‘Dead’ Entering Hallowed Ground at Box Office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The sacred will battle the profane at the box office this weekend.
Newmarket Films’ “The Passion of the Christ,” which has handily topped the mount for the past three weekends, will face off with “Dawn of the Dead,” Universal Pictures’ remake of the 1978 zombie classic, which trumpets the ad line: “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.”
As of Wednesday, “Passion” had pulled in more than $273 million. Having earned $32.1 million last weekend, a 40% decline this weekend — still a tenacious hold — would see “Passion” attracting another $19 million-plus.
That scenario could leave room for “Dawn of the Dead” to rise to the top spot. Directed by first-time feature filmmaker Zack Snyder, “Dawn” reprises the premise of George Romero’s classic in which a handful of embattled survivors are trapped in a suburban shopping mall surrounded by hungry zombies. The target audience for the R-rated flick are younger, thrill-seeking males — and a multiethnic cast that includes Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber and Mekhi Phifer should also lure in urban audiences.
Horror genre fans are a loyal lot. Last October, New Line Cinema opened its remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in 3,106 locations to $28 million. However, zombies may not have quite the appeal of chain saw-weilding maniacs, and tracking suggests “Dawn of the Dead,” which is rising in 2,744 locales, could perform more like “Jeepers Creepers 2” and “Resident Evil,” which bowed to $15 million and $18 million, respectively. However, if “Dawn” does bust out and hit the $20 million mark, then it will go mano a mano with “Passion.”
“Dawn of the Dead” could lose some thrill-seekers to Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Taking Lives.” A more upscale thriller directed by D.J. Caruso (“The Salton Sea”), the atmospheric R-rated tale stars Angelina Jolie as an FBI profiler working a serial killer case in Montreal. Sporting a cast that includes Ethan Hawke, Olivier Martinez and Kiefer Sutherland, the film is likely to attract a somewhat less rabid and probably more female first-weekend audience than “Dawn,” and so it could find itself checking in with a number somewhere in the low-teen millions as it debuts in 2,705 locations.
“Taking Lives,” which appears to be interesting younger females, also will find itself battling it out with the second weekend of Sony Pictures’ “Secret Window,” starring Johnny Depp. That thriller, about an embattled writer, bowed last weekend in the second spot to $18.2 million. A 40%-50% decline in its second weekend would find “Window” collecting another $9 million-$11 million.
Meanwhile, Focus Features is employing a somewhat more controlled release for the weekend’s third wide release, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in a memory-impaired romance. “Sunshine” is making its first appearance in 1,353 locations as it attempts to build itself a constituency.
The movie has a major box office star in Carrey, whose last film, the broad comedy “Bruce Almighty,” pulled in $248 million domestically. But Carrey’s fans have not always stuck with him when he has ventured into more adventurous territory like 1999’s “Man on the Moon,” which only grossed $34.6 million domestically.
However, the R-rated “Sunshine,” directed by Michel Gondry (“Human Nature”) also boasts a secret weapon in screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, an Oscar nominee for both 1999’s “Being John Malkovich” and 2003’s “Adaptation.” Kaufman is a genuine star in the specialty-films market, and Focus is betting that by combining Carrey’s more discerning fans with Kaufman’s followers, it can settle in for a long run following what is shaping up as a $6 million-$9 million opening.
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