Posted by David St. Hubbins at 242.westvalleycity-03rh15rt-ut.dial-access.att.net on January 19, 2003 at 00:58:56:
In Reply to: Re: Discuss: J. Lee : A Guy Thing.$2.5 million ope posted by chris@ukaskew on January 18, 2003 at 18:24:41:
Opening night usually dicates everything. Only a very, very small percentage of films build profits over time from word of mouth. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" only happens probably less than 1% of the time. Generally, a studio picture with the kind of budget you mentioned ($20 million) has to do very well on the opening weekend, or it's absolutely dead in the water. There's as much chance of winning the lottery as there is of a film doing as good or better business later on as it did the opening weekend. If it didn't kick ass on the opening Friday, it's not going to kick ass later. It's very, very rare. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is an extreme exception to the rule, as is "There's Something About Mary" a few years ago.