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Theater Report: [PONYO]
PONYO
Showtime: 7:00 p.m.
Venue: UltraStar Del Mar Highlands 8 (North San Diego County)
48 butts / 260 seats (18% full)
Snacks: Smuggled-in Gatorade and Milk Duds.
Trailers: Toy Story 3D Double Bill; The Princess and the Frog; Planet 51; The Fantastic Mr. Fox; Where the Wild Things Are. Is it pathetic that I get goosebumps everytime I see the last one? Also of note: not one kid or parent in the audience remarked on the Mr. Fox trailer, which is, you know, pretty freakin' weird.
Box Office Potential: This is a very kid-friendly site, but parents in the area are less likely to take their kids to the movies at night than in many others. So, for the sake of argument, let's take this figure and say it's the average across the country. Based on longtime trends a certain similar multiplex up the freeway I worked at, it would be fair to assume the other shows did/will do about the following attendance: 20 (early morning), 48 (afternoon), 48 (late afternoon), 48 (this show), 15 (late show). That's 179 people total. Apply a nationwide average ticket-price (accounting for heavy matinee & kid-price traffic) of $7 and that gets you a Friday PTA of $1,253. Give it a multiplier of 3.0--heavy enough to account for Sat. & Sun. matinees but still accounting for potential frontloading due to Miyazaki's strong following--and you get a weekend of about $3.5 million.
Substantiating the above math: Zathura did 52 people in the comparable show at my old multiplex, and its weekend PTA was $4,166. If you do the simple ratio-math and apply the ensuing PTA to the Ponyo theater count, you get a slightly better $3.6 million.
So with $3.5-3.6 million likely if you buy that equation--highly questionable, of course--the movie is unlikely to adjust much. It'll be Miyazaki's biggest opening, but given the theater count, that wasn't really in question.
My Take: I will post a review tomorrow, but I pretty much agree with the critical consensus -- the movi very good and visually gorgeous, but definitely not as substantive as Miyazaki's finest works. The English dub is pretty good all things considered--I especially liked Tina Fey as the mother--but the same cannot be said of the atrocious Jonas/Cyrus duet that unfortunately accompanies the end-credits.
Hopefully I'll get a Bandslam review up on Bucket Reviews tonight, then wake up bright and early tomorrow and post another for this film. Hopefully.
Tag(s): PONYO