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If that theater says
it all, Jackass is going to have a monster opening day gross.
The only movie I can come close to in comparison is Scream 3
(per-screen wise),
which I also saw at 10:00 (opening night) at that exact
theater to sold out attendance. I even saw Mr. Deeds at this
place on opening day at around 7:00 and it wasn't even half
filled (close). For Jackass, a small line had already formed
by 9:00-ish, but it eventually expanded a good distance down
the street and was fairly thick; purely college students (with
one dressed like Johnny Knoxville...what is this, Rocky
Horror?). The lights dimmed to excitement, but no
real good cheers or applause until the warning intro appeared
after the Paramount logo. From that point on, it was purely a
party house and I must say that it was one of the best
movie-going experiences I've ever had (absolutely awesome
crowd). This is probably the only movie I've ever seen where
the audience was laughing non-stop as the show played. Even if
the room wasn't bombarded with laughs, there was always a good
handful of folks chuckling their a**es off at what was
unfolding on-screen. Personally, Jackass is easily one of the
funniest movies I've ever seen. I even admit that twice I
laughed hard enough that I was beginning to get dizzy (never
ever has happened), with tears in the eyes once or twice. I
happened to be a big fan of the show even though I stopped
watching it on a consistent basis a while ago. And if you're
not involved in that fan group, there's a decent chance you
will not find the material pleasant.
There were some good applauses that broke out a few times
(I forget the exact line, but one of the dialogues given by
the famous mother during the alligator-in-the-house sequence
drew an uproarious applause), but in general it was a lot of
laughter that flowed continuously and plenty of gigantic, "oooooooh!"
But no matter how gross it got, claps would result along with
the obvious loud laughter. Several of the characters got light
applauses at their first appearance and some of the others'
first presences got short cheers.
You know when you have accomplished your goal when you have
no plot, nothing but jokes and gags the entire time, and get a
pack of 1050 people to frustratingly go, "nooo!!" once it was
evident that the gag in front of our eyes was the film's
finale. It certainly happened with this crowd, as people
(including myself) wanted more even though walking out - one
after another (patrons) exclaimed, "that was one of the best
movies I've ever seen." I heard a group of young women come
out of my show asking each other if they wanted to go again
the next night, which got them laughing alone (mentioning,
"we'll have to get the DVD...).
Given that Jackass features some stunts during the ending
credits, just about everyone stayed in their seats for the
footage and even once the final "don't try this at home"
voice-over tag appeared on the screen when the curtain was
closing - many were sighing in that, "shut up..." fashion.
When it was actually over, a good applause sounded off and
just about every person who walked out commented to their
friends about how much the movie ruled.
This crowd report could be a minority in the bunch, but
browsing around to another message board - a similar scenario
had taken place. If I had to guess Jackass' opening day from
the crowd, I'd say anything from $8 to even 13 million (going
out on a limb). This'll certainly be one gross I cannot wait
to check out. But to my best guess, Jackass feels like more of
a huge opening night movie than a Saturday night flick. And I
do have to say that if I had seen Jackass prior to its
opening, the opening sequence alone supported by "Carmina
Burana" would have been one of my best evidences that this
would go big (if it in fact does). There's just something very
eventful about it, and with the crowd's enthusiastic clapping
and laughing during it - it felt like a major event.
A brief note about trailers: we had Friday After Next
(ending gag got a huge response), The Hunted, Just Married
(got a great response from crowd), Femme Fatale, I Spy, and
Narc. |
