Waylay that record book.

Before the second sequel in Disney’s theme park ride turned cinematic treasure trove had even left the dock, records were being cannon-balled into history. On opening day, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End will have debuted on more movie screens and in more theaters than any movie release before it. The count made public was 4,362 theaters. That’s 110 up from the previous contender which was, surprise, Spiderman 3, merely weeks ago. For those of you counting, and that would be pretty impressive without a calculator, factoring in the multiplexes, the Pirates sequel could wind up playing on more than 11,000 screens. In a box-office month that seems to be destined for Hollywood history the season of 3’s is about to add another: the third time in as many 2nd sequel releases that an opening weekend attacks box-office records and runs up a very black flag on the mast of studio cash flow.

But is everybody happy?

Unfortunately for the rest of the field of films in theaters this week and likely for the next few weeks, all the movie magic in Hollywood can’t alter the laws of physics. Specifically, two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time. The bodies in this case are the celluloid corpses of cast out comedies and dramas and the unfortunate few, new releases who’s studios literally threw them to the pirates on their very first weekend out. For pirates, spandex superheroes and CGI ogres, life is all smiles and counting cash. But for Lions Gate Films, who has the cringe inducing task of distributing one of this week’s new releases, Bug, Memorial Day weekend will be spent rationalizing release schedules and bolstering one another’s egos with plans for the DVD release. To use a title from their nemesis Disney, A Bug’s Life really sucks. The theatrical life of this one certainly won’t be measured in months. And according to reviewers, that’s more unfortunate than most of us will have the opportunity to discover.

And there’s the rub. If you wanted to catch Bug this weekend, anxious to see what Exorcist Director William Friedkin might bring to another offbeat, strange and stylistic horror story, well, you had to channel at least a little of your inner detective. In a very unscientific glance through my own local listings, Bug opened in three local theaters on one screen in each for a total of 17 daily showings. To put things in perspective, in those same three theaters Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End will have 56 showings per day. Now factor in that the running time for Pirates is 1 hour and 6 minutes longer than Bug. You may as well run up the skull and crossbones and surrender to watching Bug on DVD.

The beginning of an end?

The tag at the end of the Pirates trailer includes the legend “The End Begins on May 25th”. As inadvertently true as that is for Bug and another critically well reviewed casualty, Fox Searchlight’s Waitress, it may also predict a new tide in movie marketing for years to come. It certainly will for next year’s summer blockbuster season and for all of the major studio “tent poles” jockeying for release dates.

Let me share a little more of my amateur sleuthing. I keep track of 8 local theater locations on my internet home page. In these 8 locations are 70 screens with the count ranging from a theater with 1 screen to a multiplex location that features 18. On May 25th, a date that will live in movie distribution infamy, the “Big 3”, Spiderman 3, Shrek the Third and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ate up 71.4% of the total movie screen real estate, a movie blockbuster release “perfect storm” as it were. That would be 50 of the available 70 screens for a whopping 261 total showings. Every day. On the remaining 28.6% of silver screen left over, 7 films vied for an audience bleary eyed from special effects and desperate for some elbow room and their own cup holder. More perspective: well over two thirds of the screens were consumed by only 3 movies while more than twice as many movies fought for a little over a quarter of that screen space. Worse, if you were looking to see one of those scrappy underachievers, you likely had to hunt to find a location as most theaters only offered one or two titles outside of the “Big 3”. In one 10 screen multiplex, only four titles were playing. Wanted to see Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling in New Line Cinema’s Fracture? Not a problem as long as you could make it’s one and only 10AM show. Want to catch Zach Braff in The Ex, (only two weeks in release), Hot Fuzz, the critically lauded The Hoax with Richard Gere or Director Sarah Polley’s acclaimed Away From Her? Do the words cable, home video or rerelease mean anything to you?

It was thirty years ago today.

Is this really a big deal or just another marketing angle? Will the effect of these three movies be long lasting or a freakish stat on the web pages of IMDB? It was exactly thirty years ago, May 25th 1977, that the movies and the movie business were forever changed by George Lucas and Star Wars. Star Wars made May releases and the arrival of blockbuster season part of the movie distributor’s lexicon and studios have looked at Memorial Day weekends while either salivating or throwing-up ever since. Now, after the “Big 3” May of 2007, what if anything will change and why should it? Is this another giant leap into a standardization of big studio production values? Are small “artistic” movies to be ultimately relegated to home theaters and digital downloads? Should everyone looking at the business quit whining and own up to the fact that the market should dictate the product or is there a responsibility to provide diversity in our entertainment as well as in our social structure? If you’re thinking there are answers in the print below this sentence, go back to the theater. I haven’t a clue. George Lucas has followed the success of 1977’s Star Wars with 5 sequels (prequels, episodes, whatever) of varying degrees of quality and profit. (That’s varying degrees of very large profits.) George Lucas has become known for little else. Even his company, Pixar, went on to mean far more after a certain computer visionary saw a purpose for all that technological genius. Industrial Light & Magic has achieved greatness through the innovations it pioneered in making Star Wars and it’s clones (George’s and everyone else’s) but that may be a case of technological know-how homogenizing creative ideas into cookie-cutter images. Others rightly argue that ILM has created tools to open new pathways for creative expression and spawned a host of special effects houses that have created a new Hollywood and world-wide (witness New Zealand’s Weta Digital Ltd.) industry.

A tough act to follow.

So what will the May 25th perfect storm leave as it’s legacy? After all, these weren’t the originals and not even the sequels but the third time around for each. They weren’t just successful, they were record breaking. Not just any records, all the records. And not just for a weekend but for three consecutive opening weekends that spanned a single month. Was each better than it’s predecessors? Not if you believe the critics. Was each so creatively different than the first and second passes? On the contrary, there was an awful lot of popular and welcomed familiar ground. Did each wrap up and neatly put a bow on the story of a compelling trilogy? Kind of, yet each of the studios involved have made no bones about talking more, more, more. With audiences jumping on ticket lines will stockholders allow franchises to rest? Seriously doubtful. So will there be a summer of 4s in your future? If you’re in movie marketing, you’re only hoping the Fantastic Four can catch up to take part in the hoopla.

Looking back at Star Wars this weekend was pretty easy. The 30 year anniversary was plastered all over TV specials and everyone is asking the Wizard of Lucasfilm. for an audience. It’s all about giving the people what they want and like that other wizard behind the curtain, a touch of marketing spin is all it takes to find something in his velvet bag to please you. My guess is we’ll find no more brain, heart or courage there then Dorothy’s friends did in OZ. And I’d also guess that as much as we may like to, the movie business will never be going home again.

And as for the records...

As the Memorial Day weekend is coming to a close the numbers are being drawn into the ledger and the results, though not staggering (but then, we’re getting a bit jaded about where we’re setting the bar) are damned impressive. Though we don’t report box-office numbers, by taking over a record number of screens to make up for a near three hour running time, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End turned in domestic results that rank it in the top 5 ever of opening weekends. It also looks to be setting the all time record for a Memorial Day weekend release and may become the number one all-time worldwide box office weekend ever. Coupled with the continued strong performance of Shrek the Third and the cumulative totals for Spiderman 3 through the month, the perfect storm of the “Big 3” is perhaps leaving behind something more dangerous than we were expecting in it’s path of box-office domination: room to do it even bigger next time around.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is a Jerry Bruckheimer Films / Walt Disney Pictures film released in the US by Buena Vista Pictures. Writers on all three of the Pirates films are Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. All three films were directed by Gore Virbinski.  Spiderman 3 is a Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment release. Shrek the Third was released by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks SKG. Bug is a Lions Gate Films release. Waitress was released by Fox Searchlight Pictures. A Bug’s Life was released in 1998 by Buena Vista Pictures as a Pixar / Walt Disney Pictures production. Star Wars premiered in 1977 at the world famous Graumann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. Finally, The Wizard of Oz was released in 1939 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A special thanks to the folks at ShowBizData.com for providing an excellent and consistent resource for movie box-office information.

Friday, May 25, 2007