'Eight Below' Enjoys Warm Reception
by Brandon Gray
Box Office Mojo2/21/06

Winning audiences with its lovable dogs and rousing trailer, Eight Below devoured a husky $25 million at 3,066 locations in four days, plowing past expectations to claim the President's Day weekend top spot. Buena Vista's survival tale of stranded sled dogs led 20th Century Fox's low brow Date Movie, which industry tracking had projected would be No. 1. "We're over $10 million ahead of where some people had predicted us," said Buena Vista's president of distribution, Chuck Viane. "Considering I have Siberian huskies, I'm partial to this movie, but I think it appeals to anyone who is an animal lover. You haven't seen anything like this in a long time. Part of it was that this was a throwback to the old fashioned movies and the way things used to be done."

 Enthusiastically dubbed "The Most Amazing Story of Survival, Friendship, and Adventure Ever Told" and "Inspired by a True Story," the Antarctic adventure led by Paul Walker drew a broad audience—44 percent of which was "non-family," Buena Vista's exit polling indicated—and the picture earned an "A" from CinemaScore, a company that polls the opinions of opening night moviegoers. Viane noted that the 838 sneak previews on Feb. 4 played to 82 percent capacity.

Eight Below's opening was comparable to Snow Dogs, Buena Vista's 2002 family comedy also featuring sled dogs, and the studio has tapped similar subject matter in the past with White Fang, Iron Will and the Homeward Bound movies. Among realistic animal pictures, Eight Below had the biggest bow on record, and audience appetite for another South Pole expedition may have been whetted by last year's surprise hit, March of the Penguins

"Eight" is enough at b.o..
Hollywood Reporter 2/21/06

Buena Vista Pictures' "Eifht Below," from Walt Disney Pictures, turned up the heat at the boxoffice during the four-day Presidents Day weekend as the PG-rated family film took first place and warmed to a better-than-expected estimate of $25 million. It was the fourth-biggest debut during the holiday frame, marking the distributor's largest opening in February, and was a personal best for director Frank Marshall.

"Eight" is Enough
Entertainment Weekly 3/3/06

Surviving alone in Antarctica is one thing; more impressive is how the plucky pooches of Eight Below (no. 1) put the chill on low expectations, debuting with a strong $25 million over the Presidents' Day weekend.