'Kingdom' marches forth through attendance slump

By R. Kinsey Lowe

May 9, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The Crusades epic “Kingdom of Heaven” grossed an anemic estimated $20 million at the domestic box office but pulled in an additional $56 million in nearly 100 international markets for a total opening weekend figure of $76 million, much to the relief of executives at 20th Century Fox.

Studios increasingly have adopted a strategy of opening some key films worldwide simultaneously with the domestic release, partly because of concerns about piracy, but also because foreign box office has become such a significant factor. Last year, foreign box office saved “National Treasure” from becoming a dud for Disney and vastly enhanced the fortunes of “Troy” for Warner Bros.

“We kind of felt that it would be stronger internationally,” said Bruce Synder, Fox’s president of distribution. “It was No. 1 in nearly every market, with South Africa one of the exceptions in the top 20. It also was the biggest opening of the year in many of those markets.”

Snyder acknowledged a production budget of $130 million for “Kingdom of Heaven,” of which he said the studio was responsible for about $80 million; the rest was made up by various partners. Snyder declined to estimate the marketing outlay, but it would not be unusual for a studio to spend $40 million or more on a film like this.

The foreign estimate included figures from France and Italy, the only two of the top 20 overseas markets where Fox does not have rights to the film, according to Paul Hanneman, executive vice president for sales and strategic planning for 20th Century Fox International. It was not clear whether “The Pacifier” or “The Interpreter” beat “Kingdom of Heaven” in South Africa, Hanneman said, because Fox didn’t have access to official numbers for those competitors.

The domestic number for “Kingdom of Heaven” was in line with most audience tracking research going into the weekend, although one company’s numbers had indicated “House of Wax” could possibly emerge the winner, so Fox had to be grateful that its prestige picture from Ridley Scott wasn’t beaten by a horror film starring Paris Hilton.

The central character, played by Orlando Bloom, defends the people of Jerusalem against invaders, but “Kingdom of Heaven” lacked his muscle: It couldn’t overcome a persistent slump in moviegoing overall.

Business is lousy, studio distribution executives agreed Sunday, although they have their fingers crossed that the arrival of “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” on May 19 will change that, because a blockbuster tends to give other films a ride on its coattails.

The estimated total for all films was about $83 million, box office tracking firm Nielsen EDI said, and if that estimate holds up when more reliable numbers come in today, this weekend will rank as the year’s worst. It’s also the worst early May since 2000, when “Gladiator,” another period epic adventure from Scott, opened with $34.8 million, according to figures at Boxofficemojo.com.

Industrywide, box office is running 7% behind 2004, and it was the 11th consecutive weekend on which overall business was down relative to a year ago. EDI said grosses were down 26% from last year and 8% from last weekend. Additionally, it was the fifth straight weekend with business totaling less than $100 million, the longest such streak since fall 2001.

“Kingdom of Heaven” attracted a grown-up audience of slightly more men than women, Snyder said. Informal exit surveys in several markets indicated the audience was 52% male and 48% female, and 66% of the audience was 25 or older.

Many films now typically gross about a third of their domestic gross in opening weekend. If this holds true for “Kingdom,” an optimistic projection would have the film topping out in the U.S. at about $75 million. Movies also sometimes gross as much as five times their opening weekend number, but those are usually big hits, which “Kingdom of Heaven” is unlikely to be. (With a total of “$441.2 million, “Shrek 2” more than quadrupled its opening weekend gross of $108 million, and “Meet the Fockers” eventually grossed more than six times its opening number of $46.1 million to top out at $279.2 million).

Horror film “House of Wax,” from the Joel Silver-Robert Zemeckis genre unit Dark Castle Pictures, grossed about $12.2 million to open in second place.

Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. president of distribution, said the gross for the $35 million-budgeted picture was “in line with the other Dark Castle movies, ‘House on Haunted Hill,’ ‘Thirteen Ghosts’ and ‘Ghost Ship,’ [the latter of] which opened with $11.5 million” in late October 2002.

Like a number of recent horror films, the audience tilted toward female and the young, with 54% under 21 and 56% female, Fellman said.

“Crash,” the only other new movie in wide release, grossed an estimated $9.1 million, opening in fourth place only slightly behind “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” which took in an estimated $9.13 million in its second weekend. “Crash,” a Lions Gate release that depicts a rather nasty state of race relations in Los Angeles, skewed older and slightly female.

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Box Office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total

*--*

*--* Kingdom of Heaven $20.0 $20.0

House of Wax 12.2 12.2

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 9.1 35.1

Crash 9.1 9.1

The Interpreter 7.5 54.1

XXX: State of the Union 5.4 20.8

The Amityville Horror 3.2 60.1