By Scott Bowles, USA TODAYDisney executives knew the timing was right for their John Travolta comedy Wild Hogs.
Motorcycling nationwide is on the rise. Few films are competing for older male audiences. And a road-trip film — particularly on Harley-Davidsons with aging stars — seemed the recipe to lure male baby boomers.
What Disney didn't expect was how many women would show up. Hogs, powered by an audience that was 54% female, took in a whopping $38 million, according to Nielsen EDI.
The debut was $10 million more than projections and powered Hogs to the third-highest opening in March, behind Ice Age and its sequel. It also demonstrated Travolta's steadfast appeal to female audiences. Hogs marked the best debut for Travolta and co-star Tim Allen. Travolta's previous mark was 2005's Be Cool, which did $23.5 million. Excluding animated films such as Toy Story, Allen's previous best was 2002's The Santa Clause 2, which did $29 million.
"The women who grew up with (Travolta) since Grease have never stopped loving him," says Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com. "And Oprah raved about the movie. That's two sure-fire ways to get the women out."
Chuck Viane, Disney's head of publicity, also credits the diversity of the cast, which includes Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy.
"They each have their own specific audience," Viane says. "We just didn't expect that they would all show up."
Audiences weren't quite as excited about the other newcomers this weekend. Zodiac, the David Fincher film about the serial killer who terrorized Northern California in the late 1960s, met the low end of expectations with $13.1 million, good for second place.
"We think the strong reviews and word of mouth will give us a pretty good run," says Jim Tharp of Paramount, which released the film.
Ghost Rider was third with $11.5 million, followed by Bridge to Terabithia with $8.6 million and Jim Carrey's The Number 23, which made $7.1 million.
The only other big newcomer, Samuel L. Jackson's sexually charged Black Snake Moan, did a middling $4 million and eighth place.
Final figures are due Monday.
1 comment:
Hey JPX, remember when you posted all those Transformers items and thereby (take your pick):
1. Allowed us to jump on the bandwagon of mockery over your nonexistant obsession with the Transformers.
2. Revealed to us your undying, girly love for Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee and all those adorable Cybertronians.
So, are you aiming to do the same thing with Wild Hogs? I don't think it will be as fun.
My stepmom made some noise about seeing this as soon as they had a chance. I said "But...." and then stopped. My parents will probably love this.
BUT NOT AS MUCH AS JPX, APPARENTLY!!! HA HA HA ha ha...ha. Yeah, see? It's not as much fun.
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