A stupid movie makes a lot of money

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
So much for the dog days of summer.
August typically is Hollywood's dumping ground for movies that aren't expected to do much at the box office. But with the surprising performance of Will Ferrell's comedy Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby this weekend, August may well continue the industry's ticket sales rebound.

Talledega took in an impressive $47 million, according to studio estimates from box-office trackers Nielsen EDI.

The haul is $15 million more than most analysts projected and marked the largest debut for Ferrell, whose previous high was $31 million with 2003's Elf. Talledega Nights also enjoyed the highest debut for a comedy since Bruce Almighty opened to $68 million in 2003.

The opening helped Hollywood continue its brisk summer sales, which are powering the box office ahead of last year. Ticket sales for summer surpassed $2.9 billion this weekend, 6% ahead of last year. Overall ticket sales are up 5% over 2005.

Initially, Talledega Nights wasn't high on the radar of many analysts or studio executives, who saw the NASCAR comedy as a minor hit in an otherwise weak month.

But the film began picking up steam in June, when Ferrell began making appearances at NASCAR events and doing interviews in character as Ricky Bobby, a dimwitted but talented race-car driver.

NASCAR also embraced the movie; several racers, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Darrell Waltrip, made cameos.

By the middle of July, the movie was tracking so strongly that Universal Pictures decided to pull its comedy Accepted from the schedule and open it a week later.

"Any time you put Will Ferrell and NASCAR together, you're going to have good things happen," says Rory Bruer, distribution chief for Sony Pictures, which released Talledega Nights. "You're going to appeal to audiences across the board."

Particularly in southern parts of the USA. Talledega is the second film Sony has released this year that played unusually well in the Southeast, such as Atlanta and Birmingham, Ala. Sony's Robin Williams comedy RV took in a surprising $70 million, primarily on the shoulders of moviegoers in the middle of the country.

"We try to be very cognizant that we live in Los Angeles, and that you have to reach out to find things that entertain the whole country, not just the coasts," Bruer says. "That's what makes Will so good. He has the gift of finding that piece of you that wants to be silly."

The animated film Barnyard had a strong $16 million debut and was second, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with $11 million. Miami Vice fell a sizable 62% from its debut for $9.7 million. The horror film The Descent was No. 5 with $8.8 million.