New

XXX: State Of The Union - 2 screens (10 showings)
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - 1 screen (5 showings)
House Of D - 1 screen (5 showings)

Holdovers

The Intepreter - 2 screens (8 showings)
A Lot Like Love - 1 screen (5 showings)
Kung Fu Hustle - 1 screen (5 showings)
The Amityville Horror - 1 screen (5 showings)
Fever Pitch - 1 screen (5 showings)
Guess Who - 1 screen (5 showings)
Sahara - 1 screen (4 showings)
Robots/King's Ransom - Sharing 1 screen (3 showings for Robots, 2 for King's)
Sin City/The Upside Of Anger - Sharing 1 screen (3 showings for Sin City, 2 showings for Upside)
The Pacifier/Miss Congeniality 2 - Sharing 1 screen (3 showings for Miss Congeniality, 2 for Pacifier)

King's Ransom is already on it's way out, and we're getting House Of D for some reason.

Well so far, all I have is the Division Street 13, which has Hitchhiker's Guide and all the usual holdovers on one screen (and King's Ransom only gets the 9ish show of Robots) except for xXx: State of the Union, which gets two screens and 11 shows (12:01 showing).

Nevermind, just got an update at the Lloyd 16, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy gets two screens, and xXx: State of the Union gets three. This is the first time that they've had a movie on three screens since Hitch, and before that Meet the Fockers and The Incredibles. Wow, either they really don't need the theaters or they're going huge with this one, because I can't remember the last time a movie got three screens at the Lloyd Center and opened below 40 million.

King's Ransom is also being reduced to only two showings at the Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley. (Sharing the screen with Old Boy.)

F-L-O-P

At the Shattuck in Berkely,
2 Screens for Hitchhikers and 1 screen for XXX.

Down the street in Oakland,
2 Screens for XXX, but only 1 one screen for Hitchhikers
(Hitchhikers will also be at another 4 screen in Oakland tho.)

we are getting 2 of each...

on a side note just about every theatre here in town is losing all multiple copies of Amityville Horror, I cant really find any theatre that will have it on more than 1 screen this weekend

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.

At Mercado 20, both new openers are on 2 screens with 9 showings.

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

The Hitchhiker screencount does not surprize me, since kid movies like these always underperform. But 3 screens for XXX2 is kinda low for my kind of theater. I am surprised that House is D opens here.

:laugh: That first part about the audience reaction cracks me up.. It sounds like your implying that the audience will pretty much laugh at anything no matter how good or bad if it's a free screening and they have nothing to lose but time.. :laugh:

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.

Studio (20 screens) Grand Rapids

New
Hitchhiker 2 Screens
XXX 2 screens

A Lot Like Love 1 screen
Amittyville 2 screens
Beuaty Shop 1
Fever Pitch 1
Guess Who 1
Intertprator 2
King's Ransom 1
Kung Fu Hustle 2
National Teasure/Miss Con 2 1 screen
Pacifier 1
Robots 1
Sahara 1
Sin City 1

Saw "XXX2:The Next to Level" tonight at a preview screening.
The theater was full and the crowd seemed to really enjoy it. I wasnt expecting much - but its fairly entertaining and I can see this being a crowd pleaser. Alot of nonsense scenes and probably one of the "loudest" films ive seen - but overall moves along fairly well.

Grade: B

New
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - 2 screens (10 showings)
XXX: State of the Union - 2 screens (10 showings)

Holdovers
The Amityville Horror - 1 screen (5 showings)
Beauty Shop - 1 screen (5 showings)
Fever Pitch - 1 screen (4 showings)
Guess Who - 1 screen (5 showings)
IMAX: Aliens of the Deep - 1 screen (2 showings)
The Interpreter - 2 screens (8 showings)
King's Ransom/Robots - 1 screen (5 showings)
Kung Fu Hustle - 1 screen (5 showings)
A Lot Like Love - 1 screen (5 showings)
Sahara - 1 screen (4 showings)
Sin City - 1 screen (4 showings)

New
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - 3 screens (13 showings)
House of D - 1 screen (4 showings)
XXX: State of the Union - 3 screens (13 showings)

Holdovers
The Amityville Horror - 2 screens (8 showings)
Beauty Shop/The Pacifier - 1 screen (3 showings for Beauty Shop, 2 for Pacifier)
Fever Pitch - 1 screen (4 showings)
Guess Who - 1 screen (4 showings)
The Interpreter - 3 screens (10 showings)
King's Ransom - 1 screen (4 showings)
Kung Fu Hustle - 1 screen (5 showings)
A Lot Like Love - 2 screens (8 showings)
Miss Congeniality 2/Million Dollar Baby - 1 screen (3 showings for Congeniality, 1 for Baby)
Robots/State Property 2 - 1 screen (2 showings each)
Sahara - 1 screen (4 showings)
Sin City - 1 screen (4 showings)

Why is that surprising? The movie opened in 2 theatres in NY the weekend earlier with lots or promotion. Last weekend, it had not only The Interpreter but the start of the Tribeca Film Festival (which literally has hundreds of movies that don't report box office)...seems like both of those would severely cut into a movie's second weekend, especially if word-of-mouth isn't that strong. On the other hand, as it opens in new areas, as it will this weekend, it will bring in new audiences of Duchovny/Leone fans. I wouldn't be surprised if the per theatre average is around the same in 300 theatres as it was last weekend in two or at least close. It's sort of what happened with Beyond the SEa although its second and third weekend were during the Christmas holidays. It went from $6,000 average in 6 theatres to a $3,500 average in 360.

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"

i have a feeling that we'll have '42' pop up in many places.

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.

70% of the audience was under 25, which is extreme. I doubt xXx 2 will skew more, that's as teen oriented as any film will get.

Cedar Rapids

XXXXXX - 12:15
250 Seater - 4 people
Trailers-
Longest Yard - no one laughed. Looks interesting.
Batman Begins - some whispering. Best trailer yet.
Flight Plan - no reaction. Looks great to me.
Stealth - no reaction. Looks fun.

The movie -

Under Siege 2, Speed 2, and now XXXXXX. Quite the group. XXXXXX fails on so many levels it's almost beyond comprehension. Not that XXX was a masterpiece. Far from it. But XXXXXX has managed to dumb down the action genre to an all-time low. Shame on you Lee Tamahori. You know you're in trouble when a film from 10 years ago that happens to share a similar action sequence outdoes you.

But XXXXXX isn't the worst film I've ever seen. Defecating Dwarfs II owns that title. But XXXXXX is a close 2nd.

F+ (a + for the always great Sam Jackson)


Hitchhiker's Guide - 2:25
250 seater - 12 people
Trailers -
Episode III - Great reaction. I've seen it a few dozen times now and it's still golden.
Corpse Bride - No reaction. Looks funny.
Chicken Little - No reaction. Clever trailer. They almost had me.
Herbie Fully Loaded - No reaction. Looks bad. Real Bad.

The Movie -

This is a tough one to grade. I'm not as versed in the material as other people but at the same time, I don't think that's a really big issue. All adaptations deal with finding that middle ground, Hitchhiker's is no different.

It's funny at times but some of the jokes fall flat as well. Zooey Deschanel, Martin Freeman, Mos Def, and Alan Rickman all do great work. Sam Rockwell didn't really work for me, I didn't get him. And I'm not sure why John Malkovich is even in the film.

It's a very average film for me, leaning towards the lower half of the C scale.

C/C-

loyal, are you in Cedar Rapids, IA?

Today's theater update from the same guy at HSX who posted his midnight results:

HITCHHIKERS (2 SCREENS total): 2500
XXX-2 (4 SCREENS total): 2100

Looks like HITCHHIKERS will indeed top XXX: STATE OF THE UNION. Neither is "holy moly" kind of matinee biz or even SIN CITY kind of matinee biz.

XXX-2 of course won't see its prime biz for hours, so it is waaay premature to predict box office totals for today other than the trend.