This is the first leg of what we think is an incredible release plan for a picture that technically needs to sell itself because it's a word of mouth film.
To have a summer where you have five films break $100 million is certainly an achievement. It speaks well for the entire group (at Universal).
We're going to go back to the drawing board. Good movies are supposed to buck this trend. You hear how it's all about the product, but we have an excellent movie that people just aren't turning out for. It's something bigger.
What's so great is that this is a moderate budgeted film that's probably going to be the most profitable for the studio this year, ... There's no back-end participations in it and it only cost us $55 million to make. This is a franchise that we built from the ground floor.
My little monkey's doing great. We're convinced with all the information we have that this is the big guy, and he's going to be around for a long time.
The public has grown to love these characters and the fact that this culminates in a wedding might have something to do with (its audience) getting a little bit older. For the core audience, it was 92 percent in the top two boxes (excellent and very good).
This wasn't about making a blockbuster. This was about telling a story that needed to be told.
which makes this picture for Universal and for Working Title a hugely profitable endeavor.
It's not about the positioning of the film. It's about the fact that the American public spoke out. ... What they said was that it wasn't too soon for a film about Sept. 11.
That's an unbelievable hold. I (looked back) and there has not been any film since Feb. 7 when 'Chicago' went wide that held as well. In 10 days it's done nearly $50 million. It's obvious the picture has the ability to go past $100 million.
