"Dreamgirls" Finishes 3rd at Weekend Box Office

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/31/boxoffice.ap/index.html

"Dreamgirls" saw a major surge in business, averaging a whopping $18,192 per screen as Paramount rolled it out slowly with word-of-mouth creating a buzz. It was showing on just 852 screens, compared to 3,768 for "Night at the Museum."

"Dreamgirls," the first musical sensation since "Chicago" in 2002, will expand to about 1,800 screens on January 12.

"We knew it was a movie that was a real crowd-pleaser," said Rob Moore, Paramount's president of marketing and distribution. "The amazing word of mouth is bringing it along. It's been a while since a musical really worked.""

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That's AMAZING for the lack of theatres it is in. NOW let's see what happens when they expand.

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Aldolpho make love to the bride!

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That's interesting it was still 3rd even only being in about 1/4 of the theatres Ben Stillers movie was......it was fantastick support this amazing movie

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So, they're moving up the wide release to the 12th, according to this? It was previously scheduled for the 19th.

And they're opening it on 1,800 screens. At least it's better than 852, but if a crap movie like "Night at the Museum" is showing on 3,768 screens, "Dreamgirls" so-called wide release will still be in less than half as many theatres.

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Updated On: 1/1/07 at 08:50 AM

"So, they're moving up the wide release to the 12th, according to this? It was previously scheduled for the 19th.

And they're opening it on 1,800 screens."

I'm confused as to whether they're releasing it to the full amount of theaters on the 12th or if 1,800 isn't the full amount and they'll be releasing it to the largest number of theaters the week after that.

It would seem like a better idea to me to widen the release to 1,800 screens this Friday and then open it totally wide on the 12th, if not just opening it totally wide this Friday.

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