Record Heat Wave Hits Theaters Too

It was Christmas in late July at movie theaters around the country.

Aided by a blanketing heat wave in many parts of the country, a reluctant bride and a team of ill-fated filmmakers were the stars of what looks to be the biggest non-holiday moviegoing weekend ever. The top five films alone grossed more than $110 million, and overall approximately $150 million in tickets were sold.

“Runaway Bride”--as in runaway hit--reunites “Pretty Woman” co-stars Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, a combo that proved attractive enough to overcome mixed reviews and score $34.5 million in its opening weekend on 3,158 screens. It’s by far Roberts’ best debut to date and will likely be her seventh $100-million-grossing movie. As expected, the Paramount/Disney co-production was heavily sampled by females over age 25 (70% of the audience) and date-night couples.167772161 But the young demographic is not to be sneezed at. As impressive as “Runaway Bride” was, “The Blair Witch Project” is the talk of the motion picture industry. After two sizzling weeks in only 30 theaters, bringing in an unprecedented $7 million, “Blair Witch” swept into 1,101 nationwide theaters and scored a mind-boggling estimate of $28.5 million. The film’s $25,885-per-screen average was more than $4,000 better than the opening weekend of “Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace” and the best wide release average ever for a movie.

Who’s going to see it? Mainly adults ages 18 to 35, according to Amir Malin, Artisan Entertainment principal. But the core audience is spread across the country, strong in all situations--urban, suburban, the heartland and small towns.

The $1-million acquisition by Artisan Pictures now looks to be the most profitable movie of the year, and last week was sold to the F/X channel for an eye-popping $10 million. Tie-ins have already kicked in. The “Blair Witch” comic book is the No. 1 seller around the country. The hardcover book, which hits the stands this week, has 400,000 orders, making it a cinch to debut as a top 10 bestseller. The soundtrack is taking off and T-shirts and posters are selling at a rapid clip over the Internet (where the rage began).

Though it couldn’t match the impressive debuts of the top two films, the shark thriller “Deep Blue Sea” ably acquitted itself in its opening weekend, with an estimated $18.6 million in 2,854 theaters. Since its debut on Wednesday, “Sea” has swallowed almost $25 million in ticket sales, a strong debut in such a flooded market.

The top 12 films grossed $136.7 million, according to Exhibitor Relations, up 20% from last weekend and a powerful 33% better than the same weekend last year. In late July and early August, summer grosses usually start to taper off, but with five major releases due in the first weekend of August alone, this year could prove be an exception.

The downside to all this--and, yes, there is a downside--is that the battleground can be bloody. Except for the top five films, many other releases will have to cede play dates like crazy this weekend as five new movies (each debuting at more than 1,500 theaters) are set to arrive, starting Wednesday with the Nixon-era comedy “Dick.” On Friday, the Bruce Willis thriller “The Sixth Sense,” the remake of the 1968 heist romance “The Thomas Crown Affair,” the animated “The Iron Giant” and the comic book creation “Mystery Men” all enter into the fray. In addition, “Blair Witch” will move onto another 1,000 or more screens.

Some films are likely to get socked the way “The Haunting” did this weekend. Falling from its $33-million No. 1 perch, the haunted-house movie tumbled to No. 4, losing 55% of its audience in the process. Its second weekend total was estimated at $15.1 million in 2,864 theaters for a 10-day total of nearly $64 million.

Because its appeal is mainly to younger kids, “Inspector Gadget” managed to keep its second weekend drop down to a bearable 36%, grossing $14 million in 2,877 theaters for almost $48 million in just two weekends.

“American Pie” took its fourth weekend in stride, bringing in another $6.7 million in 2,436 theaters for a fruitful monthlong total of just more than $77 million. But “Eyes Wide Shut” got hit with another 56% drop to a mediocre $4.4 million in its third weekend on 2,264 screens. With less than $50 million to date, “Eyes” looks to be one of the summer’s surprisingly weak star vehicles.