'V' is popular in size XXL

By R. Kinsey Lowe

March 20, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The V in “V for Vendetta” could stand for a lot of things, depending on who’s talking. “Vituperative,” for example, would be one way of summing up the film’s reviews in major newspapers. As the movie took in an estimated $26.1 million for its opening weekend, the word for producer Joel Silver would be “vindicated.”

The Warner Bros. movie about an unseen protagonist who thinks blowing things up is the cure for what ails a futuristic England didn’t quite match previous openings of other R-rated movies also based on graphic novels -- “Constantine” with $29.8 million and “Sin City” with $29.1 million. Still, “Vendetta” had the fourth-highest opening this year after Tyler Perry’s “Madea’s Family Reunion,” “Big Momma’s House 2” and “Underworld: Evolution,” if estimates hold up when actual figures for Sunday come in today.

“I’m happy this weekend,” Silver said. He added that he was especially pleased given that the movie rights to the graphic novel were purchased back in the late 1980s and “we had a hard time figuring out what to do with it. It’s a controversial subject. The star is a guy in a mask.”

The movie’s original Nov. 5 opening date was delayed following the London subway bombings last year. Warner Bros. attributed the postponement to post-production delays. The movie faced other challenges: The original male lead was replaced shortly after shooting began and one of the creators of the graphic novel has publicly distanced himself from the project.

The movie starring Natalie Portman also scored big on another front this weekend. It successfully lured in males -- particularly at the 56 giant-screen Imax locations playing “Vendetta” -- at a time when box office remains sluggish in part because this audience remains so elusive.

Produced and adapted by the Wachowski brothers and directed by their longtime assistant director James McTeigue, “Vendetta” fell a bit shy of the debut of the brothers’ “The Matrix,” which took in $27.1 million when it opened in March 1999.

Silver and Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. president of distribution, hastened to point out that the totals for these kinds of movies tend to be considerably higher abroad. “Constantine” added $154 million to its domestic figure of $76 million for a worldwide total of $230 million. Overseas, “The Matrix” took in nearly $290 million of its worldwide total of $460 million.

Opening simultaneously in 16 international markets, “Vendetta” pulled in an additional $8.5 million, Warner Bros. International reported Sunday. In the United Kingdom, it took in an estimated $2.1 million -- in second place behind the debut of “The Pink Panther.” Neither film was particularly well received by critics there either. Other markets included South Korea ($1.3 million), Italy ($1.08 million) and Germany ($1.08 million).

Audiences in regular theaters were 60% male, Silver and Fellman said, according to unscientific exit surveys. Breaking down the demographics further, Silver said, moviegoers skewed slightly older, as males 25 and older accounted for 32% of opening weekend ticket buyers, and females in that age group made up 23%. Males under 25 made up 27% of the audience, Silver added, and 18% were females under 25.

Imax theaters accounted for an estimated $1.5 million of the weekend total for “Vendetta,” said Greg Foster, chairman of Imax Entertainment. That’s just short of $27,000 per location for the Imax audience.

A significant part of the Imax audience, Foster added, was made up of the “15- to 30-year-old male crowd that has been missing from theaters.”

“Vendetta” box office posted a healthy 18% increase Saturday from Friday business, which included figures for late-night Thursday showings in about 1,200 locations out of 3,365. That upswing suggests strong word-of-mouth.

Warner Bros.’ Fellman said he was confident the boost indicated long-term “playability” for the movie. “The marketplace is not that crowded, and we’ve positioned it to take advantage of the rolling spring break over the next few weeks” in different parts of the country.

The only other movie to open in the top 10, “She’s the Man,” grossed an estimated $11 million with an audience dominated by teenage girls, Paramount reported.

Among movies opening in limited release, the well-reviewed “Thank You for Smoking,” a satire with Aaron Eckhart as an aggressively unapologetic tobacco industry lobbyist, grossed a little more than $52,000 per theater in five venues in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Fox Searchlight reported, with a 90% increase in business on Saturday. Searchlight plans to gradually add cities each weekend, leading up to a nationwide release April 7.

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Box Office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total V for Vendetta $26.1 $26.1

Failure to Launch 15.8 48.5

The Shaggy Dog 13.6 35.9

She’s the Man 11 11

The Hills Have Eyes 8.1 28.8

16 Blocks 4.7 30.2

Eight Below 4.2 73.1

Madea’s Family Reunion 3 60.1

The Pink Panther 2.5 78.6