Crowd Report: "Team America"

I decided to see Team America again on Friday night, and rather than catch the UCLA crowd again in Westwood (as I did at the sneak preview) I went to the Grauman?s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. This theater seats something like 1250 people, which is about a hundred more than the theater that?s playing Team America in Westwood. Had the film played at the Village across the street from UCLA, I probably would?ve gone there but it went to the second largest venue in the area (which isn?t as fun of a theater); and since I?m occasionally around there for movies, I decided to give Westwood a rest.

I got to the Chinese at 9:20 for the 9:50 show, and either there was no line beforehand or I just got there after it went in. There were no more than 100 people in the theater at this point, which was making me question its box office chances considering that I had to wait in a decent-sized line here to get into Charlie?s Angels: Full Throttle (which, beforehand, was one of my biggest comparisons in terms of a per-screen average). But, as time progressed, the theater got crowded, and by the time the lights dimmed the Chinese was filled (with the exception of the front two rows). The demographics were mostly 25ish year olds, and the show skewed more toward males but not by much.

The crowd situation was in line with the opening night of Jackass ($9.7 million - $3,873 per-screen) in Westwood, and the attendance also ended up being on par with Full Throttle ($14.6 million - $4,224 per-screen). Last year I read a crowd report from someone who had seen Daredevil here on opening night and said that the few rows at the front were the only ones left available; that flick grossed $15.3 million and $4,414 per-screen. If these reports correlate that would give Team America a Friday gross of $10 - 11 million.

Trailers:

Coach Carter
? Silence.

SpongeBob
? A few cheers went up at the beginning, a few chuckles here and there, and quite a bit of laughter and even claps at the last gag.

White Noise
? Someone exclaimed, ?Lame!? when it finished.

Ocean?s 12 (teaser)
? A few people lightly booed it afterwards. And yes, I?m ready to see an actual trailer for this some day?this is getting a little annoying.

Seed of Chucky
? A few people cheered when Chucky was revealed, but the ad then played silently until the end. When Chucky rams Britney Spears off the road, laughter ensued, and many people applauded as a result.

Saw
? Silence.

Unlike at the sneak preview, people didn?t clap or cheer over the opening title sequence, but they did begin to chuckle during the film?s first 10 or so seconds of footage that ends up being a trick. At the sneak, I as well as many people seemed to be a bit nervous at the possibility that the film was going to suck given the really crappy set design and overall nature of that brief moment (and there was silence until we were quickly fooled).

Laughs were in gear during the opening scene, and even more came with the film?s first song (along with claps). The film got laughs at all the right spots (and the puppet sex played through the roof), and the vomit scene retrieved a light applause (besides from getting everyone on the floor). Applause and some mild cheering resulted at the end, and the crowd obviously dug it.

Wanna see what the Chinese looks like?
http://www.timpetros.com/html/fsp19.html
Click the Quicktime screen, move your mouse, and you can actually move around the room.