ASHLYEE HICKMAN
Staff Writer
The snakes are out of the bag, the code cracked, and the mission accomplished. The once ailing box office is staying afloat with the help of a few scallywags.
According to Nielsen EDI, Inc, the cumulative box office total for 2006 is already six percent greater than in 2005. This boost can be attributed to the summer movies, but the real hero of the box office is Jack.
Captain Jack, that is.
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” released July 7, is the sail away hit of the summer.
Its opening weekend alone slashed the record books and brought $135.6 million on deck.
The adventure film starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley is the top grossing film of 2006 with $401 million.
According to Box Office Mojo, the force was not as strong as Jack’s sword. “Dead Man’s Chest” pillaged 2005’s “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” for the spot as the seventh highest grossing film, domestically, of all time.
Despite the cliffhanger, fans still had an appreciation for the franchise as a whole. “You can only have so many undead pirates,” said junior Darnell Brisco. “But it was a good segue from the first to the third movie.”
Internationally, this year’s “Pirates” made berth on the shores of number one for the seventh consecutive week and is expected to reach the $1 billion mark with Greece and Italy yet to open.
Bob Tourtellotte of Reuters recently reported that the box office receipts for 2005 totaled $3.6 billion, “making it the worst box office showing in four years.” This year is expected to bring in $3.9 billion and be a breath of fresh air to studio executives with the reassurance that they have not lost their audience.
The three top grossing films of this year — “Pirates,” “Cars,” and “X-men: The Last Stand” — were released between the months of May and July.
Owen Wilson’s “Cars,” released June 9, guzzled $239.6 million or 69 million gallons of gas.
The success of the film flourished on the fact that it appeals to a broad audience.
“It’s supposedly a little kid’s movie but it was entertaining,” said freshman Meredith Grant. “I saw it on Father’s Day with my dad … it was funny and it was clever.”
Comic book movies have had their ups and downs in the summer movie industry. Last year’s “Fantastic Four” earned a not as fantastic $154.6 million in the box office and the return of the Man of Steel didn’t exactly steal the pocket books of America with the highly-anticipated “Superman Returns,” released June 28.
The movie, starring Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane and Iowa import Brandon Routh as Superman, earned approximately $194.2 million. With such a high profile franchise, freshman Vilhena Guilherme said that “Superman” could have gained more success if the actors were of the same caliber.
This summer harbored the third installment of “X-men,” starring Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman. The film, released May 26, grossed more than $234 million and kicked the controversial “The Da Vinci Code” off the number one spot the first week.
“‘X-men’ was sick,” said freshman Michael Mirandi, “and I don’t even like comic books.”
After a box-office miss with the 2005 movie adaptation of the TV series “Bewitched” with Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell came back with a vengeance and a need for speed in his NASCAR comedy.
Three weeks since its release, “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” is already approaching the top ten of 2006 with over $117.7 million.
Perhaps the most unlikely movie star of the summer is the man who used to be the vice president of the United States, Al Gore. Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” centered on his national multimedia presentation that focused on global warming and advocated change.
With $22.4 million in green, the film is the third highest grossing documentary ever recorded — right under the glaciers of documentary number two, “March of the Penguins.”
With all the hysteria and hype about Samuel L. Jackson’s “Snakes on a Plane” — a movie about, well, snakes on a plane — the flick didn’t exactly rattle the record books. Still, the film, released Aug. 18, did open at number one with $13.8 million.
A rising star in the closing summer market is the critically acclaimed comedy “Little Miss Sunshine,” a story about a dysfunctional family with absolutely nothing in common driving cross-country in a Volkswagen. Fox Searchlight’s “Sunshine,” starring Abigail Breslin, funny-man Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear, brightened the top ten last week with $5.6 million.
Labor Day marks the official end of the summer movie season. Next, the studios will roll out the dramas and parade potential candidates for a chance at getting a coveted Academy Award.
08-28-2006
