'Stealth' just that at box office

By R. Kinsey Lowe

Aug. 1, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

A movie that Sony Pictures Entertainment had expected would arrive with a late-summer bang instead lived up to its title over the weekend as “Stealth” skidded into the nation’s theaters in fourth place. Meanwhile, New Line Cinema’s 3-weekend-old “Wedding Crashers” sidled up to first place with $20.5 million, according to studio estimates.

“The disappointment is big,” conceded Rory Bruer, Sony’s president of distribution. “They beat us.” (“They” also included the 3-week-old “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” which landed at No. 2 with $16.4 million, and Disney’s “Sky High,” which opened in third with an estimated $14.6 million.)

“Stealth,” which cost at least $120 million to make, grossed an estimated $13.5 million, or about 11% of its effects-heavy production budget. Not only that, it was the fourth consecutive under-performer for Sony after “XXX: State of the Union,” “Lords of Dogtown” and “Bewitched.”

“This is not the way we expected this to play out,” added Steve Elzer, Sony Pictures senior vice president of media relations.

The under-the-radar landing of “Stealth” capped a difficult week for Sony as a company.

Sony BMG, the music unit, was fined $10 million in the settlement of radio payola charges in New York, and the Federal Communications Commission is looking into the case. The parent corporation also reported a loss for the second consecutive quarter that it attributed to competition in the high-end television market and it lowered profit projections for the full year by 88%. Movies represent a relatively small part of Sony’s business.

Hollywood’s commercial doldrums continue, as summer box office overall is 10% behind last summer’s total at the comparable time and down 8% for the year, according to tracking firm Nielsen EDI.

Suggesting one possible part of the problem, Elzer said, “Action’s not working right now. We look at our losses as analytically as our wins.”

“Our success at the first part of the year,” Bruer said, offers some consolation for Sony. “We had the No. 1 and 2 pictures at the box office.”

In addition to leading the only period this year in which business was consistently ahead of last year, those movies -- “Hitch,” a romantic comedy with Will Smith and Eva Mendez, and a family comedy with Ice Cube, “Are We There Yet?” -- also contributed to a 3.5% increase in profit for the movie division in the most recent quarter, thanks to their DVD sales.

‘Wedding’s’ reception

While the studios ponder what has gone awry this summer, “Wedding Crashers” is proving remarkably durable. Box office for the $40-million film dropped just 20% for this its third weekend and 24% in its second, and every weekend the movie has posted an increase in ticket sales from Friday to Saturday, which studios consider an indication of positive word of mouth.

This weekend’s 32% increase from Friday to Saturday was even bigger than the previous two -- resulting in the rare instance in which a movie that had already been in wide release for a few weeks logged its first entry into the No. 1 box office slot. The last time that happened was in 1998 with the comedy “Something About Mary,” which was in its eighth week of release.

“Real avid moviegoers came to our movie on Saturday,” New Line president of production Toby Emmerich surmised. “I can’t complain.”

Although this kind of success inevitably leads to discussions about a possible sequel, Emmerich said, “There’s been no conversation with anyone at this point.

“What seems much more exciting,” Emmerich suggested, “is to come up with another movie for Vince [Vaughn] and Owen [Wilson],” who proved to have great chemistry.

Off to a good start

Another movie that made its distributor happy over the weekend was “The Aristocrats.” Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette’s documentary about a legendary dirty joke circulated among comedians since the vaudeville era took in $260,000 in just four theaters in New York and Los Angeles, averaging $65,000 per theater.

“We ran out of seats,” said an enthusiastic Jeff Sackman, ThinkFilm president and chief executive. “We’ll fix that this week.” The film is scheduled to expand to more markets on Aug. 12.

Warner Independent Pictures’ documentary “March of the Penguins” added theaters and held on to the No. 10 spot with $4.2 million in 778 locations and a total of $16.5 million.

Last weekend’s action-film disappointment, “The Island,” slid to seventh place with about $5.6 million and $24 million to date.

The romantic comedy “Must Love Dogs,” released in a counter-programming move by Warner Bros., got a mild reception, taking in about $13.1 million, a result more or less in line with the performance of other romantic comedies released this summer.

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Box Office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total Wedding Crashers $20.5 $116.1

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 16.4 148.1

Sky High 14.6 14.6

Stealth 13.5 13.5

Must Love Dogs 13.1 13.1

Fantastic Four 6.8 136.1

The Island 5.6 24.0

War of the Worlds 5.4 218.3

Bad News Bears 5.4 22.5