Wanda Sykes and comes from writer/director Steve Oedekerk ("Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls"). Competition for tykes will be tough with "Monster House" and "The Ant Bully" splitting the family pie in three. But "Barnyard" does offer the most comedy among the trio which could be key to getting in the target audience. The film has the kind of laughs parents expect when taking the kids on a trip to the movies, but it lacks a built-in audience that could send the numbers through the roof. Still, the marketing push from Nickelodeon will provide some valuable help and could put it ahead of Ant, but below "Monster" in overall strength. Opening in over 3,000 theaters, "Barnyard" might debut with roughly $12M.
Lionsgate unleashes what it hopes will be its latest horror hit in "The Descent," an ultraviolent thriller about an all-female caving expedition that stumbles upon frightening creatures when trapped underground. The R-rated pic aims to become the latest flick low on starpower, but high on brutality and gore, to become a winner with audiences. The distributor is no doubt one of the current kings of the genre and has banked $55.2M for Saw, $87M for "Saw II," and $47.3M with "Hostel." Early reviews have been among the best ever for recent fright flicks which is helping to spread a pulsating buzz throughout the horror community. Lionsgate has wisely been promoting itself as the studio behind "Saw" and "Hostel" in an effort to convince fans that they will be in for another gore-filled ride this time around. The tactic should work wonders and a creepy ultra-deep voiceover in the television spots will help lure in victims too. With "Lady in the Water" failing to scare many people, hardcore fright fans will certainly look to "Descent" to deliver the summer chills. The film is not going out too wide and Will Ferrell will certain take away many young men so there will be a limit to how high this weekend's opening will be. Dropping into around 1,800 locations, "The Descent" could dig up about $10M over the frame and post a solid average.
Robin Williams pops his head into theaters in the psychological thriller "The Night Listener" playing a radio host who gets tangled in a relationship with his biggest fan. Toni Collette, Sandra Oh, and Rory Culkin co-star. Miramax's R-rated release has not been backed by too much of a marketing push and it won't launch in that many theaters so expectations are low. Only older adults will take interest, but most that are curious will not find this to be worth paying top dollar for. The former Mork can be a box office draw in the right film, but in a vehicle like this, ticket buyers do not show up. His flops "Death to Smoochy" and "Jakob the Liar" bowed to just $4.3M and $2.1M, respectively. "The Night Listener" opens in around 1,400 theaters this Friday and could tune into about $4M.
Ricky Bobby plans to put Crockett and Tubbs in their place this weekend. Universal's "Miami Vice" enjoyed a solid debut last weekend opening a little higher than director Michael Mann's previous film "Collateral," another R-rated action thriller debuting in late summer. But word of mouth for "Vice" is not as strong so whereas the Tom Cruise assassin pic went on to gross four times its opening, the Jamie Foxx-Colin Farrell actioner should see a smaller multiple. A 45% drop would give "Miami Vice" about $14M for the frame and a ten-day tally of $50M.
Mid-summer juggernaut "Pirates of the Caribbean" is about to close the books on its first month of release. Another decline of 40% would leave Disney with $12M in the fifth frame and $380M after 31 days putting it in "Star Wars Episode III" territory. That would also send the global cume soaring past the $700M mark.
Fox's high school comedy "John Tucker Must Die" is sure to see a steep drop in sales this weekend, especially with "Talladega Nights" stealing away teens. A 55% fall would result in a sophomore frame of $7M and a respectable cume of $29M after ten days.
LAST YEAR The good ol' boys of "The Dukes of Hazzard" charged into first place opening with a powerful $30.7M to lead the first weekend of August. The Warner Bros. release ran out of gas quickly but still managed to reach a healthy $80.3M domestically. With no other new films hitting screens, holdovers rounded out the rest of the top five. New Line's sleeper smash "Wedding Crashers" placed second with $16M while the Warners kidpic "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" followed with $11M. The top three films were all part of the Time Warner family. Disney's "Sky High" took fourth with $9M and Warner Bros. appeared in fifth place again with "Must Love Dogs" which grossed $7.4M. In limited release, Focus cracked the Top 20 with its arthouse hit "Broken Flowers" which debuted with a stellar $28,904 average from 27 playdates on its way to a domestic tally of $13.7M.
Author: Gitesth Pandya, BoxOfficeGuru.com
Related Items
| Movie: | The Descent |
| The Night Listener | |
| Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby | |
| Celeb: | Will Ferrell |
| Robin Williams |
(1-10 of 10 posts) | Reply
on Aug 05 2006 12:44 PM Saw The Descent and Talladega yesterday, Descent wasn't what I expected, but I was SO built up for it for SO long, and I heard SO much about it that I was underwhelmed, and honestly, that's not the fault of the movie, it's mine for getting so over-pumped. I do wish they had kept the original UK ending, which I found on YouTube, since the American ending is complete idiocy. Also, there are some GLARING problems with the film's logic, which involve spoilers so I won't point them out, but you'll more than likely spot them yourself. Talladega I wasn't really excited for, since the commercials were underwhelming, but I loved Anchorman, so I decided to check it out. Talladega doesn't have that little spark of manic joy that Anchorman had, and because of that it never quite gets off the ground. I'm probably seeing the Night Listener later in the week, so we'll see how that goes. If you have to see either of those two, see the Descent, then find the original ending on YouTube. (Reply to this) |
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on Aug 05 2006 01:09 PM [b]Original Ending on Youtube[/b] Hey there CrazyGhost78 - I saw both movies that you saw, and I was impressed by both. I actually hate horror movies because most (NOT all) are cheesy and overly gorey. But with the Decent I found it to be quite nerve racking, intense, and overall well acted. As for some of the films logic - Id have to view it again - to see them now. As for Tallageda - I dont think Ive lauged harder. Will Ferrel, may not be the funniest man alive - lol - but that movie is definetly a funny, funny movie. Anyways, I was wondering if you could post the link to the Original Ending of the Decent. Ive searched Youtube hi and lo and cannot find it. This would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. (Reply to this) |
on Aug 05 2006 06:11 PM [b]ha[/b] talladega opened to 18 million on friday so a 40+ weekend is in store. This is good news i hope for the month of august. (Reply to this) |
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on Aug 05 2006 06:37 PM I seen Anchorman with Cars it was really funny, although some parts were like okay that wasn't funny (Reply to this) |
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on Aug 05 2006 09:26 PM In reply to this comment (#841507) ht (Reply to this) |
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on Aug 06 2006 08:39 AM In reply to this comment (#841507) I agree most horror films have too much gore, and I actually thought that was part of the problem of this film. I was expecting a more subtle, scary thriller like Alien, but this movie didn't really scare me, and it seemed to ditch true atmosphere for jump-"scares" and gore. As for the logic, *SPOILERS* These are people who have adapted over who knows how many years to live in the dark, they lost their eyesight because it was pointless to them, and their hearing supposedly got better. But the characters are moving close to the monsters, quietly sputtering in fear, or breathing loudly, sometimes even whispering with the monsters not hearing them. In reality, creatures who rely on their hearing so much would have incredible hearing, and they would pick them out and eat them in a heartbeat. The other is, the story goes that these creatures lived on human flesh after they were trapped. But that wouldn't last the generations is would take to evolve like that. So if they went to the surface to hunt, A.) why would they still lack eyesight, and more glaringly, B.) why would they go back into the cave? I can suspend my disbelief when the film requires me to, but for a film that seems to want to create a "what if" scenario using already existing cryptozoological creatures, there are a bunch of gaping holes in the logic. *END SPOILERS* As for the Ferrell movie, there were certainly funny parts, but I think the problem is he was missing other great improvers to work off of, and the casting was off on most of the characters. Although I have to admit, the knife-in-the-leg scene was downright hilarious. (Reply to this) |
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on Aug 06 2006 10:15 AM i saw talladega nights and thought it was hilarious. Although anchorman was pretty funny, im not a huge will ferrell fan, but he really impressed me with this one. I think it might be funnier than anchorman. As far as the leg scene, i thought that was one of the dumber comic gags of the film. The only funny part of that scene is when they try to use a knife to pry out the other knife. Id have to say the best part was when cal told him about his new nickname the "magic man" and ricky bobby couldn't pretend that wasn't an amazing nickname (Reply to this) |
on Aug 06 2006 01:29 PM Talledaga Nights; what a piece of crap! That was my first and last Will Ferrel movie to be sure. Talk about your good old boy Bubba movie. All that was missing was the banjo playing kid from Deliverance. (Reply to this) |
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on Aug 06 2006 01:58 PM Yeah, CrazyGhost, those two things bothered me, too, especially the second one. (Reply to this) |
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on Aug 06 2006 10:22 PM Does anybody else find Will Ferrel to be anything but funny? (Reply to this) |
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