August 9 , 2004

Well, The Village will be likely remembered for a few things… the launch of Bryce Howard's career… the end of M. Night Shyamalan's run of highly anticipated surprise ending films… and for being the biggest second-weekend loser of this summer.

One hundred seventy seven films have dropped as much as 60% on their second weekend if you include films that dropped 59.5% or more. Seventeen - or almost 10% of these films - have surfed that half percent between 59 and 60 percent… suspiciously cute. The king of the second weekend droppers is still Gigli, with an 81.9% drop after a $3.8 million opening on 2215 screens.

The other one hundred seventy six films that have this dubious distinction are both large and small. The biggest percentage dropper this summer (so far?) was MGM's Sleepover, which fell 71.9% in its second weekend when facing the opening of WB's A Cinderella Story, a film that far better exploited the very specific niche that both films are in and will pass $50 million. But this was a low budget film with low budget expectations from a studio that is focused first and foremost of selling itself. Following close on Sleepover's heels is Disney's The Village, which estimated a 67.3% weekend drop on Sunday morning.

Only one other summer film that opened to more than $20 million has fallen 65% or more… The Hulk.

Only two non-summer films so qualify… Star Trek: Nemesis and The Matrix Revolutions.

And the entire list of $20 million openers to fall 60% or more (in order of worst drop to least hideous) is Freddy Vs. Jason, Batman & Robin, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban, Star Trek: Insurrection, 8 Mile, The Chronicles of Riddick, Dawn of the Dead, Blade II, Van Helsing, Planet of the Apes, The Matrix Reloaded, Pokemon: The First Movie and The Day After Tomorrow.

It's an interesting list because these are not all disasters by any means.

Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Matrix Reloaded both opened to more than $90 million. So while the drops were disappointing, both ended up in the #3 spot for their respective summer seasons with more than $240 million domestic. Despite coastal mindsets, Reloaded had a good percentage of positive critical and public reaction. Azkaban did even better, with rave reviews suggesting it was the best of the series pouring in from most quarters.

Planet of The Apes and The Day After Tomorrow both had $69 million opening 3-days and both got to just over $180 million domestic. Apes matched that number overseas, while DAT almost doubled its domestic gross overseas to assure actual profitability in spite of the second weekend rejection.

The Village, 2 Fast 2 Furious and Van Helsing were all right at the $50 million mark, though 2 Fast stands out as the least expensive of the trio and the film with the lowest expectations.

Freddy Vs. Jason, 8 Mile, Dawn of the Dead, Blade II and Pokemon: The First Movie were all relatively low cost genre films that opened above expectations and all turned profits in theatrical release for their studios.

That leaves Batman & Robin, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Star Trek: Insurrection and The Chronicles of Riddick, Van Helsing, The Hulk, Star Trek: Nemesis and The Matrix Revolutions joining The Village as the big ticket, big marketing, big opening audience displeasers of our time. All but The Village were franchises, though you could argue that this response to The Village will put a dent in the Shyamalan franchise. And, of course, Paramount took two films to learn its lesson, though Insurrection did $113 million worldwide before Nemesis topped out at just $67 million.

But fear not… all but one of these franchises are dead now, until Paramount finds some inspiration to try Star Trek again (probably in another generation, no pun intended) or someone figures out how to exploit one of these brands for a lot less money. And indeed, the one franchise that is still going is the product of a new generation… WB's Batman is coming back with a new skin, actually exploring the origin story of the character.

Right now, The Village is running about $15 million behind The Hulk, which suggests that while The Village will hit $100 million, it should top out around $120 million or so. And while, if the film performs well in the rest of the world, Disney should be able to turn a small profit on the film (Shyamalan will make more than any other entity involved), it will surely rank as one of the industry's most memorable disappointments of all time.

The irony of this particular box office issue is that studio marketing, often the whipping department for movie failures, are the winners in every one of these cases. Oren Aviv and Team Disney deserve major kudos for getting The Village out of the gate to even the $50 million. Perhaps the biggest marketing story of this summer is Fox's team locking down the nightmarish Day After Tomorrow and opening it across the globe just before any of the angry villagers/critics could get to it with pitchforks and torches. And Universal survived their two action breakdowns to come back with The Bourne Supremacy the old fashioned way… they screened it (and screened it and screened it and screened it). I guess it helps when you have a good movie.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE: Seeing Collateral a second time over the weekend, it suddenly occurred to me that we could be watching four Oscar nominees in Michael Mann's midnight opus. Tom Cruise could be nominated for Collateral, Jamie Foxx for Ray, Mark Ruffalo for We Don't Live Here Anymore and Javier Bardem for Out To Sea.

READER OF THE DAY: NOT NY PD: "My all-time favorite movie is Heat. Michael Mann is my favorite director working today, has been ever since I saw Heat for the first time in theaters almost nine years ago. Needless to say, Collateral was my most anticipated movie of the summer, and possibly the year.

As I sat down to watch it, I was giddy with excitement, but also slightly worried that it wouldn't live up to my high expectations. Thankfully, I was not disappointed. Though imperfect, it's easily one of the year's best films. For me, there are three major reasons for its brilliance, with two tied closely together. One, the music. I need to own this soundtrack. It is simply remarkable and a huge asset to the movie. The score and the songs are spectacular. Two, the look. This is one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. Kudos to both cinematographers, since I'm not sure who did what. Three, Mann's
direction. I love the framing, especially the close ups, the way he would place the head near the end and not in the middle of the shot. Made it so interesting to look at. Different, but not too showy. And his angles are stunning. I was constantly marveling at how he chose to shoot scenes. At worst, Mann is a genius behind the camera.

In addition to those three things, there's a lot more to like. The cast and the performances, the screenplay, especially the first two-thirds, and the way it doesn't always go where you
expect. Mainstream movies, especially mainstream summer movies with a major star, simply don't get much better than this. Now, trying to cast aside my bias and act like an objective viewer, I must admit that the last third of the movie wasn't quite as good as
I'd hoped. It's a tad conventional, and once or twice I was kind of wondering about the plausibility of something. But in a movie this good, that's a minor complaint, and it may be the result of how good the first two-thirds is, like nothing short of a groundbreaking ending will satisfy, which is pretty unfair.

I can't wait to see this again, for many reasons, but mainly the music, the look and Mann's direction. I am still excited about having seen something this special."

E ME: Have you seen it yet? Will you?