The View From Here V

The Exorcism of Emily Rose has joined the ranks of the profitable. Produced for just $19 million, the movie has grossed more than $53 million and is still going strong. This is another solid result for Screen Gems, a division of Sony, whose Boogeyman nearly achieved profitability earlier this year.

I wasn't lying when I said that my interest is primarily in the U.S. market. However I couldn't help but notice that last week, Broken Flowers opened at number one in France, with a gross of $2.4 million and a $10,773 per-theater average.

I know what you're thinking -- but it's not normal for the French to embrace American independents. They spend most of their movie money on Hollywood fare, just like the rest of us. In fact, the movie that Broken Flowers displaced was The Island, which had been number one for three straight weeks. Before that the country's top movie was Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Meanwhile, in the States it looks like Broken Flowers won't even reach the modest gross I forecasted for it back on August 24. Yes, Focus Features is handling the movie even more poorly than I thought they would.

Focus also released The Constant Gardener, and unfortunately they decided to open the acclaimed movie wide rather than go the platform route. In its second week, the movie's gross dropped 45%, and to date it still hasn't retrieved its modest production budget, much less achieved profitability. This shouldn't surprise anyone who recalls how Focus shephered 21 Grams, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Motorcycle Diaries to ignominious underachievement.

In November, the geniuses at Focus will be handling the Stateside release of the ninth (at least) adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, which just had a spectacular opening in the U.K. Taking over the role of Mr. Darcy from Colin Firth is Matthew McFadyen, who just happens to be the star of my own private charity case, In My Father's Den. Here's hoping that the latter movie gets a boost from the former.

Finally, I just read in the IHT that Jennifer Aniston is doing well and is ready to date. And you think what I write about here is frivolous.