Walking Tall (MGM) – Week 2 Last weekend #2 The Alamo (Disney) NEW – Cinemascore: B Metacritic: 47 Est. Johnson Family Vacation (Fox Searchlight) NEW – Cinemascore: C- Metacritic: 29 Est. The Passion of the Christ (Newmarket) – Week 7 Last weekend #5 Franchise/sequel films were already established as box-office mainstays by 2004 (“Shrek II” and “Spider-Man II” were the top two films of the year), but 16 of the 20 best grossers were original efforts).ġ. Since the start of 2019, the highest total is five films three is more common. Eight films in the top 10 each grossed over $10 million adjusted.Adjusted, it was bigger than any in our truncated 2020 calendar. In 2004, the box-office totals for the weekend were ordinary it was the year’s 15th weekend and it represented the tenth biggest to date.Although Martin Luther King Day now seems to be the go-to spot on the calendar for African-American aimed wide releases, Easter was the traditional target with the Sunday often being the single biggest moviegoing day for black audiences. It starred Cedric the Entertainer, and despite getting terrible reviews and a not-good audience response (C- Cinemascore) even so, it did well initially. “Johnson Family Vacation” was the best opener, while playing at the fewest theaters.If you are looking for the roots of why so few comedies get released these days, this era helps explain. “The Whole Ten Yards,” the sole sequel in the top 10, also was a flop, as were “Ella Enchanted” and “The Girl Next Door,” both original comedies.The worldwide gross came to only a quarter of its pre-production marketing cost. Originally planned as the reunion of Ron Howard and Russell Crowe after “A Beautiful Mind,” it ended up with a different team. The retelling of the siege on the Texas fort cost a staggering $150 million. “The Alamo” is mostly forgotten, but it remains one of Disney’s biggest flops ever.But the results for these suggest why the production world has changed so much. On this 2004 weekend, five new wide releases opened.This inspired all studios to explore this market, and its grassroots marketing. Badly reviewed (a 47 Metacritic score) and economically marketed (reported little more than $20 million adjusted), this received massive support from the American evangelical community.Its subsequent gross only amounted to 4.5 percent of its total, and shows how closely it followed the religious calendar. The following weekend, it fell to #10, with the Easter boost fading.At the time, it was the biggest February opener ever, with for the first five days only “Black Panther” bigger. The first, at $120 million, came after two days that brought in $60 million. Its run was nearly finished by Easter, its 47th day.
The arc of the release came with precision, debuting in 3,006 theaters on Ash Wednesday.
And finally, once the film was finished, accusations of anti-semitic elements in the retelling caused top distributors to demur. First, because Gibson insisted on using ancient languages (and initially Gibson planned to release it without subtitles, assuming the well-known story didn’t need them) second, because while he previously starred in the films he directed, including “Braveheart,” but here he cast the lesser-known Jim Cavaziel.