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Here's the truth about jackass
The $5 million film bags $22 million in three days
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Arthur J Pais
Honestly, no one expected The Truth About Charlie to do well at the box-office. But whoever expected jackass to grab $22 million in three days?
The Paramount comedy, jackass shows Johnny Knoxville and his band of self-proclaimed maniacs perform stunts and gross out gags on the big screen for the first time. The young MTV generation did not care that it was called the 'worst movie of the year' by Lou Lumenick in New York Post and slammed by other critics.
In fact, the critics who whipped the movie had to catch it on the opening day since Paramount held no press screenings. The $5 million film effortlessly grounded the No 1 wannabe, Ghost Ship, with a disappointing $11 million. For Paramount, which burned its fingers badly with Four Feathers and the Harrison Ford submarine drama K-19, jackass has certainly brought plenty of cheers.
In a week full of dramatic surprises, The Ring, disproved the common phenomenon of horror movies losing about 50 per cent of their first weekend box-office. Instead, it went up by $3.5 million. Many industry observers had expected the film to come down by about 30 per cent --- instead of the customary fall --- because it was adding some 730 movie houses, taking the final number to 2,630 on Friday. A consensus figure showed a gross of $10 million.
But the movie which had received mixed reviews, astounded many by grossing $18.5 million. With a $39 million gross in ten days, expect the DreamWorks film to make more than $65 million in America and Canada.
With about $2 million gross, The Truth About Charlie, which is playing on about 800 screens, could not even crack into the top 10 list. For director Jonathan Demme, best known for Philadelphia and The Silence Of The Lambs, this was yet another misstep, following the 1998 Beloved.
A remake of the Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn hit, Charade, the new movie received cold reception though a handful of critics, though some reviewers found it to be a stylish comedy thriller.
The offbeat Adam Sandler movie Punch-Drunk Love is slowly gathering big bucks. After showing in a handful of cities, the movie is now on about 500 screens, with several more expansions to come. It grossed $3.5 million this weekend, taking its gross to $6.5 million.
Still among the top 5 movies, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, declined by about 15 per cent to $6.3 million. Box-office pundits have once again revised their prediction for the romantic comedy. Now they believe it will reach $200 million.
I suspect, with a bountiful gross in the Thanksgiving week, it should ends its historic run (for an independent, low budget movie) with $220 million.
Struggling to reach $100 million, Red Dragon, which came down by about 40 per cent from the previous weekend, grossed a humble $4.7 million. It total has reached a disappointing $85 million. Among the steadiest films at the box-office, the date movie Sweet Home Alabama was at No 4 with about $6.3 million, and with a $107 million gross, it is on its way to earn at least $20 million in the next four weeks.
The critically slammed thriller Abandon which opened at No 7 with a scary $5 million was swiftly knocked off the top 10 list. An inauspicious directorial debut for Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar-winning scriptwriter of Traffic, it will be lucky to end its run with $15 million.