The Actual Box-Office Totals for RENT are in

don't tell me yours mine and ours beat it. that might actually kill me.

I'm guessings "Yours" had a big leap in sales b/c it was a holiday. I'm hoping RENT will have more staying power (crosses fingers)

Wow a family comedy beat a musical film about AIDS on thanksgiving weekend in a time where George Bush is re elected and musical movies are considered passe?!! How can that be??

are you all kidding me?

"The article mentioned that it didn't pitch it's advertsing to those not familiar with the story... WRONG ANSWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Weren't they advertising it on MTV a lot?"

Yeah, but you had no idea what the movie was about from the previews -they didn't even try to tell people what the movie was actually about. The trailers didn't give any sense of what the plot was.

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Pinguin: OOOOHHH, thanks for enlightening me.

my2cents: True, the film did have a better opening than Phantom, but RENT had better advertising. Phantom failed because:

1. It had a limited audience. It could've advertised to teens, but they ignored them and aimed more towards the older crowd.

2. The advertising wasn't that good. They pretty much kept it in the black for the time it was in theatres.


3. This has nothing to do with the above, but... Phantom needed a better Phantom.

As for Chicago, it was just a good film. I know lots of kids who don't usually go to the theatre, and they like Chicago. Also, the awards definitly had something to do with it.

We can only hope that RENT will be a hit in the movies. By the numbers, it looks like they're doing adequettly. Only time will tell.

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I might cry.

If it had Chicken Little in front of it too, I actually might have.

"And then today I saw the Producers trailer on TV and there's no way you'd know its a musical if you didn't already know."

I guess the scenes with Gary Beach singing in Springtime for Hitler, Will Ferrel singing...well, the German song, and Uma Thurman belting When you Got It, Flaunt it, don't clue you in?

I don't know what all the fuss is about for Rent's box office. I think it is respectable given the subject matter and the genre. This film will NOT appeal to everyone across the U.S. It is a film about city kids, AIDS, homosexuality, New York lifestyle, etc and that isn't something everyone will find interesting.

It is unlikely that these same folks will go see The Producers either. To expect that everyone (no matter the race, creed, color, ethnicity, background, age, religion, etc.) will embrace this film just because you like it, is naive. I think it is doing well at the box office all things considered and if you can't understand why 'Yours, Mine and Ours' would do better over a holiday weekend with families taking their kids to the theater...then there's no point in my trying to explain it.

If you have appropriate expectations of this film, you'll be happy with the outcome, as I'm sure Columbus is. I saw a lot of ads in the NY metro area for this film. At least two TV spots per day (and I don't watch that much TV)...so it's isn't for lack of promotion.

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I guess the scenes with Gary Beach singing in Springtime for Hitler, Will Ferrel singing...well, the German song, and Uma Thurman belting When you Got It, Flaunt it, don't clue you in?

Springtime For Hitler and Haben Sie Gehört...are presented in the trailer (and the show I think) diegetically, so that doesn't necessarily make it a MUSICAL as much as it's a movie about a musical. And the only bit of Ulla I remeber in the trailer is when she says (and not sings) "now Ulla dance" and "now Ulla dance again". Not obviously a musical number.

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The Producers is being sold as a Mel Brooks comedy. It should do well. And it is also a much, much. much. better movie than Rent. Rent will probably drop to number 7 or 8 this weekend.. but I think it will hang on through the Holidays and do respectable or ok buisness.

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Updated On: 11/29/05 at 02:04 PM

That is good. It should do ok and hang in there.

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Analysis from boxoffice mojo.com:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=1950&p=.htm

>Rent raised hopes after a solid $4.8 million opening day, but demand turned out to be frontloaded—the average Thanksgiving release makes around 30 percent of its five-day gross on Wednesday and Thursday, but for Rent it was 42 percent. Distributor Sony's exit polling indicated that 58 percent of the audience was female and 51 percent was over 25 years old.

Recent major musicals—Moulin Rouge!, Chicago, Evita and The Phantom of the Opera—all started with limited release patterns to build buzz. Rent relied on its rabid fan base for a successful national launch out of the gate, but Sony's marketing didn't pitch the movie to those unfamiliar with the show. The songs were the selling point in the ads, but no story accompanied them—merely images of people hanging out. Rent will need powerful word-of-mouth and repeat business to reach the attendance level of last year's Phantom of the Opera.