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Sunday, November 25, 2007
A little bit of Atlanta in ‘This Christmas’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Holiday moviegoers helped make big-screen producer Will Packer of Conyers a man of his word.
Mere days before Packer’s latest film “This Christmas” opened on Wednesday he predicted it would rake in about $25 million over the long holiday weekend.
The movie, which was filmed in Los Angeles by Packer’s Atlanta-based Rainforest Films, performed even better than that. Over the five-day holiday, “This Christmas” earned an estimated $27.1 million. Its Friday-Sunday take of $18.6 million also made it the No. 2 movie in the nation behind “Enchanted,” which garnered a three-day total of $35.33 million and a five-day total that topped $50 million.
Disney’s “Enchanted” was expected to be the box-office heavyweight, especially since it is playing in 3,730 theaters. In contrast “This Christmas” is being screened in half that many theaters.
Of special note: The per-screen average take for “This Christmas’” was a staggering $10,010. Earnings of $5,000 per screen are considered strong.
Metro Atlanta moviegoers probably noticed a couple of Atlanta references in “This Christmas,” a light drama about a family gathering for the holidays. In the film, Mel Whitfield (played by Lauren London) attends Spelman College. Her boyfriend Devean (Keith Robinson) attends Morehouse College.
At a dinner, Devean is questioned about his reasons for attending an all-male African-American college. He launches into a speech about benefits and spirituality, ending his discourse like this: “the fact that everybody looks like me is an added bonus.”
At least twice in the film, he wears a Morehouse hoodie — in the group family photo and while family members shop for a Christmas tree.
What did you think of “This Christmas”? Did you notice other things of interest to metro Atlantans?
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