'Goofy Movie' went on to do $35 million. With all the holidays ahead of us, I can't wait to see where this one goes. |
[Applauding writer-director Audrey Wells for making a film] the audience absolutely loves, ... Our exit research gives us 90 percent in the top two boxes. We are heavily skewed female, but there were an amazingly strong number of couples Saturday night. |
[Asked where] Holes ... We opened 'The Rookie' a couple years ago to $16 million and went on to (nearly) $76 million. And here we are with $17 million-plus and every bit the (same strong) playability. |
[Focusing on] House, ... We (sneaked it) two weeks ago. We thought word of mouth would help spin this movie over the top. Obviously, it did. More importantly, the Friday night word of mouth really (helped Saturday ticket sales). Now we're just looking forward to the legs of this movie. I think it's going to be around for a long time. |
[On the production side, Sony Pictures is the only studio so far to sign on to a future 3-D production using the Real D process, as it plans to bow Zemeckis'] Monster House ... There is no question that in this town there are at least six or seven projects being talked about. I also think there will be four to five times as many outlets for 'Monster House,' and that is only good news for my next film. |
Any time a new process comes into the market, there is always a pioneer. In this case, it's us, ... But this isn't about one picture, it's about the future. We are waiting to see how it all plays out. But at the same time, we are committed to the process and believe, as filmmakers (Robert) Zemeckis and (James) Cameron believe, this is where it is going. |
Being a family movie and Halloween becoming such a family experience in the last few years, we didn't want ('Bear') to compete with a natural problem of having families' attention drawn somewhere else, so we waited till Saturday, |
Counter programming has always been a very necessary ingredient of the type of pictures we make. There's no question, if we do it properly we can really score. |
I don't think those movies got the repeat business that summer movies got in other years. It's one thing to open big. But a true hit has to get the kids back for two or three viewings. After the summer, we were playing catch-up. |
I think there's more than enough room for two major hits in a season, and because of the length of the holidays, both films are going to be here for a long, long time. |
I'm thinking we'll do $2 million-plus (Monday) because we still have 50 percent of the kids out of school and families tend to make this a long holiday. This is going to be well into the $20 millions by the end of the first week. |
If you will, we won the dog race. |
Immediately after Halloween, whatever it is, people's mind-set turns to movies, |
It all starts with good movies and we've been blessed with four in a row. |
It had been a chicken-or-the-egg situation. Exhibition said if there was content, they'd put in the equipment. Distribution said if there was equipment, they'd provide the content. We just decided it was time to start to do it to further the cause of the digital transition. |