By David Parker
October 19, 2002
It has to break some rule of marketing to have a film where characters in the movie die because of watching a certain video, then show that video to the audience. Wouldn't the movie audience be afraid of dying? Just as people inside The Ring are victims of their own curiosity, so too are many Americans. The Ring, a remake of one of the biggest hits in Japanese history, pulled in an estimated $4.8 million on Friday. That's a tribute to a clever DreamWorks marketing campaign, and shows the pull of a high-concept thriller.
The Ring
With $4.8 million on Friday, The Ring should easily end up the number one film of the weekend. Most horror films tend to be frontloaded, with high percentages of people seeing the film the first night. The Ring shouldn't suffer that fate because its audience is a bit older than your standard Jason or Freddy horror flick. A straight 3.0 internal multiplier would give The Ring $14.4 million this weekend, with room to expand in the coming weeks.
Abandon
Abandon made $1.93 million on Friday. If it weren't for Formula 51, this would be the DOA picture of the week. Instead, it's just an average teenage movie that flopped. Because of that teen-girl demographic, Abandon should only get a 2.75 internal multiplier. With $5.3 million this weekend, Abandon shouldn't get much more than $12 million total. I wonder if studios pick these box office foreshadowing titles on purpose? Seems like it. Green-light The Money Pit 2 now!
Formula 51
The Samuel L. Jackson film made...well...we don't know what it made, because it didn't make the top ten. We can say that's not very good. The most the film could make this weekend is $3 million. Ouch. I hope all the golf Sam got to play while making this film was worth it.
Notable Holdovers
Sweet Home Alabama fell only 32.2% from Last Friday. That's good enough to beat out Red Dragon for the number two spot on Friday and for the weekend. With almost $10 million this weekend, Sweet Home Alabama should fall just short of $100 million.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding fell an enormous 11% from last Friday. IFC Films must be severely disappointed in the legs of MBFGW, as it won't even break the $170 million mark this weekend. Clearly they are hoping for a big run from the film, and at this rate it won't even beat out Signs for the number three of the summer. I'm getting really tired of these over-hyped, one-big-weekend Hollywood blockbusters that fizzle out because of bad word-of-mouth.
In all seriousness, kudos to everyone involved.
Extrapolated Estimates for the Top Ten |
Projected
Rank |
Film |
Estimated Gross (M$) |
|
1
|
The Ring
|
14.4
|
|
2
|
Sweet Home Alabama
|
9.8
|
|
3
|
Red Dragon
|
9.8
|
|
4
|
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
|
7.5
|
|
5
|
Abandon
|
5.3
|
|
6
|
Brown Sugar
|
5.1
|
|
7
|
The Transporter
|
4.8
|
|
8
|
The Tuxedo
|
4.4
|
|
9
|
Tuck Everlasting
|
3.7
|
|
10
|
White Oleander
|
3.2
|
Internal multiplier = A comparison of Friday's numbers to the rest of the
weekend. So if Sweet Home Alabama makes $5.1 million
on Friday and $17.8 million for the whole weekend, then its internal
multiplier is 3.5 ($17.8 million / $5.1 million = 3.5).
Analysts use this number in reverse to predict weekend numbers from Friday's
numbers.
