Ratatoulille....

[TheTruth]

Great movie. I highly recommend. Pixar can't miss.

[boutons_]

Could be one of those excellent movies where the critics love it, but the target market of $kids less so. But it still has many weeks ahead of it, plus overseas, to be big.

July 1, 2007

"Ratatouille" Cooks Up Lukewarm Box Office Win


By REUTERS

Filed at 5:16 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A rat chased millions of moviegoers into theaters, but the furry star of "Ratatouille" also whipped up one of the worst openings in the history of Walt Disney Co's cartoon powerhouse Pixar Animation.

According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, "Ratatouille" about a rat who aspires to become a gourmet chef sold $47.2 million worth of tickets during its first three days. It took the No. 1 slot ahead of the new Bruce Willis movie "Live Free or Die Hard" with $33.2 million.

It was the lowest opening for a Pixar-produced release since the studio's second effort, "A Bug's Life," launched with $33.3 million in 1998 on its way to a $163 million total.

By contrast last year's Pixar entry, "Cars," drove off with $60.1 million -- a figure regarded as something of a disappointment -- and finished with $244 million.

If "Ratatouille" follows the same pattern as "Cars," it will gross about $189 million, becoming the third consecutive Pixar release to underperform its predecessor. But Disney was confident "Ratatouille" would easily pass $200 million.

Opening weekend predictions among financial analysts for "Ratatouille" had ranged from $50 million to $65 million. But movie industry polling had a more realistic target in the low $40 million range, according to Chuck Viane, Disney's president of domestic theatrical distribution.

TOUGH COMPETITION

Viane said the competition was unprecedented, with "Ratatouille" boxed in by "Live Free or Die Hard," which got a two-day head start by opening on Wednesday, and by the Monday night release of the hotly anticipated "Transformers."

Still, with a little help from the July 4 holiday, he predicted that "Ratatouille" would be "as successful, if not more successful, than most" Pixar films.

The most successful of Pixar's seven previous releases was 2003's "Finding Nemo," with sales of $340 million. It opened to $70.3 million. A year later, "The Incredibles" kicked off with $70.5 million, but lost steam and settled at $261 million.

Both "Ratatouille" and "The Incredibles" were directed by Brad Bird. His latest effort revolves around a Parisian rat named Remy who dreams of gourmet stardom.

As usual with Pixar releases, critics heaped superlatives on the film. But it was no secret that Disney faced a marketing challenge with the movie: A rat in the kitchen raises hygiene concerns for some people.

Disney is still proving to investors that last year's acquisition of Pixar is worth its $7.4 billion price tag. "Ratatouille" is the first Pixar film to be released that was still in production when the Disney-Pixar deal was sealed.

Willis' "Live Free Or Die Hard" has earned $48.2 million in its first five days. The fourth episode of 20th Century Fox's action series, predictably skewed towards older males, the News Corp.-owned studio said. It enjoyed a 20 percent bump from Friday to Saturday, indicating strong word of mouth; "Ratatouille," by contrast, rose 3 percent.

Last weekend's champion "Evan Almighty," the first big disappointment of the summer box office, slipped to No. 3 with $15.1 million and a two-week total of $60.6 million.

With a reported budget of $175 million, the Steve Carell movie was the most expensive comedy ever made. It was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal Inc.

The top-10 contained two other new entries. Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore's "Sicko" opened at No. 9 with $4.5 million, in line with expectations. The follow-up to Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" played in just 441 theaters vs. 3,940 for "Ratatouille." It was fully financed by the closely held Weinstein Co. and released by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

The drama "Evening," starring a slew of heavyweight actresses such as Vanessa Redgrave and Meryl Streep opened at No. 10 with a modest $3.5 million from 977 theaters. It was released by NBC Universal's art house arm Focus Features.

[The Red Hood]

Gotta love Patton Oswalt

[TheTruth]

Pixar movies tend to hang around long after their debut. This movie will make its money before its all done.

[exstatic]

EVERYTHING opens "soft" these days. Peeps have just gotten sick of paying so much to go to the theater. Most people have such a decent home theater system and big flat panel HD TV that they just wait for the DVD from Net Flix.

For the price of tickets, drinks and popcorn for a family of 4, you could pay a sitter, and Mom and Dad could go have steak dinner.

I think "Rat" will do fine on video.

[KEDA]

Megan and I will be taking my 7 year old cousin to see this on Wednesday.


Actually my cousin is just an excuse to see the film.

[T Park]

Were taking a family friend's kids, me and my family, as an excuse to go see it :lol Patton Oswalt is hilarious as hell, and no doubt he does well in this.

[The Red Hood]

Were taking a family friend's kids, me and my family, as an excuse to go see it :lol Patton Oswalt is hilarious as hell, and no doubt he does well in this.

Fuck yeah! him and Kevin James were the reasons why I would watch King of Queens :lol

[Mark in Austin]

I loved it.

[T Park]

Fuck yeah! him and Kevin James were the reasons why I would watch King of Queens

No question

Him working at the toll booth is hilarious.

I saw an episode of emeril live with him there advertising the movie, and he was friggen hilarious.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

When I woke up on June 30th, alive and breathing, the very first thing on my human mind was how fucking awesome it would be to watch the breakthrough technology of computer animation portraying a film about how rats (or is it mice?) hide under a chef's chef hat and cook for him because he is a bad chef.


Props once again to the computer animation industry. You are truely a master at writing feel good movies for little tiny babies and owners of said babies.

[iminlakerland]

Saw it earlier today, provides good laughs, there was prolly one/two times where i felt the movie dragged on, but it was a great movie, i would recommend it!

[Fabbs]

Excellent.
1 Arrive on time because the 10 minute short at the start is great.
2. Don't have to stay past the credits. Nothing happens and the credits are super freakin long.

3. Try to see in a theater that has it in digital. Aka as Digital Light Projection. If you are from Texas have an out of stater explain it to you and where to find a theater. Here is an incomplete list:
DLP.com (http://www.DLP.com)

[Cant_Be_Faded]

Yeah, I mean, if I were the CEO of a computer animation firm, I would most definitely use all profits towards making movies for little babies, beause those movies are also acceptable to people that are older.....and we'll make more money that way. Prahps brahhhhh