At Scott's theater, XXX: State of the Union is on 3 screens (14 showings), while The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is on 2 screens with 8 showings. They are also adding House of D and It's All Gone Pete Tong on 1 screen each. Looks like The Amityville Horror, The Interpreter, Kung Fu Hustle, A Lot Like Love, and King's Ransom are all keeping their shares of screens (3, 3, 2, 2, 1, respectively), although there should be a lot of re-shuffling going on.

Just came back from a 7:00 screening of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at the Lloyd Center 18. As usual, it was sold out, and the audienced loved it, laughing throughout and applauding at the end. I should note though that by now they have done this for nearly every movie I've seen in advance since it's the Portland premiere and they get to see it for free. Comparing it to other screenings they've had, I'd say it was about average, about the same amount of laughter/applause/signals of good reaction at the end as Be Cool got, and more then Van Helsing or Chronicles of Riddick, but less then Dawn of the Dead or Million Dollar Baby. The only two trailers were:

Herbie: Fully Loaded (Shortened trailer, still got lots of laughs *sigh*)
Chicken Little (A very specific teaser, but I won't say any more as I have to admit it REALLY caught me off guard and I wouldn't want others to be spoiled by the surprise in there.)

Unlike the book written by Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a battlezone of great moments and ones that nearly sunk the entire film. While the cast was solid (no one in particular stood out, though Martin Freeman was very good as Arthur Dent), many may be dissapointed in Sam Rockwell. His Zaphod Beeblebrox, despite an accent that fit very well as not-so-subtle-satire against a certain politician (trust me, you'll know it immediately ), was far more grating then funny, and his schtick got old fast. Unfortunately, a lot of the material was drawn down far too much to appeal more to general audiences. It's not so much that one should whine about the changes to the plot, but much of the tone and clever writing contained in Douglas Adam's books felt like it was missing. The Guide itself occasionally steps in, and as it and it's narration were easily the biggest crowdpleasers, it's unclear why why it wasn't a more integral part of the film. Had Stephen Fry narrarted throughout, in many ways the movie could have been tightened and the lapses in logic could have been changed from pieces left unresolved (John Malkovich has a small role that after the first scene is never brought back again despite it being pivotal to the plot). Though the good moments in the movie are great (the scenes involving the sperm whale scene and Arthur's tour of Earth by Slaribartfast in particular stood out), the end was rather anticlimactic and the entire film felt slightly undercooked. Overall, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was slightly less funny and much less thought-provoking then the book, but thanks to the little bits of true Douglas Adams that managed to slip through, ended up being far better then not. It's just unfortunate that for a movie that is so uneven the negative aspects are mostly all the ways they tried to make the film more appealing. B

I don't get House of D's 300-theater expansion in general, not after a -79.5% drop last weekend while still only in 2 theaters.

First report from HSX

http://talk.hsx.com/films/post.htm?0429032550.notfabio

HTCHG devestated XXX: STATE OF THE UNION, but neither sold out or came close to.

HTCGH had 550 seats available, sold 242.
(Yes really that number ended on 42!)

XXX-2 had 330 seats available, sold (drumroll) 15

It's hard to draw a comparison, but HELLBOY did 100 around this time of year, but all 40+ million openers have done at least 400.

It did just start raining, but not until 10 minutes after the midnight shows began.
____________________________________________________________________________

Followup from Inland Empire, SoCal Location: HTCH 168 out of 300, XXX2: 23 out of 300

Also from HSX:

"I'm wondering if the low attendance for XXX2 might have something to do with the target demo being jr high aged males. Most of whom would probably be at home in bed at midnight on a school night. I can't see parents taking their kids to XXX2 at midnight like they will for STAR3"

So you know what that means? That people other then young teens arent interested in the movie, which indicates it has no shot at 40m+

The Fast and the Furious and its sequel both primarily attracted teens.

A Movie doesnt make 50m opening weekend if only teens are interested in it, plenty of people 18-35 went to see it. You cant win with only one demo, its just not happening.