MARCUS THEATRES WILL NOT SHOW CLOVERFIELD IN OPENING WEEKEND

Marcus Theatres Corp. is again at odds with Paramount Pictures after failing to reach an agreement with the film distributor on the Friday release of "Cloverfield."

The impasse marks the second time in a month that Marcus locations will not show a major motion picture on its opening release date because it could not reach an agreement with Paramount on a price to moviegoers. This time, the film is the J.J. Abrams-produced modern-day monster film "Cloverfield," which is opening nationwide on Friday.

"Our negotiations with this film distributor have again reached an impasse," said Bruce Olson, president of Marcus Theatres. "Marcus Theatres did not show 'Sweeney Todd' on its first run availability date because acceptable terms could not be negotiated and now we will not be exhibiting 'Cloverfield' at any of our locations for similar reasons."

Marcus could not reach an agreement with Paramount to show "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," when it opened Dec. 21. An agreement was reached later, and the Johnny Depp film began running at 15 Marcus locations Jan. 11.

Olson said the company still hopes to reach an agreement with Paramount at a later date.

Marcus Theatres is a division of Marcus Corp. (NYSE: MCS) in Milwaukee. The seventh-largest theatre circuit in the country, Marcus owns or operates 594 screens at 49 locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, North Dakota and Iowa.

Besides Harry's review over on AICN, here's a positive review from E! .....

That Way Secret Cloverfield? Seen It, Loved It


I've seen the supersecret, J.J. Abrams-produced Cloverfield—and you haven't. Ha!

One of the great privileges (and responsibilities) of my job is that I get to sneak some of the most guarded and secretive films weeks before they come out. What can I say, I'm a lucky guy. Usually films are screened for all critics, but not this one. Producer Abrams has guarded this thing like he's a father seeing his virgin daughter off on prom night.

When a film doesn't get screened much, it's usually a bad sign. But this is different. Once you see it, you'll understand all the secrecy. Trust me, you don't want to know too much going into it. The movie is kind of like Blair Witch Project meets I Am Legend. Both were huge box office and critical successes, and I think the same will happen with Cloverfield.

The film was made for only $25 million, but it looks like it cost 10 times that much. How they managed to make New York City look so real I will never understand. It's terrifying and incredibly creative. What also makes the movie special is the fresh group of newcomers who make up the youthful ensemble. They all have the potential to become big stars, should they play their cards right.

I don't get to see many movies twice, but I will sit through this one again at Wednesday's big premiere on the Paramount lot. It's totally worth it. This is an event movie, and if you're curious about it or have seen the posters and asked yourself, "What the heck is that about?" just go and check it out.

Is Marcus theatre chains that big? or it has no factor in the opening gross of Cloverfield?

Marcus Theatres is a division of Marcus Corp. (NYSE: MCS) in Milwaukee. The seventh-largest theatre circuit in the country, Marcus owns or operates 594 screens at 49 locations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, North Dakota and Iowa.

The Box Office Numbers: Updated 01/19/08

*Looks like it in a Trajectory of $30Million-$40Million and a 60% chance to to a record January Opening.


Estimated Gross for Friday, Jan. 18th 2008.

1. CLOVERFIELD PARAMOUNT 3,411 $16,750,000 4,963 n/a $16,750,000
2. 27 DRESSES 20TH CENTURY FOX 3,057 $7,650,000 2,522 n/a $7,650,000
3. BUCKET LIST, THE WARNER BROS. 2,915 $4,150,000 1,413 -36% $31,709,000
4. JUNO FOX SEARCHLIGHT 2,534 $3,060,000 1,210 -32% $78,191,000
5. MAD MONEY OVERTURE FILMS 2,470 $2,295,000 929 n/a $2,295,000
6. FIRST SUNDAY SCREEN GEMS 2,213 $2,210,000 999 -62% $22,875,602
7. NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS BVI 2,963 $2,025,000 683 -46% $191,907,845
8. ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS 20TH CENTURY FOX 2,962 $1,540,000 520 -50% $190,920,181
9. I AM LEGEND WARNER BROS. 2,525 $1,375,000 545 -49% $243,952,424
10. ATONEMENT FOCUS FEATURES 1,291 $1,270,000 984 -9% $28,394,806

Missed this thread entirely, I knew it felt weird to be creating it for some reason. Haha.

Not too bad for Cloverfield. I hope it keeps up the earnings, although the likely bad word of mouth (from dumbasses that don't get the film) will stall those numbers a bit. Still, for a giant monster movie shot the way it was, that's pretty impressive.

So Cloverfield looks like it'll make 42 or so million this weekend. More than I thought it would do. I imagine this will have a HUGE drop starting today as most people who bought into this hype had to get out and see it asap. But it will also benefit from the 4 day holiday this weekend so it could do a bit over $50 million in Fri. through Mon.
There will be Blood (which lasts about twice as long as Cloverfield) is doing pretty good (in its 389 location) and should end up making around 2.7 million this weekend and should finish in either 11th or 12th place.
It also looks like IN the Name of the King might have one of the biggest Weekend to weekend drops ever in the history of cinema (or at least in terms of modern box office tracking)!

100% sure it will breakeven with its production budget this opening weekend

It'll probably even make back most of its marketing budget too.
Looks like Paramount finally found themselves a cash cow.

EW gave it a B+... and from Lisa no less.

Its funny because I was a huge Alias fan but could never get into Lost... Im not sold on JJ Abrams yet because MI:3 was pretty bad. So I went into Cloverfield not expecting much because of that and really enjoyed it, although I can see most people probably not liking it.

Fri-Sun Est: Cloverfield $41M, 27 Dresses $22.4M

Sweet, I said 40mil...

I'm glad Cloverfield did well. It already made back its production costs. I like when people at least try something new. It was a decent monster movie without a 200 million dollar budget. The funny thing was that after the movie the audience was maybe 60-40 for the love/hate ratio. There didn't seem to be any opinions in the middle.

After I saw the Friday numbers of $16 million, I thought I was dead on with the $48 million opening weekend prediction, but the movie did something almost NO big movie does: business actually slipped on Saturday. Usually movies have their biggest days on Saturday because there is simply more audiences then, but that does tell me one thing. Curiosity of the movie is going to wane, and this movie will be extremely front-loaded: so it will have no legs.

Final domestic gross: $94 million

You have to take into consideration that this was a must-see-opening-night movie for a lot of people, so a dip was expected. And everyone seems to forget that Monday is a holiday.

The past couple of years have been showing a trend of movies being really front loaded to the first day of the weekend - so that the Friday of release is actually the biggest day of the weekend.

In the Name of the King had a 75.4% drop. HAHAHAHA. Currently sitting at 21 on the Biggest 2nd weekend drops ever. Keep in mind in could move up on the chart when final figures are announced.
There will be Blood did very well in its expansion this weekend making over $3 million on under 400 screens with a Per Theater average of over $8000 making it the The 2nd highest PTA this weekend (Behind Cloverfield 12,000 + PTA). It looks like this will be expanding into more screens over the next few weeks due to its success.

Most big movies slip on Saturday these days due to two reasons:

1) Hype -- this is especially true with genre movies that have a built-in fan base.

2) Midnight showings -- The theater I saw Cloverfield at on Thursday night had two theaters sold out. That's two sold out showings added to Friday's gross. This helps substantially. Especially with hyped up movies.

Overall, very impressive take .

I guess its a Hit then!.... Lets see if this will be gorefully killed by Rambo next weekend

Four Day Final Tally:

1 N Cloverfield Par. $46,146,546 - 3,411 - $13,528 $46,146,546 $25 1
2 N 27 Dresses Fox $27,442,040 - 3,057 +2,442 $8,976 $27,442,040 $30 1
3 1 The Bucket List WB $16,664,347 -14.1% 2,915 +4 $5,716 $44,223,780 $45 4
4 3 Juno FoxS $11,966,082 -12.1% 2,534 +86 $4,722 $87,092,615 - 7
5 4 National Treasure: Book of Secrets BV $9,606,326 -15.0% 2,963 -414 $3,242 $199,489,171 - 5
6 2 First Sunday SGem $9,504,908 -46.3% 2,213 - $4,295 $30,170,510 - 2
7 5 Alvin and the Chipmunks Fox $9,433,049 +1.4% 2,962 -422 $3,184 $198,813,230 $60 6
8 N Mad Money Over. $9,273,645 - 2,470 - $3,754 $9,273,645 - 1
9 6 I Am Legend WB $5,905,443 -27.8% 2,525 -828 $2,338 $248,482,867 - 6
10 10 Atonement Focus $5,528,377 +30.9% 1,291 +341 $4,282 $32,653,183 - 7
11 9 The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything Uni. $3,805,510 -10.5% 1,340 +3 $2,839 $8,692,420 - 2
12 17 There Will Be Blood ParV $3,661,992 +96.8% 389 +260 $9,413 $8,696,622 - 4

About on par with estimates. Though Monday projections slipped a bit initially to 4 million, it wound up making the originally estimated $6m after all.

Additional numbers:

13 7 One Missed Call WB $3,339,660 -44.2% 1,925 -315 $1,734 $24,940,422 - 3
14 12 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street P/DW $3,247,729 -4.1% 1,507 +184 $2,155 $48,672,529 $50 5


Three Day Numbers:

1 N Cloverfield Par. $40,058,229 - 3,411 - $11,743 $40,058,229 $25 1
2 N 27 Dresses Fox $23,007,725 - 3,057 +2,442 $7,526 $23,007,725 $30 1
3 1 The Bucket List WB $14,078,871 -27.4% 2,915 +4 $4,829 $41,638,304 $45 4
4 3 Juno FoxS $9,954,874 -26.9% 2,534 +86 $3,928 $85,081,407 - 7
5 2 First Sunday SGem $7,801,017 -56.0% 2,213 - $3,525 $28,466,619 - 2
6 N Mad Money Over. $7,736,452 - 2,470 - $3,132 $7,736,453 - 1
7 4 National Treasure: Book of Secrets BV $7,550,254 -33.2% 2,963 -414 $2,548 $197,433,099 - 5
8 5 Alvin and the Chipmunks Fox $6,949,111 -25.3% 2,962 -422 $2,346 $196,329,292 $60 6
9 6 I Am Legend WB $4,891,373 -40.2% 2,525 -828 $1,937 $247,468,797 - 6
10 10 Atonement Focus $4,596,844 +8.9% 1,291 +341 $3,560 $31,721,650 - 7
11 17 There Will Be Blood ParV $2,941,582 +58.1% 389 +260 $7,561 $7,976,212 - 4
12 7 One Missed Call WB $2,856,444 -52.2% 1,925 -315 $1,483 $24,457,206 - 3
13 12 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street P/DW $2,680,098 -20.8% 1,507 +184 $1,778 $48,104,898 $50 5
14 9 The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything Uni. $2,606,175 -38.7% 1,340 +3 $1,944 $7,493,085 - 2

Now here's the trick. General audiences have seen the movie and are decidedly split on it. But from what I've heard, it generally is enthusiastic with those that liked it which means great word of mouth from one group and terrible from the other, very little middling. This could go one of two ways next weekend.

^^^ you're on the money about this one. next week should be interesting. and do people give a shit about "Rambo?" It's basically getting dumped. But hell, people said the same thing about "Cloverfield" months ago, so you never know.