Analysis: Snakes Will Still Be Cash Cow for New Line

Authored by Jay Baage on August 21, 2006 - 7:22am.

So, the numbers are in. Snakes on a Plane underperformed at the Box Office during its first weekend with an estimated $15.3 million gross including $1.4 million in Thursday night previews. Given all the Internet buzz and the media attention given to its original Web 2.0 marketing tactics, including encouraging user-generated art, the studio New Line was reportedly expecting at least $20 million and hoping for as much as $30 million.
My Take: This is obviously a movie that has as its core audience in young male adults (it is R-rated). That naturally limits the audience figure. But the studio obviously expected it to have a broader appeal, based on the fact that they decided to open it super-wide in 3,555 theaters. Of the 62 films in history that have opened in 3,500 or more theaters, 61 have grossed more than Snakes on opening weekend, according to BoxOfficeGuru.com. That is pretty bad.

To me there are two reasons that justifies opening this wide: Either you know that the movie is going to be truly great or you think that the movie is going to stink and you want to take full advantage of the marketing blitz concentrated around the opening weekend and pack people in the theaters before word gets out. Guess which one applies to Snakes.

New Line did what they could with this movie. A number of smart marketing decisions, including not releasing it early for reviews, resulted in that the studio maximized possible first weekend gross for this B-movie. Snakes cost around $30 million to make and when you include overseas and worldwide DVD sales, this movie will most likely made a nice addition to New Line’s bottom line.