When Fox Searchlight sent "Sideways" to Missouri and Kansas a few years ago, there wasn't much interest from the states' small-town movie houses. "They never played it," says Brad Bills, whose Independent Film Services books 400 area theaters. But the heartland reaction has been dramatically different to the studio's teen-pregnancy comedy "Juno."
This weekend, Bills is adding the film to theaters in Clinton, Mo., and Parsons, Kan. Dwight Gunderson, the film buyer for Minnesota's 240-screen Cinema Entertainment Corp., is shipping new "Juno" prints to Rice Lake, Wis., Albert Lee, Mich., and Columbus, Neb. Paul Silk, whose Paul Silk Film Buying selects movies for 220 screens in the Dakotas and Minnesota, says, "I'm adding 'Juno' theaters every weekend -- whenever we can get prints, we put them in."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, January 11, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 43 words Type of Material: Correction
'Juno': An article in Thursday's Calendar section about the box office success of "Juno" said new prints of the film were being shipped this weekend to a variety of Midwest cities, among them Albert Lee, Mich. That city is actually Albert Lea, Minn.
The success or failure of most Fox Searchlight titles, like the vast majority of other specialized film company releases, depends on how the movies play in New York and Los Angeles: If you can't fill Manhattan's Angelika and Hollywood's ArcLight, you'd better speed up your DVD release.
"Juno" has done remarkably well in both cities, but the real story of its breakout popularity is unfolding in towns -- some tiny, some not -- sprinkled across the Midwest. And that surprisingly strong national appeal might propel "Juno" into first place at the box office this coming weekend.
On Monday and Tuesday night, "Juno" was the No. 1 film in the nation -- beating out "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" and "I Am Legend," even though the Fox Searchlight film is playing on slightly more than half as many theaters as those Disney and Warner Bros. blockbusters.
This Friday, in its sixth weekend of a quickly building national release, "Juno" faces the first wide weekend of "The Bucket List" and the new national releases "First Sunday" and "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie." "Juno" will be appearing in about 600 more locations than a week ago, bringing it to a total of about 2,500 locations.
Regardless of whether it wins in what will be a close fight for No. 1 over the weekend, "Juno" within a few days will pass the Oscar-winning "Sideways" as the top Fox Searchlight release ever.
With $54.5 million in ticket receipts through Wednesday, "Juno" now trails the 2004 wine lovers' movie by $17 million, and "Juno" seems poised to gross at least $100 million and possibly more.
