Scary Movie 3 Crowd Report

Hitting the 10:00 pm show of Scary Movie 3 at the Grauman?s Chinese theater (1250 seats) in Hollywood, there was a line of maybe 30 people to get in at around 9:10, with the line eventually carrying maybe 100 people by the time the line went in at 9:35. My position in line was about equal to when I saw Charlie?s Angels: Full Throttle there; however, that line was longer and the theater had filled up pretty quickly.

With Scary Movie 3, the auditorium was a little over three-quarters filled when the lights dimmed, but the venue was pretty well filled once the film actually started (there were maybe 50 - 75 seats available). In terms of demographics, the gender ratio was fairly split down the middle, with a good flow of those looking to be under 25 as well as over 25 ? this was a very mixed audience.

Some cheers went up when the lights dimmed, but from there on out the hardcore enthusiasm was never really in gear. First trailer up was Barbershop 2, which received some giggles, but overall a pretty silent reception.

Next up was Bad Santa, which retrieved some laughs and got a better reception than Barbershop, but not by a large margin.

Elf followed, which had people amused from the start, and by the time the ad finished, the audience was fairly into it.

Stuck on You was next, which did get laughter but not a huge amount.

Next up was My Baby?s Mama, which the audience seemed to like from the start; some laughs came out throughout, but the response wasn?t any more encouraging than for the other ads.

Second to last was Timeline, which got no obvious reactions, but it didn?t seem like many folks cared.

The Matrix Revolutions wrapped it up, and for this theater, the response was quite questionable. No cheers or claps went up at the introduction, nor did anything spark at the finale; for hardcore fans, the Chinese is supposedly the theater to see a Matrix movie at, and so a silent reaction to its trailer is not a fantastic sign.

The response sort of reminded me of when I saw Fellowship of the Ring there with a full house, with the Spider-Man ad getting an explosion of cheers and applause afterwards, followed by a nearly silent reaction for Attack of the Clones.

I can imagine giggles were flowing right from the start of Scary Movie 3 at many young teen malls; however, with this crowd being a little older, the laughs didn?t start big right away, but as soon as the Signs parody gave way, everyone was on the floor. I unashamedly lost pretty much all control during this segment, and felt out of place when I couldn?t stop laughing (but then again, I wasn?t the only one).

Some stupid humor can get me and some stupid humor can make me sigh in frustration ? this stretch nailed my senses just right. The only downside to this specific spoof is that the gag rate is constant, and so those who love the material may want the consistency to continue throughout the film, which doesn?t always happen.

As the film went along, it didn?t seem like the entire audience was laughing at the jokes. And I would go as far as to saying that maybe close to half the crowd sat in silence for a good duration, with half letting out laughs throughout, with huge laughs once and a while. Perhaps I just didn?t hear people who were laughing around me, but it never felt like my zone in the auditorium was giving in that much.

And as a good example of what damage trailers can do, by the time the Michael Jackson lookalike was on screen, the audience did not react all that much ? people seemed to be well aware of what was going to happen before the realization. However, with Leslie Nielson showing up in a scene randomly at the end, giving in to one of his classic lines from Airplane, many moviegoers started clapping, but applause from the general audience never gave way.

A lot of laughs poured out when the final gag concluded and the credits loaded, but applause did not spark ? though many people came out looking satisfied. Getting out at 11:35, there was a small line of roughly 20 - 30 people waiting for the 12:20 am show, which was more or less the size of the T3 midnight line on opening night.

With the crowd situation, drawing comparisons does not instantly grant success at accuracy in predicting a first day tally, being as though I?ve been with full houses at the Chinese with different box office grosses. Full Throttle ($14.6 million - $4,224 per-screen) was sold out at 10 and its line was longer, and T3 ($12.4 million - $3,706 per-screen) was also sold out at 10, with its line being even longer.

The line for the 10:30 of Signs ($20.9 million - $6,399 per-screen) on opening night started about an hour in advance, and the line grew pretty quickly early on. And with Men in Black II ($19.0 million - $5,342 per-screen), the 7:30 was packed, but I am not sure about the 10:00 hour.

If I had to estimate off the crowd, I would go off a ballpark figure of $12.5 - 14.5 million; but when watching the film itself, I did get a big box office vibe as it was going along (then again, the same thing happened at Kill Bill). Asking an inside source about Scary Movie 3?s projected business about an hour after I got out of the movie, I was told that $50 million was being expected over the weekend ? we will soon see how truthful that statement is.