Hitchhiker's guide to box office wins

By R. Kinsey Lowe

May 2, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The weekend box office competition was between a red-blooded American man of action and a rather ordinary, befuddled British chap in a bathrobe. Guess which one won? The guy in the robe.

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” based on the late Douglas Adams’ popular space fantasy, grossed an estimated $21.7 million to take first place, Disney’s domestic distribution chief, Chuck Viane, reported Sunday.

“XXX: State of the Union,” the sequel to the 2002 hit “XXX,” opened in third place with an estimated $13.7 million, said Sony Pictures’ head of distribution, Rory Bruer.

Going into the weekend, audience research indicated the films ranked about evenly, with some observers giving an edge to “Hitchhiker’s Guide,” but “XXX2” was edged out of even a second-place showing by the sophomore weekend of Sydney Pollack’s “The Interpreter,” which took in an estimated $14.2 million, Universal Pictures reported.

“I think we surprised a few people,” said Viane. “This was going to be one of those dogfight weekends, and it was going to be close.”

The audience for “Hitchhiker’s Guide” was evenly divided between people 25 and younger and those older than 25, which Viane said is unusual for Disney.

“Typically, we get movies that play very young or skew old. This kind of balance is different for us,” Viane said. Informal surveys also revealed that the audience was about 59% male and 41% female.

The odd film, based on a quarter-century-old book about the only two humans left after Earth is demolished to make way for “a hyperspacial express route” and the beings they encounter, also posted about a 9% increase in business from Friday to Saturday, a little unusual for a movie whose “core fan base came out on Friday,” Viane said.

Garth Jennings’ first feature film -- which gets the action rolling with what amounts to a sort of chorus of dolphins singing “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish” as they prepare to exit our doomed planet -- stars Martin Freeman as the bathrobe-wearing Arthur Dent, Zooey Deschanel as fellow earthling Trillian, Mos Def as Ford Prefect and Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox.

“We expected a higher number” for “XXX: State of the Union,” Sony’s Bruer conceded. “We’re disappointed. We believed in Ice Cube, we believed in Lee Tamahori,” the film’s director.

“It’s hard to read the tracking,” he said of research every studio relies on to gauge awareness and, if necessary, adjust marketing campaigns.

Theater exit surveys indicated the action film’s audience was about 64% male and 53% ages 25 and under.

“Ice Cube is very versatile,” Bruer added, describing the star cast in the part originated by Vin Diesel.

“Earlier this year for us, the comedy ‘Are We There Yet?’ was a big hit for him. It exceeded our expectations.”

That film posted an opening weekend tally of $18.6 million in January and has grossed about $81.6 million.

Sometimes, there’s no way of knowing how a film will perform commercially until it actually opens, and then attention shifts to the crucial second weekend. These days, drops of 45% to 55% are common.

The adult-oriented “The Interpreter” held up well against the competition, dropping about 38% in its second weekend. Its 10-day total is about $43.6 million.

Business for all films was about even with last weekend at roughly $93 million but about 10% behind the comparable weekend in 2004, according to box office tracking firm Nielsen EDI Inc.

Year to date, box office is about 6% behind last year, with a total of $1.17 billion.

Next weekend should be interesting.

Three very different films will vie for moviegoers in wide release: director Ridley Scott’s epic adventure “Kingdom of Heaven,” with Orlando Bloom in the lead; the horror film “House of Wax” with Chad Michael Murray, Elisha Cuthbert and Paris Hilton; and “Crash,” an L.A.-set ensemble drama with Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock and Matt Dillon, from “Million Dollar Baby” screenwriter Paul Haggis.

The weekend beginning May 13 will bring a quartet of wide releases, including the comedies “Kicking & Screaming” with Will Ferrell and “Monster-in-Law,” which stars Jane Fonda as the fearsome future mother-in-law of Jennifer Lopez.

Then on May 19 comes the first big gun of summer: “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” the final installment in George Lucas’ epic sextet.

Fans are already lined up on sidewalks in Manhattan and Hollywood to see it.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Box Office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total

*--*

*--* Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy $21.7 $21.7

The Interpreter 14.2 43.6

XXX: State of the Union 13.7 13.7

The Amityville Horror 8.1 55.1

Sahara 6.0 57.2