In an article updated 10/10/2004 11:14 PM, USA Today's preliminary report says that Friday Night Lights grossed $20.6 million over the weekend placing it second behind Shark Tale. Here's what they said:
Timing was on the side of Friday Night Lights, the high school football film that was the surprise of the weekend.The drama, based on the 1988 Permian High School football team in Odessa, Texas, stunned analysts by bringing in $20.6 million. The haul was $5 million more than analysts expected, good for second.
Lights flourished by luring moviegoers who are not typical fans of sports films: 44% of the audience was female. [Emphasis added.]
"We knew that women would be drawn to the story of the relationships and the community," Universal distribution chief Nikki Rocco says. "So we advertised as much on the morning news shows as we did on ESPN."
/snip/
Final numbers are due today.
It's interesting that the audience was 44% female. By the way, the USA Today movie review gave the movie three and one half stars out of four.
For my own review of the movie see "Friday Night Lights." Saw it. Loved it!. And to see all of the items at this web log about the making of the movie click "Friday Night Lights".
I have lived in Odessa 47 years, and the "Movie" didn't portray the truth of the football fanatics that live in Odessa. The movie didn't even show how the east side of town separated itself from the two older schools(which neither were even seen or mentioned in the movie). Family's were moved to the east side and players were recruted to play for Permian. Refs were paid off(it was so obvious), boundries were changed for the schools, but where it benifited Permian. "Sure" you can have a winning history when you pay for it. I thought the movie really sucked, it could have been a much better movie with all the truth in it.
Posted by: Chloe Savage | January 09, 2006 at 04:06 PM