I wasn't really a gigantic fan of Nine, and given that I fell hard for Chicago and love musicals in general, that probably isn't a good sign for the movie's overall performance. But I'm kind of surprised to see the extent to which people are actively rooting for this movie to fail. It's the only reason I can come up with for a story like the one at Reuters, which makes news of the fact that Nine won't be expanding into more theaters over the holidays.
Apparently it's a good sign that they're not actively cutting theaters, given that the movie has only made about $7 million thus far from 1,408 theaters. That put it well behind fellow Oscar fare like Up in the Air and even the seemingly unstoppable The Blind Side, and given that Chicago made $2 million from just 77 theaters on its opening weekend in 2002, not exactly promising for things to come.
But is Nine an unmitigated disaster? Not yet. Oscar nominations have yet to come, and if the movie makes its way into the Best Picture 10, as many are predicting, there's a lot of box office potential yet to be tapped. It's not a hit, but it's also a little too early to be dancing on its grave.
