Whedonesque : Comments on 13324 : "Waitress" 5th highest selling movie this weekend.

$3.1 million for the weekend. Great stuff. Pirates 3, not so much.

Pirates not great or didn't do well in $? The first doesn't matter and the second is good enough. $302M worldwide in 5 days puts them well on track to match last years $1.1B. :)

I will pay to see Waitress long before I pay to see Pirates, however.

TamaraC | May 28, 01:28 CET

You know, if they were to figure out how much money each of those is making per screen, I gotta believe Waitress would be even higher on the list. It's absolutely nowhere around where I live, and I know a lot of other people who have the same problem, yet even with apparently relatively small distribution, the film is still doing well. That's wonderful. Also, isn't this the third week of it going up on the moneymakers' list?

Meltha | May 28, 02:04 CET

My ticket price is included in those figures for Waitress. I was surprised to find it showing in my city this weekend. Charming little film, and Nathan was very good in it. And, although I attended an afternoon matinee, the auditorium was about half full. I hope it continues to do well.

palehorse | May 28, 02:19 CET

Waitress is taking about $2000 per screen. It's dropped since last week, but is still pretty healthy. I think it'll be 500 screens again next week.

Tamara -- in terms of movie, not finance. It made it's production budget back in the first 2 days, so obviously, financial success, and I'm sure it'll be back for a sequel or 4. But it was way, way too long for me. I'd pay a bulk of my own money to see Joss script doctor it into something useful. Although I don't think he would do it for 4 pounds.

gossi | May 28, 02:58 CET

Also, "Pirates" not great. I suspect we'll see a big drop-off next week. It seems "Waitress" is something of a sleeper. It's the little movie that could, with pie.

Nebula1400 | May 28, 03:47 CET

What am I doing wrong with my number computations? Doesn't 3.1 million dollars from 500 screens come up to be an average of $6,200 per screen (not $2,000)? I hope I am not that bad at math!

Ninja MALi | May 28, 04:01 CET

Gossi, yeah the reviews have been pretty negative and the running time has been soundly lambasted. Lucky for Disney, the target market for the movie doesn't care about silly little things like plot or even making a lick of sense. :)

TamaraC | May 28, 04:04 CET

There were at least 65 screens already showing Waitress before those 510 screens were added, N Mali. That would explain your math, I think :)

An interesting statistic, that may or may not be quite telling, is the Tomatometer readings at Rotten Tomatoes.com.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/waitress/
The Critics are giving Waitress a 90% positive rating, while they're giving the "Summer Blockbusters" scores ranging from 40 to 62%. The review scores from people who have attended the films are in line with those stats, too. Very promising for Waitress.

As I recall, Fox Searchlight paid $4 Million for Distribution Rights to Waitress. They've gotten their Investment back, and will be making Much more in future screenings and eventual DVD sales. Good news for everyone involved with the film! Yay! :)

TDBrown | May 28, 04:20 CET

Waitress is in fact doing about $5,500 a screen.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

The 510 screens are total screens this weekend, not additional. And even then, 65 additional to 510 would not make ~6,000 per screen average into ~2,000 per screen.

KernelM | May 28, 04:34 CET

That's why I thought they should have opened "Waitress" with many more screens two weeks ago. It would have been a better Mother's Day movie than "Georgia Rule", and would have pulled in a lot more money. Once people get all sequeled out, they'll seek out this movie and enjoy it because of Keri and Nathan's performances...although Andy Griffith does great here, too.

impalergeneral | May 28, 04:56 CET

Can I just rave for a minute about how great Waitress is? Fabulous, nuanced, endearing performances by Nathan, Keri, and yes, Andy :) If it's playing anywhere at all near you, do whatever it takes to see it! I really hope it keeps chugging along in theaters finding more and more audiences. It's playing in 3 theaters near me, but when I went Friday night, the theater filled up - peoplee even had to sit in the up close seats because there was no stadium seating left. Good crowd too, seemed to really get into the movie. I'd say that bodes well for the film. Now, all I need to know is where the heck I can get that soundtrack!

Arielle | May 28, 05:32 CET

Arielle, here's a list of the music as provided in the production notes. Looks like an iTunes iMix is the best you can do at this point.

karosurly | May 28, 07:37 CET

Thank you, KernalM! I didn't think my math skills were that horrible. Actually, Box Office Mojo reports it as averaging $6,029 per screen.

The kitchen scene is killer! If casting directors can't see Nathan as a viable romantic lead after watching this film, then they should all lose their jobs!

Here is one of the best Waitress reviews I've read (and the critic is a Browncoat some of you will know).

[ edited by Ninja MALi on 2007-05-28 05:02 ]

Ninja MALi | May 28, 07:54 CET

Just saw Waitress last night, and it's every bit as wonderful as everyone has been saying. The theater complex that is (finally!) showing it is also showing Spiderman3, Shrek3 and POC3. The line at the theater was for Waitress. And the theater was packed. No coughing, no chattering, just a lot of people delighted to finally have the opportunity to see this movie. Nathan and Kerri are wonderful. Everyone in the film is excellent. And the word of mouth for this movie may well make it the Sleeper Of The Summer. *Does the Happy Dance*

sandyg | May 28, 15:11 CET

I saw it last night as well and it exceeded my expectations. Nathan and Keri were perfect, Sisto made my skin crawl every time he was on screen. The kitchen scene was probably one of the sexiest things I had ever seen on celluloid.

Pirates was ok, the best things about the franchise are Barbossa and Sparrow. There wasn't nearly enough of either of them.

Sabri3l | May 28, 16:40 CET

Nebula1400- You stole my line!

I love this movie. Favorite scene IS the kitchen scene.

madmolly | May 28, 18:58 CET

Ahhh... the kitchen scene. This was positively the most romantic baking scene I can recall. Food is always sexy, but pie + Nathan + Kerri = absolutely chemistry and so tender! I am addicted to the song "Baby Don't You Cry" and find myself singing it constantly. Someone e-mailed me some of the words, but I can't find all of them anywhere. The only criticism I have is that I wasn't a big fan of the camera spinning around them when they were kissing - the first time it was okay; but after that not so much.

10%ofnothin | May 28, 19:22 CET

I saw Waitress before it opened at a special preview screening, and was completely delighted. (We got in for free, so I doubt they'll count those bodies toward the per-screen average, sadly.) This was completely unlike a "Serenity" preview screening! The audience was much more diverse, less skewed toward delighted nerd and more toward teenyboppers and old folks, but still plenty of delighted nerds as well. A really good audience, laughed in all the right places, really got into the romance of it.

It was so full we had to sit in those "up-close" seats, but my neck wasn't nearly as craned as it was for "Serenity".

I just adored the names she gave her pie recipes -- the sheer amount of humor in ths film was wonderful. It really didn't take itself too seriously, and so came off very cheeky, sweet, and delightful, just like PIE.

Speaking of which, I adore the tags for this post. Nathan Fillion. PIE. It makes me want to make a South Park joke! ;-)

chickenbird | May 28, 20:31 CET

The lyrics to the song "Baby Don't you cry" were, sadly enough, written by Adrienne Shelly :(

One of my favorite scenes is Joe (Andy Griffith) describing Jenna's Strawberry Chocolate Pie. Wonderful moment :)

TDBrown | May 28, 21:46 CET

The whole pie discussion also brings to mind Homer's "Mmmm, Floor Pie" comment. Nathan eating pie on the floor...

I stayed to watch the credits to the very end and wasn't surprised that "Baby Don't You Cry" was written by Shelly. As much as I was sucked into the movie, it still struck me as incredibly sad that this was Arienne Shelly's final film; she was so awesome acting in it too. Someone else (maybe in another thread) mentioned that the little girl at the end of the movie was Shelly's daughter.

10%ofnothin | May 28, 23:25 CET

I haven't seen Waitress, but I'm dying to.

And can I just step in here a sec and defend At World's End? I'm not saying it's a masterpiece, none of the Pirates movies are...hell, I'm not even saying it's very good, but I liked it. It's my least favorite of the trilogy, but it's still pretty good.

Then again, I thought Dead Man's Chest was by far the best, so what do I know?

UnpluggedCrazy | May 29, 00:27 CET

#5 That is so wonderful. Last time, I heard a radio station read a top movie list...they stopped at 5. Guess they didn't want to take the time to read the top 10 list.

So being in the top five means it will get more notice.

Anonymous1 | May 29, 01:08 CET

Nods to Firefly/Serenity in Waitress?

Serenity: Mal says "This is what I do".

In Waitress Doctor says something like "I'm going to go deliver a baby. That's what I do." NCBROWNCOAT thanks for the quote.

Bad husband called "Early" sometimes. CLJOHNSTON108 posted about this.

Anonymous1 | May 29, 02:14 CET

Is Waitress going WIDE?

Release Dates: May 2, 2007 (limited)
1969 (wide)

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=waitress.htm

[ edited by Anonymous1 on 2007-05-29 03:49 ]

Anonymous1 | May 29, 06:47 CET

1969 would be a null date (right before the Unix epoch), so I'd say they don't know.

[ edited by KernelM on 2007-05-29 04:42 ]

KernelM | May 29, 07:41 CET

I really enjoyed Waitress, it was charming and delightful.

CaffeinatedSquint | May 29, 07:47 CET

Waitress finally came to a theater near me! Despite the bittersweet feeling I had throughout because of the senseless death of Adrienne Shelly, I enjoyed it on so many levels.
It was showing in one of the smaller theaters but it was full--full of Andy Griffith fans, I think, but everyone seemed to have a good time. It starts a bit slow but the writing, direction and performances are all consistently good.
I hope a wider release and word of mouth will really help this film because it's not a "chick flick", its about the choices anyone makes and how those choices may or may not lead to finding happiness.

bloodflowers | May 29, 16:44 CET

I can't wait to see this film. It started this past weekend at a theater in my town - I hope it sticks around long enough for me to find the time to go see... I could probably skip work...

R5

refuge5 | May 29, 19:55 CET

Skip work... good plan... I'm in. Saw it a couple of weeks ago, and bored now, so worth going again. So, so good. Need to buy a cookbook... and an oven thingy... oh and a kitchen... and a Nathan doll.

AuntiePip | May 29, 23:36 CET

I've seen it twice in four days. Not just for Nathan, but because this is an outstanding Film, worth seeing more than once!

TDBrown | May 30, 02:33 CET

So I heard two radio stations give the top movie lists...and one mentioned only the top two...and one mentioned only the top 3 movies. Grrrh! Arrgh!

Anonymous1 | May 30, 04:52 CET

http://imdb.com/
Home page top left corner
Tops at the box Office
1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
2 Shrek the Third
3 Spider-Man 3
4 Bug
5 Waitress

with links right there to Waitress's page. Whoo-hoo! So when people wonder what Waitress is...they can find out right away.

Hopefully, though people don't read all the messages. There be imdb.com trolls on Waitress's page.

Anonymous1 | May 30, 08:24 CET

May 28 2007