I SAW THE SIGN

And lo, the poorly-reviewed horror remake¹ starring Julia Stiles and Liev Schreiber² that opened on 6/6/06 has, improbably, been visited again by the mark of the Beast:


(Pedantic note: See bottom right-hand corner of above image.)

The question is, did the studio manipulate the box office numbers to achieve this result? It's certainly possible. Early returns are always the studio's own estimates, and it's commonly assumed that these numbers are fiddled with. But this usually happens when two studios are opening pictures on the same Friday, and allegedly round the numbers up to capture the top spot, (even if the revised estimates (actual ticket sales, which take longer to count) are lower³).

Fox surely knew "The Omen" would fall hard after a surprisingly strong initial frame⁴, even without any other horror pictures opening (though "Nacho Libre" appeals to the same demographic). But they surely didn't know how hard it would fall. If it was off 68% from last week, why not fib and report earnings that produce a demonic % Change statistic? But who knows how much they might have rounded ticket sales up⁵ or even perhaps down. The movie supposedly made $5.35 million this weekend, but what if it actually made $5.5? In that case, would it actually be to their benefit to underestimate their box office take? You bet. It got me to write this blog post.

(Hat tip to eagle-eyed Box Office Mojo reader EDP, the first to see the sign. No word on whether it opened up his eyes.)

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¹Apparently not "based on a true story," as "The Amityville Horror" is "based on a true story."

²At least one of whom should certainly know better, but never really has.

³That weekend's over, and another one is always coming up.

⁴Yes, I speak Variety.

⁵And who cares how far off they are? We've already established that no one pays attention to last week's numbers. In the very outside chance someone did notice a large discrepancy, this would be one of those "any publicity is good publicity" situations.

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posted by WWB at 8:32 PM |