Comedy Defies Critics' Scorn

By Josh Friedman

June 5, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

For the third weekend in a row, audiences ignored frosty reviews from film critics and made up their own minds, this time turning the Jennifer Aniston-Vince Vaughn romantic comedy “The Break-Up” into a surprise hit.

The Universal Pictures release rang up an estimated $38.1 million in the U.S. and Canada to lead the weekend box office, topping the 20th Century Fox sequel “X-Men: The Last Stand,” which plunged 67% in its second weekend. “The Break-Up” posted the third-best opening ever for a romantic comedy.

The latest “X-Men,” which has grossed $175.7 million in a week and a half, and Sony Pictures’ “The Da Vinci Code,” which has reached $172.7 million in the U.S. and Canada and $581 million worldwide, also have overcome tepid reviews.

Audiences were starved for a romantic comedy and curious about the on-screen chemistry between co-stars Aniston and Vaughn, studio executives said.

Nikki Rocco, Universal’s distribution chief, said the studio’s counter-programming strategy of unleashing “The Break-Up” against a lineup of summer thrillers and family films paid off. And she said filmgoers welcomed the atypical romantic comedy with its serious overtones, even though critics had called it unfunny and unmoving.

“Jennifer and Vince are well liked, and the time was right for a romantic comedy,” Rocco said. “This is not the type of romantic comedy people have seen before, so we didn’t quite know what to expect. It’s not a fuzzy, happy, feel-good movie -- it’s about real life.”

Most analysts had expected the film to open below $30 million. Tracking surveys had shown moderate interest, and critics who panned the film included Roger Ebert, who likened watching it to “being on a double date from hell.”

Regardless, the movie averaged $12,395 a theater at 3,070 venues. In its genre, its debut was exceeded only by “Hitch” at $43.1 million last year and “50 First Dates” at $40 million in 2004.

Along with being one of the few films of its type in the marketplace, the movie also benefited from being the weekend’s only new release to open at more than 3,000 venues.

Two-thirds of the audience were female, according to the studio’s theater exit polls, but apparently Vaughn’s popularity among males helped the film attract couples. Vaughn’s comic hits include “Wedding Crashers,” “Dodgeball” and “Old School.”

For Aniston, who has been linked romantically with Vaughn in real life, “The Break-Up” comes as a key test of her appeal as a big-screen star.

The former co-star of the TV sitcom “Friends” has earned acclaim in the independent films “The Good Girl” and “Friends With Money,” but her only big box-office successes have been “Along Came Polly,” the 2004 romantic comedy with Ben Stiller, and “Bruce Almighty” in 2003, starring Jim Carrey.

It’s unclear how well “The Break-Up” will hold up in coming weeks. In Fandango.com’s survey of online ticket buyers, an unusually low 49% rated the movie very good or excellent, and a modest 38% said they would definitely recommend it.

Despite the steep drop for “X-Men,” which grossed $34.4 million to take the No. 2 spot in its second weekend, Fox executives were pleased with the numbers rung up by the latest installment of the superhero franchise. The original “X-Men” grossed $157 million in 2000, and “X2” tallied $215 million in 2003 -- but it took 18 days to get to the $175-million mark, versus 10 days for the new film.

Among other continuing movies, DreamWorks Animation’s “Over the Hedge” held up strongly in its third weekend, grossing $20.6 million. That was a 24% drop from the first three days of the Memorial Day weekend, and it brought the animal tale’s total gross in the U.S. and Canada to $112.4 million.

Paramount Classics’ “An Inconvenient Truth,” the global-warming documentary from almost-president Al Gore, cracked the top 10 by taking in $1.3 million. The film expanded from three venues to 77 in its second weekend, averaging a robust $17,292 a theater.

Overall, an estimated $137 million worth of tickets was sold, a 4% rise from the same weekend a year earlier, according to Nielsen EDI. This was the 10th weekend of year-over-year improvement in the last 11.

Ticket sales are up 4.3% in 2006 and attendance is up 1.1%, Exhibitor Relations Co. reported, as Hollywood tries to sustain a rebound.

Next weekend’s releases include “Cars,” the latest from the Pixar animation team, and “A Prairie Home Companion” from humorist Garrison Keillor and director Robert Altman.

Fox is employing an unusual strategy with its remake of the 1976 horror classic “The Omen,” opening the Satanic-themed film Tuesday to exploit the 6/6/06 release date.

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Box office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio estimates.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total The Break-Up $38.1 $38.1

X-Men: The Last Stand 34.4 175.7

Over the Hedge 20.6 112.4

The Da Vinci Code 19.3 172.7

Mission: Impossible III 4.7 122.7

Poseidon 3.4 51.7

RV 3.3 61.8

See No Evil 2.0 12.4

An Inconvenient Truth 1.3 1.9