After several weeks of mediocre and abysmal performers, a new film kick-started the summer doldrums with Warner's 'Dukes of Hazzard' riding into top spot with $30.5m. Warner's weekend was also strong with the expansion of 'March of the Penguins', which jumped to sixth spot. Warner's terrific week continued with 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' approaching the $200m mark and 'Batman Begins' just days away from the milestone. A great week for the studio who thrived with their slate of releases.
Fresh from their success of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', Warner and Roadshow enjoyed another smash with their remake of 'Dukes of Hazzard' easily riding into first place with a terrific $30.5m. The Johnny Knoxville-Jessica Simpson led comedy earned a strong $8,077 in a very wide 3,785 theatres and benefited from a saturated release. The first weekend of August is always a prime slot and 'Dukes' was ninth best for the month and if the estimate holds up, it will be only the ninth film ever to open over $30m for the month. The opening beat out such August comedies as 'Freaky Friday' ($22.2m/$110.2m), 'The Princess Diaries' ($22.8m/$108.2m) and its sequel ($22.9m/$95.1m) but was beaten by 'American Wedding' ($33.3m/$104.5m) and its sequel 'American Pie 2' ($45.1m/$145.1m). The general aim is to match the gross of 'American Wedding' since they opened at similar levels. 'Dukes' also was on the high end of the whole "remaking TV shows" debate opening at the same level as 'Starsky and Hutch', which opened with $28.1m in March 2004 and finished with $88.2m. A summer release, which gives it stronger midweek grosses along with a low competitive slate in August should give 'Dukes' the edge to pass the $100m milestone unless negative word-of-mouth kicks in. 'Dukes' might have been a remake of a 70-80's TV series but its core audience wouldn't have any idea so Warner's essentially branded it independently and didn't look for too much connection in order to aim for a younger audience adding such teen icons as Jessica Simpson to the mix. For Simpson, her debut bests such infamous debuts from pop stars or media hogs as Paris Hilton ('House of Wax'), Britney Spears ('Crossroads') or Mariah Carey ('Glitter') and she worked hard to promote the film. Sean William Scott may be the one to gain the most from the film because it is giving him yet another hit and although its not an Oscar-worthy resume, he is becoming increasingly bankable and only one film has not opened over $10m - 2003's 'Bulletproof Monk' while one went straight-to-video 2002's 'Stark Raving Mad' but of the 10 films he has made since 1999's 'American Pie', he has gotten a hit 8 times, which is quite a good track record. Lastly, for the other co-star Johnny Knoxville, he of the 'Jackass' fame, it may convince Fox Searchlight to finally release his comedy 'The Ringer', which has been in the can for quite sometime and has weak buzz. Many had some scepticism during post-production but Warner's did a great job and ultimately it had the weekend to itself and that was always going to work in its favour. 'Dukes' represents another success for the Warner and Roadshow relationship following from 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. The production company have been producing some of Warner's biggest hits over the past few years including 'Oceans 11' and 'Oceans 12', the 'Matrix' series and recent hit 'Constantine'. Upcoming films include films with Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore and Harrison Ford.
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