In addition to the $ 300 million that Van Helsing has made from domestic and overseas box office receipts, the following report indicates that it also made $ 137 million from domestic DVD sales and rentals as of end-2004 --
http://www.dvdexclusive.com/charts_sellers_ytd.asp Hugh's Disney multi-picture deal for movie musicals does sound like a feat for someone who has never made a movie musical. ALWebber is rumoured, as reported in a column in the UK's Sunday Mail, to have already signed up Hugh and Anthony Hopkins for the Sunset leads ( in addition to wooing Glenn and Meryl for the role of Norma). Please remember also that he turned down the Billy Flynn role ( Richard Gere, eventually) because he felt too young for the role. Joel Schumacher also says that Hugh was asked for the movie Phantom role, but he had to decline because he was already committed to TBFO...All these sound like Hollywood is truly interested in him as a musical leading man.
Other movie roles - well, Darren Aronofsky, called by some as the new Stanley Kubrick, offered him the role in his much awaited movie now filming in Canada THE FOUNTAIN, after seeing him in THE BOY FROM OZ. Harvey Weinstein, the movie mogul, offered him the part in KATE AND LEOPOLD as a result of seeing him in OKLAHOMA! I think it was only yesterday that BBC reported that Hugh is the leading contender for the James Bond role, according to bookmakers. Hugh is also now co-producing and toplining XMEN-3 and the WOLVERINE spinoff.
Let's not get too far away from the subject of this online site -- Broadway!
Everybody knows how he did a herculean job in turning around THE BOY FROM OZ ( from a show that almost closed because of the harsh critical panning) to a sold-out show in the months after the TONYs and ultimately making a little money for the show. He was Broadway's man of the hour in the last season.
Let's read what Michael Riedel had to say about the phenomenon --
September 10, 2004 -- "AT last, Atlas can lay down his burden.
On Sunday, Hugh Jackman gives his final performance in "The Boy From Oz," that combination floor show/VH-1 "Behind the Music" bio in which Jackman plays the late gay songwriter Peter Allen (with one swish, Hugh's the boy next door).
Jackman has carried the show on his back for a year now, defying the critics who mauled it and the pundits (I was one) who predicted it wouldn't last the season.
He's also managed to put the $8.25 million show in the black, pushing it over the line with the help of premium-priced tickets, which have been selling briskly since spring, and $350 orchestra seats for the final, sold-out performance.
In its final week, "The Boy From Oz" is on track to gross $1.4 million, just $200,000 shy of the record set by Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane during the first week of their return engagement in "The Producers."
Yesterday, Albert Poland, the show's general manager, told The Post: "The show has recouped, and the final distribution to investors will occur shortly after the closing."
Jackman's feat has been extraordinary — super-human, really — and deserves to be studied as an example of what true star power can do for a Broadway show.
Jackman's only rivals on the very short list of male theater stars are Lane and Broderick. But unlike that duo, who, in "The Producers," were working with first-rate material, Jackman had to make do with garbage.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a show as tacky and ineptly put together as "The Boy From Oz," although Frank Wildhorn's "Dracula" is a worthy successor.
Yet Jackman, through a combination of energy, charisma and salesmanship, managed to transcend its awfulness and turn it into what was, for all intents and purposes, a one-man show with undeniable audience appeal...
...Because the bad reviews initially depressed ticket sales — and because Jackman was only signed up for one year — the profit margin on "The Boy From Oz" was always going to be razor-thin (the final profit, says a source, could be less than $100,000).
Had Jackman missed just a handful of performances, the show would never have recouped.
And here, he was exemplary: He did not miss a single performance.
For this, he deserves much praise.
If they have a case of the sniffles or a slight tickle in their throats, Broadway stars today can call up any number of showbiz doctors and have themselves put on "vocal rest." ...
...Jackman has raised the bar on attendance for all Broadway stars.
Let's hope they follow his example.
The Broadway community is turning out for Jackman's performance on Sunday. He is well-liked in the industry, having charmed the powerbrokers (and their spouses) and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for theater charities.
Every producer sitting in that house on Sunday is going to be making a list of projects for "Hugh," which is what everybody in theater calls him whether they know him or not.
Two that spring to mind are "Pal Joey," a revival of which is in the works, and "Company," in which "Hugh" would be perfect as the handsome bachelor, Bobby.
But producers will have to bide their time. Jackman will come back to Broadway but not, at the very least, for a year.
Atlas needs — and deserves — a rest"
But hey, nobody's perfect. I just know he can do better.
- although I have occasionally submitted some news info, as many others do. 
) talk and sing some of the songs ( I love him singing the duet TOO MUCH IN LOVE TO CARE) and recitatives from the show. It also showed him doing some rehearsal routines. 
