New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Somebody asked me recently why I think Happy Feet (Warner Bros.) will be so much bigger than Flushed Away (Paramount). The answer is simple. Penguins.

Penguins starred in the one of the most successful documentaries in history, March of the Penguins ($77 million domestic). The stubby-legged flightless birds are the cutest creatures this side of the koala.

There have been some trailblazing movie penguins over the years that have paved the way for the Happy Feet birds. In the old Disney cartoon The Three Caballeros, there was a sad-sack penguin named Pablo. There was also spunky little Chilly Willy in his Sub-Arctic World who appeared in 50 or so theatrical cartoons by animator Walter Lantz from the 1950s to the early '70s. And, don't forget those penguin waiters in Mary Poppins, who 20 years later popped up in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Happy Feet, directed by George Miller and featuring the voices of Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Elijah Wood and Robin Williams, is by no means the final film performance by penguins. Next summer, Sony will release a penguin mockumentary called Surf's Up, and the penguin quartet of Skipper, Rico, Kowalski and Private from Madagascar (Dreamworks) will show up in Madagascar 2. Plus, there will almost certainly be a Happy Feet sequel.

Warner Bros., after a rocky summer, has the family film of the holiday season. Industry tracking has been monsterous for weeks, the ad campaign is on the money and the product tie-ins have saturated the media environment.

Adding charm to this one is the fact that these birds sing and dance. It's a throwback to Disney animated films from the late '80s/early '90s like The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast and The Lion King. For me, the song-and-dance thing makes the picture a little more adult-friendly. The average kid doesn't know the Queen song Somebody To Love, but it's fun for us grown-ups to hear a classic like that.

This movie is a sub-freezing home run for Warner Bros., and by the end of Thanksgiving weekend, Happy Feet should be in excess of $80 million domestic. Look for $43-$46 million this weekend.

Happy Feet By The Numbers

Top 10 Animated Films of 2006 - Domestic Box Office
1. Cars - $244,082,000
2. Ice Age: The Meltdown - $195,330,000
3. Over the Hedge - $155,019.000
4. Monster House - $73,661,000
5. Barnyard: The Original Party Animals - $72,637,000
6. Curious George - $58,360,000
7. Hoodwinked - $51,386,000
8. Flushed Away - $40,520,000
9. The Wild - $37,384,000
10. The Ant Bully - $27,533,000

Top 5 Opening Weekends for Animated Films in 2006 - Domestic Box Office
1. 3/31 - Ice Age: The Meltdown - $68,033,000
2. 6/9 - Cars - $60,119,000
3. 5/19 - Over the Hedge - $38,457,000
4. 7/21 - Monster House - $22,217,000
5. Flushed Away - $18,814,000

Top 5 George Miller-Directed Movies - Domestic Box Office
1. The Witches of Eastwick - $63,766,000
2. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome - $36,230,000
3. Twilight Zone: The Movie - $29,450,000
4. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior - $23,667,000
5. Babe: Pig in the City - $18,319,000

Top 5 Hugh Jackman Films - Domestic Box Office
1. X-Men: The Last Stand - $234,362,000
2. X2: X-Men United - $214,949,000
3. X-Men - $157,299,000
4. Van Helsing - $120,177,000
5. Swordfish - $69,772,000

Top 5 Nicole Kidman Films - Domestic Box Office
1. Batman Forever - $184,031,000
2. Cold Mountain - $95,636,000
3. Days of Thunder - $82,670,000
4. The Interpreter - $72,708,000
5. Bewitched - $63,313,000

Top 5 Elijah Wood Films - Domestic Box Office
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - $377,027,000
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - $339,789,000
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - $313,364,000
4. Deep Impact - $140,464,000
5. Spy Kids 3D: Game Over - $111,761,000

Top 10 Robin Williams Movies - Domestic Box Office
1. Mrs. Doubtfire - $219,195,000
2. Aladdin - $217,350,000
3. Good Will Hunting - $138,433,000
4. Patch Adams- $135,026,000
5. Robots - $128,200,000
6. The Birdcage - $124,060,000
7. Hook - $119,654,000
8. Jumanji - $100,475,000
9. Dead Poets Society - $95,860,000
10. Flubber - $92,977,000

All-Time Top 5 Animated Films From Warner Bros. - Domestic Box Office
1. Polar Express - $173,675,000
2. Space Jam - $90,418,000
3. Pokeman: The First Movie - $85,744,000
4. Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride - $53,359,000
5. Pokeman: The Movie 2000 - $43,758,000

All-Time Top 5 Animated Films - Domestic Box Office
1. Shrek 2 - $441,226,000
2. Finding Nemo - $339.714,000
3. The Lion King - $328,541,000
4. Shrek - $267,665,000
5. The Incredibles - $261,441,000

Continued:       1       2       3