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Daily News
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Dodgeball Slams Terminal
With an estimated $30 million, Ben Stiller and his Dodgeball squad manage
to punch out Tom Hanks and The Terminal.
Monday, June 21, 2004
By Mark Umbach
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In a surprise sub-in in the box office's number one spot, Ben Stiller and Vince
Vaughn's Dodgeball team pounced on the Tom Hanks-Steven Spielberg collaboration
The Terminal to become the box office champ with an estimated $30 million
from the weekend.
From first-time director Rawson Marshall Thurber, 20th Century Fox's Dodgeball:
A True Underdog Story carried a relatively low price tag and looks to be
profitable for the studio. The comedy stars Stiller and Vaughn as rival captains
in a Las Vegas dodgeball competition.
Prior to the weekend, tracking numbers had DreamWorks' The Terminal
finishing in the number one position. The romantic comedy stars Hanks as an
immigrant that finds himself living in an airport after the boundaries of his
war-torn country are blurred - leaving his passport invalid. The film landed
in the second position during its bow with a disappointing $18.7 million.
The young wizards of Hogwarts are still holding strong as Warner Bros.' Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban pulled into the third position with $17.4
million. Despite the strong showing, the $17.4 million was a 50% drop compared
to its sophomore frame last weekend. To date, the fantasy film - the third in
the franchise based on the novels by J.K Rowling - has amassed a whopping $190.3
million.
Fourth place went to the big green ogre of DreamWorks' Shrek 2. The
CGI-animated comedy, now in its fourth weekend of release, held strong with
$13.6 million. With the extra push from the weekend, the comedy sequel has become
the sixth highest-grossing film of all time with a walloping $378.3 million
(chasing the fifth place contender Spider-Man with $405.7 million) and
has become the biggest release of the year - surpassing the $370 million brought
in by Newmarket's The Passion of the Christ.
Dropping one spot from last weekend, Fox's live-action/CGI mix Garfield:
The Movie turned in a fifth place performance this week. The comedy, which
stars Bill Murray as the voice of the menacing feline, showed a 49% drop compared
to last weekend and finished its sophomore session with $11 million. After ten
days in release, the Peter Hewitt film has picked up a solid $42 million.
Marking a sharp 57% drop during its second weekend, Paramount's The Stepford Wives
catered to sixth place this week with an estimated $9.2 million, bringing its
total numbers up to $39.5 million after ten days in circulation. The seventh
place finisher, Universal's The Chronicles of Riddick, fell even harder,
66%, as it took in $8.3 million during its second go round. To date, the Vin
Diesel sci-fi actioner has brought home $41.4 million.
The Day After Tomorrow proved to be another bright spot for Fox with
the disaster film freezing over the eighth position with $7.6 million. Now in
its fourth weekend, Tomorrow has grossed $166.8 million.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the weekend was Buena Vista's Around
the World in 80 Days, a high-concept adaptation of the classic Jules Verne
novel from director Frank Coraci. The family film, starring Jackie Chan and
Steve Coogan, could only muster up $6.8 million during the weekend, which pushes
its cume since its Wednesday release up to a shallow $9.6 million. Unfortunately
for Buena Vista and production house Walden Media, the film cost approximately
$100 million to get into theaters.
Wolfgang Petersen's soldiers of Troy conquered tenth place for the weekend
with $1.7 million. The epic action film has spent six weekends in theaters and
has now grossed an estimated $129 million for Warner Bros.
Over on the limited front, Paramount Classics debuted the British thriller
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead in two New York venues to the tune of $14.463,
marking a strong $7,232 per theater average for the Mike Hodges film. Meanwhile,
the Italian romantic drama Facing Window from Sony Pictures Classics
played on seven screens in Los Angeles and New York and picked up $38,693, a
moderate $5,528 per theater average.
| Lakshya, a Hindi drama from UTV, opened on 59 screens across the country
and cashed in $405,000, averaging a solid $6,864 per theater take. In addition,
Regent's Clinton-era documentary The Hunting of the President bowed on
two screens - one in New York and one in Little Rock, Ark. The film captured
an estimated $27,098, or $13,549 per screen.
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In the second weekend for Fox Searchlight's Napoleon Dynamite, the comedy
moved into 18 theaters, up 12 from last weekend, and scored an estimated $200,000
- a hearty $11,111 per theater average. Since its release, Jared Hess' debut
film has seen $410,630 worth of business.
Next weekend, the Wayans brothers will go undercover with Columbia Pictures'
White Chicks, while Michael Moore will surely face heat with the release
of his latest documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Other films hitting theaters
include the romancer The Notebook, the family film Two Brothers
and the limited drama The Door in the Floor.
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