Will Smith has dispatched drug lords, aliens and robots. So a few chipmunks should pose no problem.
But 20th Century Fox's decision to open its family comedy "Alvin and the Chipmunks" today against Smith's sci-fi thriller "I Am Legend" shows there is no shame -- and potentially plenty of money -- in finishing a distant second at the box office.
Warner Bros.' "Legend" is expected to become Smith's seventh consecutive film to open No. 1 at the box office, with this weekend's ticket sales in the $50-million neighborhood. Fox hopes its counterprogramming move pays off with a solid No. 2 showing that gives its combination animated-and-live-action picture a market foothold in time for school holidays.
Fox has showed a knack for counterprogramming, as when "The Devil Wears Prada" held its own against "Superman Returns" in summer 2006, although its misfires include the 2005 Martin Lawrence basketball comedy "Rebound," which hardly upstaged "War of the Worlds."
"Successful counterprogramming has to offer a clear alternative, and we've got that: a pure, entertaining comedy for the whole family," said Pamela Levine, Fox's co-president of domestic theatrical marketing.
Although it won't win awards, "Alvin" is emblematic of a relatively inexpensive family movie -- think "Garfield: The Movie" and "Cheaper by the Dozen," both also from Fox -- that can clean up at the box office and on DVD.
Fox set up a website, www.munkyourself.com, that enables visitors to make a recording, hear it converted into the chipmunks' distinctively squeaky tones and then e-mail it to friends. Half a million users have tried it, the studio says.
Producer Ross Bagdasarian, whose father created Alvin and the Chipmunks as a novelty music act in 1958, believes the PG-rated movie will appeal not only to children under 10 but also to baby boomers.
"We've got three generations of fans," he said.
Older moviegoers remember the act's chart-topping songs such as "Witch Doctor" and its first incarnation as a cartoon show in the early 1960s. Others know Alvin, Simon and Theodore from a longer-running animated series in the 1980s.
The $70-million production, rated PG for its "mild rude humor," opens at 3,476 theaters in the U.S. and Canada and could get an initial bump from parents looking for lighter alternatives to "I Am Legend" as well as the high-brow Oscar bait that always comes with the holiday season.
