It's My Party And I'll Cry If I Want To

I know it may seem like I'm beating a dead horse, or kicking a film when it's down, with yet another entry about the poor box office of Mission Impossible III. But I just could not believe the percentage differential between the weekend numbers and Monday's totals. Not to mention all of the scrambling that's been going at Paramount Pictures as a result of all of this.

Reported by Roger Friedman at Fox News .Com in his latest 411 column:

...Sources tell me that a catered lunch at the studio, planned ahead on Friday as a celebration, turned into a morbid affair. "Brad Grey and Rob Moore came to it, but no one spoke and eventually everyone left."

Apparently, reality set in faster in the Paramount executive suite than it did even among Cruise nay-sayers. For one thing, weekend numbers—announced as estimates on Sunday—turned out to be slightly lower on Monday by almost a million bucks. Mission's real take was $47.7 million, not $48.6 million.

"You have to understand," says a source, "they sit around and try to decide what sounds better on Sunday. The $48 million sounded closer to 50. The 47 sounds more like 45."

You've got to feel for these people though. Since Monday morning, every department at Paramount has been called on for immediate cost cutting, I'm told. "Budget meetings are going on everywhere," says a source. "Everyone's being asked what they can do, and there's talk of layoffs again."

Why the sudden concern? On Monday night, MI:3 may have become a self fulfilling prophesy. It made $3.5 million, off 72 percent from Sunday. That number must have had the Paramount prognosticators running around like earthquake experts. You see, blockbusters generally do not drop so much from their first Sunday to Monday. Some examples: "Spider Man 2" had a 57% drop and "Batman Begins" had a 26% drop. "War of the Worlds," Tom Cruise's last film, had only a 38% dip on its first Monday, but that was July 4th and a holiday. The following Monday it hung in there at 61%.

"They must be freaking out," says a source.

Indeed, the numbers crunchers are going to be watching "M:I 3" every day, maybe every hour this week to see where it's going. Some astute TV viewers are already reporting see a new commercial that emphasizes Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain Owen Davian. If the numbers keep bottoming out as we head toward Friday, then Warner Bros. will be relieved. "Poseidon" might have a strong opening despite being awful.

And that's the irony here: "M I:3" is a terrific action film Director J.J. Abrams did a great job, and the entire cast from Cruise right through to the team and various supporting players do a convincing job. Cruise has several fantastic stunts that will take your breath away. It would be a shame if everyone waited to watch it at home on small screens.

It's amazing how the fortunes of a studio can turn one way or another, as a result of how one film performs. I also find it odd that Tom Cruise has gone strangely silent all of the sudden (I say sarcastically) now. For a year, he's been unable to keep quiet, and now after shooting his career in the "foot", he decides to shut up--Not so tough now are ya...