‘The Master' Opens Strong In Wide Release With $5 Million

Box Office Mojo reports that "The Master" continued to perform strongly in wide release collecting an estimated $5 million this weekend from 788 theatres. That puts the film in 7th place for the weekend just behind "Dredd" which opened in around 1800 more theatres and gives it the highest per screen average of any film in the Top 15 this weekend. (For comparison, this opening is a little higher than "There Will Be Blood"'s $4.8 million back in 2007 during its second week expansion.) Congrats to Annapurna Pictures & Weinstein Co. on the film's success so far and let's hope that the desire for repeat viewings keeps the film doing well in the coming weeks.

Speaking of repeat viewings, Slate critic Dana Stevens wrote up a magnificent piece where she re-reviewed the film after watching it a 2nd and 3rd time.

"There’s something deeply and irreplaceably pleasurable about revisiting a complex, ambitious film a few times in close succession on the big screen if possible, and letting each iteration inform and expand on the last. Having gotten the chance to do so this week not only deepened and transformed my experience of this particular film, it reminded me why I started wanting to think and write about film in the first place."

Read the entire thing over at Slate. Two new TV spots featuring some new footage (though not new if you've seen the film by now) are up at Fandango. (They also feature some inadvisable narration so perhaps worth watching just for that.)

If you haven't already you should check out our Deleted Scenes guide to look at all the material that made it into the teasers and trailers but not the final cut. And be sure to enter our Gone To China Contest to win Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack and perhaps some other things we may decide to throw in.

I caught the film for a 5th viewing over the weekend at the grand old Ziegfeld Theatre just to continue my tour of seeing it across all of NYC's 70mm venues. How about you? Did you see the film more than once? How was your first/second/third viewing? Sound off in the comments.

#THEMASTER70MM 

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‘The Master' Opens With Record-Shattering Grosses In NY/LA

The day finally came on Friday as Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" finally opened in limited release. Playing in just 5 theatres in NYC and LA, the film had sellout shows all weekend taking in an incredible $729,745 and breaking the record (previously held by Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom") for the best limited debut ever for a live-action film with a $145,949 per-theater-average. (For comparison "There Will Be Blood" averaged $95,370 when it opened in 2 theaters back in 2007.) Deadline has the scoop straight from Weinstein Co.

“We’re thrilled with the numbers. It set the screen record and all the credit in the world goes to Paul Thomas Anderson with his guerrilla marketing strategy combined with moving the [release date] to this weekend,” said said TWC Head of Distribution Erik Lomis. “I’m expecting my phone to ring off the hook from exhibitors tomorrow.” The Weinstein Company had initially set an October rollout of The Master which picked up best director and actor awards at the recent Venice Film Festival where it was reportedly also the be jury’s pick for the top prize, the Golden Lion, until fest officials enforced a rule that limits the number of big awards per film. Lomis credited the cast’s performances for bringing out audiences over the weekend and Anderson for organizing pop-up screenings, driving word-of-mouth. Lomis called the strategy “an eye-opener” that clearly worked. “We could not be happier”. Weintstein plans to move The Master into 600-800 theaters in its second round.

October 17, 2000

Archived update from Cigarettes & Coffee, run by Greg Mariotti & CJ Wallis from 1999-2005


After looking through a few hundred entries of the Magnolia DVD Contest, I've just got one thing to say, "Uh Oh!" I'm not getting very many correct entries at this point. Do yourself a favor & check out the Articles & Interviews section for answers to most of the questions. To help you out a bit, I will give you a two hints on where the first public screening of Magnolia was held. PTA wanted to show it somewhere away from the film industry & wanted one of the stars to see it while he was on location shooting his next film...To enter the contest go here.

Did anyone catch the Hard Eight screening this past weekend at the Reno Film Festival or the Boogie Nights screening at the Egyptian? Drop me a line & let me know how it went...

John C. Reilly will be featured in Martin Scorsese's new film, The Gangs of New York with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz & Daniel Day-Lewis. It's currently filming overseas in Rome & is scheduled for release in 2001. (Thanks Anne!)

Magnolia dropped to 21st place on the VHS rentals chart for the week ending October 1st.  Weekly rental revenue was 0.82 million for a total of 42.3 million since its release on July 25th. These numbers are courtesy of National Rental Revenue & Video Store Magazine.

September 24, 2000

Archived update from Cigarettes & Coffee, run by Greg Mariotti & CJ Wallis from 1999-2005

Fiona Apple's Fast as You Can directed by PTA is nominated for Best Pop Video of the Year at the annual Billboard Music Video Awards. The ceremony will be held on November 10th at the Hilton in Universal City, CA.

Magnolia held at 11th place on the VHS rentals chart for the week ending September 10th.  Weekly rental revenue was 1.98 million for a total of 36.8 million since its release on July 25th. Magnolia's rental revenue is 163.8% of Box Office gross, which is an outstanding number. Nothing else in the Top 20 is that high. What does it mean? That a lot more people are seeing Magnolia at home than they did at the theater. Now we just need to get these VHS folks to invest in a DVD player...

There are a few PTA related tidbits in the brand new Total Movie Magazine. What's cool about this magazine is the DVD that's included. It has trailers, featurettes, short films & more. It's worth checking out. One feature called Cinemullets, chronicles the worst haircuts on film. Here's their take on Boogie Nights:


Mullethead: Little Bill

Interestingly, Boogie Nights spanned two critical mullet eras, the '70s and the '80s. The '70s were all about, "Am I a hippie? Am I disco? Pass the coke, I think I'm Bowie." In the '80s the mullet M.O. became "Well, yeah, I'm metal, but I'm fancy metal." Full credit, then, goes to William H. Macy's Little Bill for standing out in one of the greatest ensemble mullet movies ever made. If we had hair that bad, we'd blow our brains out, too.

Side Note: The soundtrack album is a monument to mulletdom in itself, featuring such hirsute heroes as Rick Springfield, ELO, Night Ranger & Dirk Diggler.

Another feature entitled "Commentaries That Don't Suck" also highlights PTA's Boogie Nights track:

The Set-Up: What's so great about the commentary from director Paul Thomas Anderson is that he obviously truly admires all of the actors he worked with on this film, and more than that, their performances crack him up. He also provides a surprising amount of background on everyone onscreen, including even the weird extras.

Revealed: Why Elliot Gould's picture is in the background of three separate shots; which real porno flicks influenced Boogie Nights.

Shining Moment: Anderson ponders at length how actor John C. Reilly leaves him "break-down-crying, falling-on-the-floor-thinking-I'm-going-to-throw-up laughing." About the time he admits, "I can't get enough of him. I could stare at that fucking face all day long," you're wondering if maybe our man Reilly needs to look into a restraining order.

Typical Quote: This is just like you've got this scene that you've written and you just kind of feel like you've got three great actors and a bunch of cocaine and you'd be foolish if you didn't sit them down and get a bunch of improvisational shit.

September 21, 2000

Archived update from Cigarettes & Coffee, run by Greg Mariotti & CJ Wallis from 1999-2005

Well, I finally managed to obtain the DVD sales chart (courtesy of VideoScan & the Hollywood Reporter) for the week ending September 3rd. Magnolia debuted in 7th place behind other new releases such as Braveheart, T2, Sound of Music, etc. Boogie Nights did not place in the top 20. But these numbers may be deceiving. VideoScan states that they account for approximately 70% of POS (Point Of Sale) units sold through to consumers, but they do not track Internet sales. This makes a big difference since a ton of DVD's are sold online. Magnolia has been doing extremely well with the online retailers such as Amazon.com, Express.com & DVD Empire. Oh well, if anyone out there knows of a truly accurate way to track DVD sales, drop me a line...

I've been receiving a large volume of emails regarding the hidden features on the Boogie Nights & Magnolia DVD's. I made a point of not highlighting these, so viewers would have a chance to find them on their own. So just in case you haven't found them yet, check your color bars...

Thanks to site reader Mark Nolte, I learned that Magnolia was released in Australia on VHS this past Tuesday, September 19th. No word as of yet, on the DVD release, but I will keep you posted. Here's the cover art for the VHS release (Click to enlarge):


Australian VHS

I'm sorry to say that my main graphics designer, Ryan Worley is stepping down. Ryan has been invaluable to the site & I really couldn't have done it without him. He is extremely busy with school/work & understandably needs to focus on that. I wish him nothing but the best! Rest assured, he will still be around, helping out with the site in some capacity. So without further adieu, I'm pleased to announce that CJ Wallis (budding filmmaker & Photoshop guru) will handle these responsibilities! CJ has been very active with the site, so he's already used to my pain in the ass "creative control" over the way things look. Bottom Line: Expect the same quality & creativity moving forward. 

September 10, 2000

Archived update from Cigarettes & Coffee, run by Greg Mariotti & CJ Wallis from 1999-2005

Congratulations to Dylan Tichenor, Aimee Mann, & Paul Thomas Anderson for winning Best Editing in a Video at yesterday's MTV Video Music Awards for Save Me. It was also nominated for Best Video From a Film.

Magnolia held steady in 7th place on the VHS rental chart for the week ending August 27th. Weekly rental revenue was 3.80 million for a total of 29.5 million since its release on July 25th. 

A great interview with PTA by the Toronto Star from January. Topics include frogs, the soundtrack mix & more! (Thanks to reader Andrew Chiu for sending in the interview)

September 5, 2000

Archived update from Cigarettes & Coffee, run by Greg Mariotti & CJ Wallis from 1999-2005

Magnolia dropped slightly to 7th place on the VHS rental chart for the week ending August 20th. Weekly rental revenue was 4.97 million for a total of 24.2 million since its release on July 25th. Expect good things when the DVD debuts on the sales chart next week.

Magnolia will make it's debut on pay per view September 7th. I have a Direct TV satellite dish & they will be showing Magnolia letterboxed as well. Check you local cable company or satellite provider for more information.

Finally, let's close the book on the Fight Club/David Fincher controversy. I receive a lot of emails on this topic, but I think it's been blown way out of proportion. I failed to report PTA's comments on Ain't It Cool News from May (see how important it is to me...). So here they are:

Just to clarify: My comments about Fincher and Fight Club were stupid. Wishing anyone testicular cancer isn't funny and I did end up seeing the film. I had a problem with the violence and the cruelty -- I just couldn't get past it -- blah blah blah....I wrote a letter to Fincher apologizing for my comments.....he was cool about it.

pta

August 11, 2000

Archived update from Cigarettes & Coffee, run by Greg Mariotti & CJ Wallis from 1999-2005

Magnolia debuts at Number 4 on the Top 25 VHS Rental charts according to National Rental Revenue earning 7.22 million in rental revenue. It was also the 5th most rented title of the week. These numbers are for the week ending July 30th. I will keep you updated on its success in the wonderful world of VHS.

There's an interesting article from the Toledo Blade which discusses the evolution of the modern musical. They mention Magnolia frequently & there's multiple quotes from PTA. (Thanks Paul Bean!)

If you somehow missed the great Q & A that Roger Ebert did with PTA in 1997, it's spotlighted in today's edition of Flashback Friday. He touches on Hard Eight, but most of the discussion surrounds Boogie Nights. PTA even pulls a fast one on Roger about the famous last shot in the film. 

January 10, 2000

Archived update from Cigarettes & Coffee, run by Greg Mariotti & CJ Wallis from 1999-2005

Magnolia was 7th at the Box Office this weekend in limited wide release (1034 screens). It did have the highest average per screen in the whole country so that is great news.