Big Fish opens at #1
According to Sony’s figures — which agree with most of the others I’ve seen reported — BIG FISH came in at number one for the weekend, earning about $14.5 million, compared to RETURN OF THE KING’s $14.1 million.
Since it’s only now Sunday, how can studios say how much they earned for the weekend? Well, all the numbers you hear discussed are actually just estimates. Based on how well Big Fish did on Friday and Saturday, Sony makes an educated guess about how it will do today. New Line does the same for Return of the King, and so on down the list. Are these estimates accurate? Not necessarily, and there’s often grumbling that studios deliberately over-estimate in order to “win” the weekend. In the case of Big Fish and Return of the King, the movies are certainly very close, so a more conservative analyst might wait until the real box office figures come in Monday.
For today, I’ll just say we did very well — better than expected. I think the obsession with opening weekend box office figures is ultimately damaging to the film industry. All the same, for such a difficult, hard-to-peg movie, it’s nice to be #1, if only for a week.
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January 11th, 2004 at 4:50 pm
Congradulations John. -Brandon
January 11th, 2004 at 11:52 pm
John,
Just wanted to write that I loved the movie. I work in film in Cleveland, Ohio and was eagerly awaiting its release ever since I saw the first preview. It was better then I hoped and I’ve seen it twice in three days. Congrats on a great movie.
January 12th, 2004 at 1:12 am
Mr August,
Congratulations on a beautiful film. I saw Big Fish back in December, and since then I’ve taken all of my family and friends to see it. Everyone of them loved it as much as I did.
Being a fan of the book, I was impressed by the way you were able to develope such a small series of stories into a full screenplay. You, and everyone involved should be proud of the work you’ve done in bringing this gem of a film to the screen.
Mary
January 12th, 2004 at 12:36 pm
Saw the movie - enjoyed it quite a bit. Favourite character was Karl, and seeing the circus master at the funeral gathering, grey and aged, was wonderful.
January 12th, 2004 at 3:22 pm
Sorry, slipped to number 2.
I thought this was an interesting movie from a writing standpoint; very episodic, and you could have put in a whole string of different adventures to the same basic effect. Yet it still hangs together pretty well, and it is obviously touching a chord with audiences.
Not sure how it cost 70 million to make, though…
January 12th, 2004 at 10:47 pm
Scott’s right — although it won Friday, Big Fish ultimately came in behind Return of the King for the weekend. The bean counters at Sony are still happy there were a lot of beans to count.
As to the movie costing $70 million, you’ll never get a studio to confirm an exact number. But anyone who sees the film will realize that some things obviously did cost a bundle; you can’t make a movie of its scale in your backyard. I would point out that most of the movies you’re seeing this holiday season cost that much or more, and some of them don’t even have giants and mermaids.
January 14th, 2004 at 8:39 pm
John, I’m taking a class about the power of myth (based mostly around the Quest for the Holy Grail) and my professor could not stop going on about “Big Fish” and in fact required the class see the film, which I did and I loved. There was one scene in which she claims Old Edward is reading a Joseph Campbell book, not sure if it’s “The Power of Myth” or “Hero With A Thousand Faces” or if she just imagined things because I myself couldn’t see the name of the book…can I get any confirmation? If true that’s a very appropriate cameo…Thanks!
January 15th, 2004 at 10:05 am
Stephen — After seeing the movie 10 times, I can’t recall being able to read the cover of Edward’s book. (I think we’re talking about a scene where he’s fallen asleep in bed.) I’ll look for it next time, but if anyone else reading this comment can confirm or deny the Joseph Campbell connection, please do.
January 15th, 2004 at 11:16 am
Good luck this weekend –
It should be interesting, because there’s no reason why BIG FISH shouldn’t hold its numbers pretty well, while RETURN OF THE KING seems primed to drop another 30-40% and ALONG CAME POLLY seems to be the only new movie liable to top $10 million. So you may well get that #1 after all…
January 17th, 2004 at 1:29 pm
John,
Thanks for responding…my professor tends to be overenthusiastic sometimes and potentially could have made the connection in her own head. Wishful thinking I guess…but if Mr. Burton DID in fact insert a Joseph Campbell book on purpose, that would be a great injoke. Regardless, the film has lead to lengthy discussions in my class in relation to the paradigm of the hero’s quest. The film follows Campbell’s paradigm to a T and I’m sure if he were alive to see it he would give it his stamp of approval.
January 20th, 2004 at 9:32 am
Another second isn’t bad. And congrats on the BAFTA writing nom…