WILL MATCH FLICKERS CRACK THE DA VINCI CODE? |
|
On the bulletin board behind the computer, my Marilyn Monroe calendar confirms that summer is still five weeks in the future.
On my monitor screen, The Yahoo Movie Guide tells a different story. It says, "Roll out the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer!" Match-flickers, start your engines, fire up your barbecues, and pack your picnic baskets! With several summer blockbusters already on screens, and several more opening before Memorial Day, the Summer 2006 Box Office Season is here – even though Calendar Summer is not.
There was a time, not many years ago, when Calendar Summer and Box Office Summer, were one and the same. It was an eminently sensible arrangement, and it worked for both the world in general, and the motion picture industry in particular. But, with each passing year, Box Office Summer has started earlier and earlier – infringing on Calendar Spring. For several years it looked as though we would hold the line for the Summer Box Office Season at Memorial Day Weekend. That quaint notion has come and gone. The line has been crossed – and then some.
This year, Box Office Summer ignited on Friday, May 5, when MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE: III, lit the fuse. On more than 4000 screens, the Tom Cruise, $150 million movie, detonated with something less than a box office Big Bang. It wasn't Intelligent Design, either.
Going into its opening weekend, 
CAN THE B.O. STAND UP TO THE ANT BULLY? |
|
M:I: III was expected to do somewhere in the neighborhood of $60-80 million domestically. But industry expectations were dashed with the opening weekend tally $47 mil. The media speculated, and a weekend poll affirmed, that Cruise's unpredictable antics and Scientological rants have dimmed his star wattage, most especially among women. We don't mind him jumping on Oprah's couch, but we don't want him bashing Brooke Shields, or touting publicly, his controversial cultish religion.
POSEIDON barges in today for a box office cruise, and THE DA VINCI CODE will be cracked on May 19. That same day, OVER THE HEDGE clips multiplexes everywhere. X-MEN: THE LAST STAND spikes the box office on May 26, just in time for Memorial Day Weekend. At that point, Calendar Summer is still three weeks away, but Box Office Summer is in full swing.
Lest you think that the studios are shooting all of their big summer guns during Calendar Spring, here are a few of the cinematic cannons taking aim at the box office in the actual summer time.
CLICK, Adam Sandler's beach-time offering is in agreement with the calendar, everywhere, beginning June 23. On June 30, SUPERMAN RETURNS to theatres and, for the first time, the Man of Steel flies into 3D IMAX. And will anyone be able to resist the alluring PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, when it plunders your local multiplex, 
WHO WILL SURVIVE SNAKES ON A PLANE? |
|
starting July 7? We think not.
Owen Wilson is hoping that WEDDING CRASHERS-like box office lightning will strike twice when his $110 million comedy YOU, ME AND DUPREE, launches a box office ménage a tois, July 14.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the August 4 release of the animated THE ANT BULLY for several reasons. For one, I found director John A. Davis's JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS, a delight. For another, my talented friend Tim Hatcher is one of THE ANT BULLY'S animators.
Early starts sometimes bring a premature finish. This would seem to be true of the Summer Box Office Season. It looks as though summer's box office swan songs are SNAKES ON A PLANE, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Julianna Marguiles, and TRUST THE MAN, with Julianne Moore and David Duchovny, both opening on August 18. SNAKES is among the season's most buzzed about flicks. Maybe they should have dubbed it BEES ON A PLANE. And, thanks to the Internet, SNAKES has already achieved cult classic status.
Calendar Summer rolls on for five weeks after SNAKES' release, but it's all over at the box office. Match Flickers can spend late August and most of September catching up on the summer offerings they've not yet seen, increasing their NetFlick orders, or watching summer box office classics from years gone by. As for me, maybe I 'll finally watch the hours of programming that I've TiVo'd.
 email this column to a friend
|
| The Business of Show |
Every other Friday
Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
|
| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
|
| Contact |
If you have a comment, question, or suggestion, you can send a message to Christopher Stone by clicking here.
|
|
