Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 21, 1970)

Page 2 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY January 21, 1970 boxoffice news Six Columbia releases set new holiday record Columbia Pictures registered a phenomenal total holiday gross of $12,374,548, which is claimed to be the biggest holiday total for any company in the history of the motion picture industry. The total, covering the period from December 25 through January 4, represents boxoffice receipts from six top attractions on view at theatres throughout the nation, including Funny Girl, Oliver!, Easy Rider, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Cactus Flower and Marooned. Funny Girl grossed $2,142,065 in 215 engagements. The musical is currently in general release in the U.S. following year-long reserved seat engagements. Oliver!, winner of six Academy Awards, including best picture, racked up a total of $2,846,500 in 280 engagements. The musical is now in general release in the U.S. following its long-run roadshow New U.S. b.o. records for Paint Your Wagon Paramount Pictures’ roadshow attraction Paint Your Wagon smashed a number of all-time house records during the Christmas and New Years’ holidays in engagements across the country. At the Cinerama Dome Theatre in Los Angeles, it set a new house record in its 10th week, ended Dec. 30, with a gross of $43,500 and then topped that in the 11th week by tallying $45,000. The musical established a new high at the Tara Theatre in Atlanta in the 10th week, ending Jan. 6, grossing $16,960. In Denver, the Alan Jay Lerner Production broke all house records at the Cooper Cinerama Theatre with a ninth week gross of $24,250; the figure Vol. 1, No. 2 Jan. 21, 1970 Editor: ED HOCURA CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Ont. Second class mail, Registration #£1967 Published by Motion Picture Institute of Canada, 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Ontario Canada ¢© Phone 924-1757 Price $7.50 per year engagements. Easy Rider scored $2,764,808 in 250 engagements. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice grossed a total of $2,214,687 in 175 engagements. The Frankovich production won two New York Film Critics Awards honoring Dyan Cannon as best supporting actress and the film itself for its screenplay written by producer Larry Tucker and director Paul Mazursky. Cactus Flower, starring Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman and Goldie Hawn, grossed $2,125,000 in 165 engagements during the holiday period. Marooned, the Frankovich-Sturges production starring Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus and Gene Hackman, grossed a total of $281,488 in its first six roadshow engagements. for the 10th week, ending Jan. 6, was an outstanding $22,500. Making its debut at San Diego’s Cinema 21 Theatre, it racked up $23,640 for its first week, to set an all-time high for the theatre. In Fort Worth, at the Opera House, the musical production broke all existing house records by registering $11,500 in its 10th week, ending Jan. 6, and at the Century 22 Theatre in Salt Lake City, the film established a new high in its eighth week, ending January 5, by gross© ing $17,250. Other outstanding grosses recorded during the Christmas-New Year’s holidays include the Cinema 150 in Chicago, $25,000, 10th week; Gaylynn Theatre in Houston, $18,500, 1t0Oh week; Paramount Theatre in Portland, $18,750, 10th week; Cooper Cinerama Theatre in Minneapolis, $15,100, ninth week; Music Box in Seattle, $11,000, ninth week; Cinema I in Toledo, $14,000, ninth week, and Eastland Theatre in Columbus, O., $14,200, eighth week. Everything s coming up roses for Zanuck A trio of 20th Century-Fox box office blockbusters — Hello, Dolly!, John and Mary and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid — amassed a total of $10,209,065 in the period covering the last two weeks of December and the first week of January in the domestic market alone. The 21 days covered marked the first 21 days of release of Hello, Dolly! which grossed $2,610,536 during this time — $672,695 the first week, $962,478 the second and $975,363 the third. Among the pace-setting engagements for the musical are $283,022 at the Rivoli Theatre, New York; $185,502 at the Chinese, Los Angeles; $60,043, Continental, Denver; $138,597, Americana, Detroit, and $101,181, Beach, Miami. John and Mary, which began most of its engagements for this period the last two weeks of 1969, recorded $2,939,723 for the three weeks covered. The figures for the first week totaled $587,944; the second week $1,089,343, and the third week, $1,262,436. At the Sutton Theatre in New York, the first three weeks figure was $105,859; at the Loop in Chicago, $81,049; six houses in Los Angeles, $179,609, while the first week at Theatre A, Evansville, Ind., broke the house record with $12,199. Butch Cassidy, which played most of its first-run engagements in October and November, registered a dazzling $4,658,806 during the three-week period, with $895,121 amassed for the first week; $1,681,219 for the second, and $2,082,466 for the third. An example of the film’s continuing drawing power is the recent Showcase engagement in the New York metropolitan area where the film recorded a huge total of $1,265,440 in its first three weeks, following a highly-successful 12week first-run engagement at two other houses. Predict ‘The Reivers’ as a 1970 b.o. leader The Reivers starring Steve McQueen could be one of the topgrossing films of 1970 it has been predicted by Eugene Tunick, executive vice-president of National General Pictures, the distributor of the Cinema Center Films production. The prediction by Tunick was made on the basis of a $2,222,457 gross for the first week in 190 cities in the U.S. and Canada, which opened the film during the Christmas-New Year period. All theatres, almost without exception, are continuing to report outstanding grosses and the second week’s boxoffice totals loom bigger than the opening stanza with holdovers in order everywhere. The film ranks number one in many cities and original playdates have been extended as a result of initial public reaction and boxoffice returns. ‘Lion In Winter’ big in N.Y. showcase run Joseph E. Levine’s presentation of the Academy Award-winning Martin Poll production The Lion in Winter amassed sensational cumulative grosses of $931,650 by the fifth day of its third week since beginning a 38-theatre showcase engagement in the New York metropolitan area Dec. 19 after a record roadshow engagement. The Avco Embassy film wound up its first week Christmas Day with grosses of $328,857. Its second week, ending New Year’s Day, was bigger than the first, amounting to $363,820. In five days of its third week, Lion grossed $238,973. Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn star in the film, directed by Anthony Harvey. TITLE CHANGES MGM’s Country Dance, starring Peter O’Toole and Susannah York, has been retitled The Same Skin. A Windward Production, The Same Skin is a psychological melodrama about a triangle involving a woman, her husband and her brother. * * * Start the Revolution Without Me will be the title of the Warner Bros. motion picture comedy about the French Revolution that stars Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland. The Bud Yorkin-Norman Lear production, filmed in Technicolor on location in France, formerly was called Louie, There’s A Crowd Downstairs! and Two Times Two. ok * ok s MGM’s False Witness, starring George Kennedy, Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach, has been retitled Zigzag. Po * K MGM’s The Ballad of Dingus Magee, starring Frank Sinatra and George Kennedy, has been retitled Dirty Dingus Magee. Theatre Manager Wanted Ontario’s foremost drive-in circuit requires experienced drivein manager. Man and wife team would be considered. Good salary, plus incentive bonus. Apply Box #1 CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY 175 Bloor St. East, Toronto 5, Ont.