2009 at the Box Office (1 Viewer)

[Tino]

Aranofsky was on Howard Stern recently and stated that directing a Robocop remake is a possibility so it's not a sure thing yet.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I can't picture Aronofsky not making a great sci-fi action film. He's nailed the sci-fi, he can do drama better than almost anyone else, so I imagine he can manage an action scene or twelve. That said, a Robocop remake (while interesting) isn't what I'd prefer him doing next (he had a Biblical story concept I'd rather he made).

 

[TerryRL]

No matter what any director says, they all long to have a commercial success because it makes smaller projects easier to finance. I think Aronofsky is an inspired choice to helm the new "RoboCop" adventure and I think he'll do a great job with the material. I also hope that if he does do the movie that there's a role for Mickey Rourke somewhere in there.

 

[TerryRL]

'Madagascar' still tops overseas - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

'Madagascar' still tops overseas
Pic wins foreign box office for fourth week
By DAVE MCNARY

“Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” ruled the foreign box office roost for the fourth consecutive weekend with $15.8 million at 6,893 playdates in 61 markets.
Paramount’s animated toon, which has grossed $366 million outside the U.S., has been the dominant pic of the holiday season, winning five of the past six frames on the foreign side. It topped Sony’s expansion of Will Smith drama “Seven Pounds” with $13.4 million at 2,050 in 15 markets -- a respectable number but dwarfed by the $39.4 million drawn by Smith starrer “I Am Legend” on the same weekend a year ago.

“Australia,” “Yes Man” and “Twilight” followed closely behind “Seven Pounds” as overall foreign biz turned moderate amid the end of winter holidays. Freezing temps, snow and road closures held down moviegoing in much of Europe.

The top numbers for “Seven Pounds” came from Italy, home to director Gabriele Muccino, with $5.6 million and Germany with $3.6 million. “Seven Pounds” widens again next weekend with launches in France, Russia, Spain and the U.K.

Fox’s “Australia” continued to show decent traction internationally with $12.3 million at 4,900 in 57 territories to take its foreign cume to $103.5 million -- more than double the domestic total. Fox also saw foreign markets salvage “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” which added $7 million to lift the offshore total to $140 million, $63 million ahead of the Stateside cume.

Auds abroad continued to say yes to Warner Bros.’ “Yes Man,” which affirmed $12 million at 2,489 in 35 markets, led by a $3.1 million Italian launch. The Jim Carrey laffer is midway in its foreign run, with international cume hitting $50 million.

“Twilight” put even more bite on foreign B.O. with $11.1 million at 2,150 in 43 markets -- with half of that coin coming from its first-place French launch. Though the vampire romancer hasn’t come near its sensational domestic performance, international results have been solid with a $116 million cume.

Disney’s “Bedtime Stories” remained a player with $9.3 million at 2,432 in two dozen markets, pushing the foreign cume to $60.1 million. The red-hot Russian market led the way with $2 million in its soph sesh for an 11-day cume of $7.3 million.

A pair of comedies starting their international runs went head to head in the U.K. Universal’s “Role Models” took the top slot with $3.5 million, ahead of Fox’s “Bride Wars” with $2.85 million and the Brit launch of “Slumdog Millionaire” with $2.6 million.

Most distribs have been holding back awards season contenders until the next few frames. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” has cumed $8.7 million in three markets; “Frost/Nixon” has cumed $1 million from two; “Milk” saw its first foreign opening with $500,000 at 117 in Spain; Disney opened “Doubt” in Israel, its first international launch, with $65,000 at 10 playdates and will expand next weekend to Australia and Scandinavia.

 

[JediFonger]

terry, is it safe to say that studios have been, is and will continue to focus on foreign markets because that is making them a helluvalot more money than US releases? don't get me wrong, domestic is still a huge chunk of the change. more and more (like quantum of solace), box office seems expanding in the foreign markets in dollar amount.

Gran Torino is definitely a huge surprise. it's rare to see +888% on any film from weekend to weekend =P.

 

[Michael Elliott]

I was a little upset to see THE READER, MILK and FROST/NIXON not doing so good. Heck, THE UNBORN almost made more in 3 days than the other three have total.

 

[Edwin-S]

Well, I hope it turns out that he doesn't. I think he would be totally wrong for a "Robocop" remake; although, personally, I think we need a RC remake just as much as we all need another a**hole.

For SF, I think Aranofsky would make a better fit with something like "Rendevous with Rama" or "Fountains of Paradise". I also think he probably would be good on something like "Ender's Game", but not "Robocop".

 

[TerryRL]

Jedi, the studios will definitely continue to focus a lot of their energies on the foreign markets because those funds make it very tough for the industry to have legitimate flops. They also can make up for a film's bloated budget if the domestic haul isn't what the studio was hoping for.

With the combination of overseas grosses (which broke records in '08 despite theater admissions falling here in the U.S.) and DVD, the industry has now made it tough to actually lose money on anything. It still happens, just not nearly as much. Not many studios will actually admit this (hence the term "creative accounting"), but the movie business is an extremely lucrative one thanks in large part to the massive popularity of American films overseas.

 

[Edwin-S]

This is why I cannot figure why Disney took a walk on proceeding with "Voyage of The Dawn Treader". I don't think "Prince Caspian" was a money loser when foreign revenues are taken into account, so bailing on "VoTDT" just seems shortsighted to me.

 

[TerryRL]

Counting marketing costs, the movie cost Disney and Walden Media about $275 million. It ended up making just under $420 million worldwide and has been a solid performer on DVD. I was also a bit perplexed that Disney opted out of their deal with Walden Media, but they probably felt that the cost wasn't worth the reward (they do have to share profits with WM).

If 'Prince Caspian' had been nearly as big a hit as the previous film (netting a whopping $745 million worldwide) I'm sure Disney would not have decided against co-funding 'Dawn Treader' (Fox is rumored to be interested in co-financing the project). I guess Disney figured it best to quit while they were ahead. Needless to say, 'Caspian' not making the kind of coin that the first film did really got a lot of Disney execs nervous about the franchise's long range potential.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Saw this tonight and was shocked at the diversity of the audience I saw there. A friend that never wants to see anything but blockbusters and low-brow comedies, called me up and asked if I wanted to see it out of the blue today. Our theater was packed, and pretty evenly mixed from teens through seniors. The crowd skewed male, but by no means overwhelmingly so. And everyone seemed to really dig it. I agree with Thi Them that the advertising didn't particularly stand out, so the draw has to be Clint doing the type of role he does best (albeit in a completely different sort of film). While it's his best draw for sheer dollar value, I wouldn't be surprised if at least as many tickets were sold for Dirty Harry and Tightrope.

 

[TerryRL]

Mr. Eastwood's most attended films are 1978's "Every Which Way But Loose" ($85.2 million/over $300 million adjusted for inflation) and 1980's "Any Which Way You Can" ($70.7 million/over $187 million adjusted for inflation). "Every Which Way But Loose" sold more than 43 million tickets, while "Any Which Way You Can" netted more than 26 million admissions. Right now, "Gran Torino" is expected to top out in the neighborhood of $125 million, which would make it Eastwood's biggest hit film (non-adjusted).

 

[Malcolm R]

Since the studios would only see about $250M of that worldwide gross come back to them, it sounds like they had to depend on the DVD sales to break even. That probably scared them a little, as the DVD sales were probably also less than LWW, mirroring the lower theatrical gross.

If they just broke even with Prince Caspian, they were probably not willing to chance taking a big loss with the next film.

 

[Brian Borst]

Aronofsky is a giant comic book fan, he made his original cut of The Fountain into a graphic novel. Now I know RoboCop wasn't a comic book when it was made (I do think there are some nowadays) but the film is much like a comic book. Plus, we know Aronofsky can do depressing and dark stuff, so it can be a really good movie. And he'll have a mainstream feature in his pocket, that will help him to finance future projects.
And by the way, judging from Paul Verhoeven's previous movies you wouldn't think he'd be the right guy for a science-fiction action satire. And look how that turned out.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Out of curiosity, what is the Biblical story that Aronofsky is interested in making?

 

[DavidPla]

Noah's Ark!

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Thanks for that.
I was thinking of a lot of stories that he might be interested in doing. Noah's Ark never occured to me - especially since, for all the spectacle potential in the story, there's not a lot of story. I'm even more curious about the project, and hope he gets a chance to do it, just to see what he's envisioning.

 

[Andy Sheets]

He was also one of the guys involved relatively early in the Batman franchise's reboot. IIRC, his take on the character wasn't approved because it was considered too gritty and "experimental" for what WB was hoping to get. And he said Pi's stark black and white style was inspired by Sin City.

 

[TerryRL]

The early numbers point to this being the biggest MLK holiday frame in history (topping last year's record haul) for the industry as 'Paul Blart' topped the box office on Friday as it nearly topped the $10 million mark. "My Bloody Valentine 3D" looks to have earned about $8.3 million, "Notorious" was right behind with $8.2 million, and "Hotel for Dogs" pulled in $4.3 million. Sandwiched in there was "Gran Torino" with an early estimated Friday haul of $6.3 million.

For the first time ever for the MLK holiday frame, five films look to have four-day hauls north of the $20 million mark. This also looks to become the biggest weekend ever for the month of January, on top of being the first time the top 12 films of the MLK four-day session approached the double-century mark.

As stated a few times before, January '09 has definitely gotten the year off to a fabulous start. Depending on the rest of this month's releases, there is now a very realistic possibility that January '09 could end up earning close to $900 million, easily besting last year's record-breaking haul of $841.1 million. If this were to happen, it would mark the first time a pre-summer month has tallied that amount.

Historically, May, June, July, August, November, and December are the months that have produced $900 million-plus performances in years past. For that to happen in January (regardless of rising ticket prices) is simply amazing. Even if January '09 falls just short of that amount, the studios are absolutely ecstatic with the month's performance thus far.

DOMESTIC GROSS FOR TOP 12 MOVIES FOR MLK 4-DAY
[followed by #1 movie for the period and 4-day gross]
2009 - $190-$210 million est. [Paul Blart: Mall Cop - $35M-$40M est.]
2008 - $158.9M [Cloverfield - $46.1M]
2007 - $118.8M [Stomp the Yard - $25.8M]
2006 - $125.4M [Glory Road - $16.9M]
2005 - $142.7M [Coach Carter - $29.1M]
2004 - $114.2M [Along Came Polly - $114.2M]
2003 - $120.8M [Kangaroo Jack - $21.8M]
2002 - $129.5M [Black Hawk Down - $33.6M]
2001 - $146.5M [Save the Last Dance - $27.5M]
2000 - $100.5M [Next Friday - $16.9M]
1999 – $101.7M [Varsity Blues - $17.5M]

 

[TerryRL]

Friday Estimates

#1 "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" $9.8 million
#2 "Notorious" $8.3 million
#3 "My Bloody Valentine 3D" $8.3 million
#4 "Gran Torino" $6.3 million ($57.4 million) 35% Friday-to-Friday drop
#5 "Hotel for Dogs" $4.4 million
#6 "Bride Wars" $3.8 million ($29.6 million) 54% Friday-to-Friday drop
#7 "The Unborn" $3.3 million ($26.6 million) 60% Friday-to-Friday drop
#8 "Defiance" $2.7 million ($3.0 million) 15,390% Friday-to-Friday increase
#9 "Marley & Me" $1.7 million ($128.1 million) 48% Friday-to-Friday drop
#10 "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" $1.6 million ($98.6 million) 45% Friday-to-Friday drop
#11 "Slumdog Millionaire" $1.6 million ($38.4 million) 45% Friday-to-Friday increase
#12 "Last Chance Harvey" $1.3 million ($1.8 million) 2,911% Friday-to-Friday increase