If the slump’s over, thank these ‘Four’

It took “Fantastic Four’s” dysfunctional crew of superheroes and the $56 million the film generated to break a 19-week box office slump -- just barely. If ticket-sales estimates for the weekend hold up when more complete numbers are available today, and even competitors are keeping their fingers crossed, Hollywood’s losing streak has ended.

“War of the Worlds” performed as well as blockbusters usually do in their second weekend, with about a 52% drop in Friday-to-Sunday business compared with last weekend. Still, Paramount Pictures had to be disappointed with the drop, which certainly makes reaching the $200-million mark more of an uphill climb. Steven Spielberg’s version of the century-old story took in an estimated $31.3 million, bringing its domestic total to $165.8 million.

The estimated total for all films reached about $149 million on the strength of “Four” and “War,” according to box office tracking firm Nielsen EDI Inc. That total would squeak past the comparable week last year by just 0.4%, which amounts to about $664,000. Since it’s not uncommon for weekend estimates to be off by that much or more on a single movie, the mood could darken and the industry could be facing a 20-week stretch in which the box office has remained behind last year’s numbers.

If the numbers do stand, “Fantastic Four” would rank fifth among comic book adaptations behind “Spider-Man 2” ($115.8 million in four days) and “Spider-Man” ($114.8 million in three days), “X2: X-Men United” ($85.5 million) and “The Hulk” ($62.1 million), according to Nielsen EDI. “X-Men” is sixth ($54.4 million) and “Batman Begins” is seventh ($52.7 million). It’s the fourth-best opening for a Marvel property, after the two Spider-Man films and “X2.”

Avi Arad, chairman of Marvel Studios, sees the weekend as just the beginning of a long-term revenue stream for the company. “Of course, there will be a sequel,” he said. “Now the constituency is much larger.”

The studio executive went to the Grove, Century City and to the Cinerama Dome to watch the movie in theaters with audiences on opening day.

“I was very happy Friday night,” Arad said. “I started at 5:30 [p.m.] till midnight and got to see how the audience reacted to this movie. The kids, the teenagers -- they feel good, they laugh.”

That the four were this fantastic came as a bit of a surprise, as tracking last week had indicated business closer to $35 million.

“It’s very hard to extrapolate tracking,” because it takes into account intangibles such as awareness and intention among all age groups, “but in terms of ‘trending,’ it was doing all the right things,” said Hutch Parker, president of 20th Century Fox. Awareness “had been building, and ... we could see a level of consistency” that indicated the movie had high potential.

The movie, rated PG-13, drew a broad audience from teenagers to families, with filmgoers fairly evenly split between those younger and older than 25, said Fox’s president of distribution, Bruce Snyder.

Snyder and Parker suggested it was the film’s “fun” factor that fueled interest. “You’ve had a series of pretty dark films, and the audience was starved for a good time,” Parker said, adding that “part of the reason this has been such a big deal for Marvel is that it has taken 10 years for us and more like 20 for Avi and Marvel” to get the movie into theaters.

“Fantastic Four” remains one of Marvel’s most valuable properties, the first one that involves so-called dysfunctional characters that don’t always get along or even like one another. Additionally, Parker said, “It’s one of the only ones that’s a ‘daylight’ comic -- they are not hiding behind masks or costumes.”

The weekend’s other major new release, Disney’s “Dark Water,” opened in fourth place with an estimated $10.1 million.

Among films in limited release, the documentary “March of the Penguins” continued to perform well as Warner Independent Pictures expanded it to 64 theaters. It took in about $975,000, averaging about $15,234 per theater, just slightly below the $15,437 per venue average of “Fantastic Four,” which is playing in 3,602 locations.

“Three-fourths of the holdover runs posted increases in business,” said Laura Kim of Warner Independent. “Penguins” will expand to 125 theaters this weekend and to between 500 and 600 on July 22.

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Box Office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total Fantastic Four $56 $56

War of the Worlds 31.3 165.8

Batman Begins 10.2 172.1

Dark Water 10.1 10.1

Mr. & Mrs. Smith 7.9 158.6

Herbie: Fully Loaded 6.3 48.5

Bewitched 5.5 50.9

Madagascar 4.3 179.6

Rebound 2.9 11.4

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith 2.6 370.8

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Source: Nielsen EDI Inc.

Los Angeles Times