2009 at the Box Office

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Absolutely; if anything the 1970's were a more dramatic time period for the story to be set, since all of the city's tensions were much closer to the surface than they are now.

Thanks for sharing a comparison of the two; I guess I'll have to wait to get an adaptation that attempts the book's Rashomon-like rotating perspectives. It'd probably take a TV miniseries to get enough running time to pull it off.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

3 30 mil+ weekends for up is seriously impressive.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Weekend Estimates

#1 "The Hangover" $33.4 million ($105.4 million) -26%
#2 "Up" $30.5 million ($187.2 million) -31%
#3 "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" $25.0 million
#4 "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" $9.6 million ($143.4 million) -34%
#5 "Land of the Lost" $9.2 million ($35.0 million) -51%
#6 "Imagine That" $5.7 million
#7 "Star Trek" $5.6 million ($232.0 million) -33%
#8 "Terminator Salvation" $4.7 million ($113.8 million) -43%
#9 "Angels & Demons" $4.2 million ($123.3 million) -36%
#10 "Drag Me to Hell" $3.9 million ($35.1 million) -45%
#11 "My Life in Ruins" $1.7 million ($6.4 million) -47%
#12 "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" $915K ($176.1 million) -53%

The top 12 pulled in $134.4 million this weekend, representing a 24% dip from last year, but about 1% stronger than this frame in '07. 2009's staggering year-to-date domestic gross now stands at $4.589 billion, representing an 11% increase from last year ($4.147 billion), up 12% over '07 ($4.086 billion), 17% stronger than '06 ($3.911 billion), and a 22% increase compared to '05 ($3.771 billion). Overall, 2009's admission sales have been the strongest the industry has enjoyed since 2004. '09 is on pace to definitely be a year for the record books.

WB has a legit blockbuster in the making as their comedy "The Hangover" retained the top spot at the box office as it took only a 26% decline from its opening numbers last week. After ten days in theaters, the movie has so far earned $105.4 million and looks headed for a final domestic mark north of the $200 million plateau. "The Hangover" became only the third release of '09 to repeat as the nation's top box office draw, joining "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail".

"The Hangover" also marked the fourth fastest time a movie carrying an R rating reached the century mark, tying the ten days it took "Hannibal" to pass that amount. Only "The Matrix Reloaded" (3 days), "The Passion of the Christ" (5 days), and "300" (8 days) did it faster. Last summer's hit "Sex & the City" ($152.6 million) took 11 days to reach $100 mil. At a cost of only $35 million, "The Hangover" is going to end up becoming one of the most profitable releases of '09.

Pixar/Disney's "Up" once again finished in the second slot as it was off by only 31%. The animated flick has so far tallied more than $187 million, about $25 million more than what "Wall-E" had earned after the same amount of time in theaters. "Up" also became only the ninth film in history to earn more than $30 million in each of its first three weekends of business. Overall, its the tenth to have three weekends of $30 million-plus business because "Titanic" earned at least $30 mil during its second, third, and fifth frames in theaters. As reported last week, "Up" is going to end up becoming one of the most successful animated movies in history.

Sony's "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" got off to a very good start as it debuted with $25 million. The opening gave director Tony Scott the biggest (non-inflation adjusted) launch of his career. For stars Denzel Washington and John Travolta, the $25 million haul gave them the third (behind "American Gangster" and "Inside Man") and fourth (trailing "Wild Hogs", "Hairspray", and "Bolt") best opening numbers of their respective careers. 'Pelham' opened on target with studio expectations as it pulled in a solid per-theater average of $8,133 from its 3,074 locations, which was the second best (behind 'Hangover') of the top 12. Based on strong exit polling, the studio is expecting a very leggy run from this one.

Fox's "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" has now taken in $143.4 million. Universal's "Land of the Lost" fell off by 51% and has now earned $35 million. At a cost of more than $100 million, 'Lost' is fading fast and will end up being one of the year's costliest box office bombs.

Paramount's "Imagine That" didn't drum up much interest as it was only able to debut with under $6 million, giving it a dismal average of $1,895 from its 3,008 theaters. With last year's disaster "Meet Dave", "Imagine That" will make it back-to-back flops for star Eddie Murphy. Still, out of the 35 films the actor has headlined, only nine of them (counting 'Imagine') became flops. Before 'Dave' and 'Imagine', Murphy's previous six films were all big hits, despite in large part being panned by most critics.

Paramount's "Star Trek" has now tallied $232 million. WB/Sony's "Terminator Salvation" is currently sitting on a domestic haul of just under $114 million. Sony's "Angels & Demons" has so far earned $123.3 million. Universal's "Drag Me to Hell" cracked the $35 million mark this week. Fox Searchlight's "My Life in Ruins" has only been able to manage $6.4 million since opening last weekend. Fox's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" rounds out the top 12 as it saw its domestic mark climb to just over $176 million.

Next week will see a pair of comedies attempt to topple "The Hangover". Disney's "The Proposal" and Sony's "Year One" will both hit theaters. It'll be very interesting to see if either has enough juice to snag the top spot next weekend.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Wow incredible hold for The Hangover.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Curious to know how you're defining "flops" and "headlined". Here are the ones I count as Murphy's headlining flops:

Imagine That (2009)
Meet Dave (2008)
I Spy (2002)
The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)
Showtime (2002)
Life (1999/I)
Holy Man (1998)
Metro (1997)
Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)
Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
The Distinguished Gentleman (1992)
Boomerang (1992)
Another 48 Hrs. (1990)
Best Defense (1984)

And some others were borderline. Flicks like "Haunted Mansion" and "Harlem Nights" weren't total bombs, but they weren't hits, either...

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

If your definition of a bomb is not making money at the box office then your listing is wrong. I see more than a few of those films that were very profitable.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Murphy never really headlined Best Defense. More of a supporting cameo.

Another 48 Hrs. (80 M), Boomerang (70 M) and Life (63 M) most certainly weren't flops in their day. So that gives us 10

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Studios have to be absolutely hi-fiving themselves over the performance of "Up!" and "Hangover". Both of which are incredible.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Murphy's list of films...

2009 "Imagine That" $5.7 million (flop)
2008 "Meet Dave" $11.8 million (flop)
2007 "Shrek the Third" $322.7 million (hit)
2007 "Norbit" $95.7 million (hit)
2006 "Dreamgirls" $103.4 million (hit)
2004 "Shrek 2" $441.2 million (hit)
2003 "The Haunted Mansion" $75.8 million (hit)
2003 "Daddy Day Care" $104.3 million (hit)
2002 "I Spy" $33.6 million (flop)
2002 "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" $4.4 million (flop)
2002 "Showtime" $38.1 million (flop)
2001 "Dr. Dolittle 2" $113.0 million (hit)
2001 "Shrek" $267.7 million (hit)
2000 "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" $123.3 million (hit)
1999 "Bowfinger" $66.4 million (hit)
1999 "Life" $63.9 million (hit)
1998 "Holy Man" $12.1 million (flop)
1998 "Dr. Dolittle" $114.2 million (hit)
1998 "Mulan" $120.6 million (hit)
1997 "Metro" $32.0 million (flop)
1996 "The Nutty Professor" $128.8 million (hit)
1995 "Vampire in Brooklyn" $19.8 million (flop)
1994 "Beverly Hills Cop III" $42.6 million (modest success)
1992 "The Distinguished Gentleman" $46.7 million (hit)
1992 "Boomerang" $70.1 million (hit)
1990 "Another 48 Hrs." $80.8 million (hit)
1989 "Harlem Nights" $60.9 million (hit)
1988 "Coming to America" $128.2 million (hit)
1988 "Eddie Murphy Raw" $50.5 million (hit)
1987 "Beverly Hills Cop II" $153.7 million (hit)
1986 "The Golden Child" $79.8 million (hit)
1984 "Beverly Hills Cop" $234.8 million (hit)
1984 "Best Defense" $19.3 million (flop)
1983 "Trading Places" $90.4 million (hit)
1982 "48 Hrs." $78.9 million (hit)

Despite the critical reaction to a lot of his films, Murphy still has more studio successes than any other A-list star. He ranks third in terms of number of films that passed the century mark. 13 of his 35 films have made more than $100 million. Only Tom Hanks (16 of 35) and Tom Cruise (15 of 30) have more $100 million-plus domestic performers than Murphy does.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

'Terminator' stays on top overseas

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Hmmm. Maybe a fifth Terminator may not be out of the question after all. They might go with a lower budget next time out though.

Wowza at Angels & Demons at $315 million foreign take. Domestic gross is just icing on the cake for them.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Well, Murphy was second billed on "Best Defense", so I think it counts, especially if we're counting the "Shrek" movies and "Dreamgirls" among his hits, as he didn't really headline those, either.

I'm actually surprised to see that "Another 48 Hrs." made that much money. I remember it as a disappointment - not a flop, obviously, but it didn't do as well as expected. The same goes for "Haunted Mansion". After the $300m of "Pirates of the Caribbean", Disney sure expected a whole lot more from "Mansion".

A lot of the designation of hit/flop depends on expectations and exactly how one defines hit/flop. It's all up for debate, methinks.

BTW, that's all I'm looking for here: friendly debate. Not trying to start a fight about the topic!

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Disappointments are all about expectations; a movie can be profitable but underperform based on expectations. To be a flop, a movie also needs to gross less than it cost to make. Filmmakers like Woody Allen and Kevin Smith never bring in huge box office, but they keep costs low enough that their films always turn a profit.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

again, the optimist in me wants Up to win over all the new releases from here til Miyazaki's film... but the reality is quite different .

i've said this many times over... films like Hangover won the box office OVER quality material like Up!? it's a bit ridiculous. reflects our audiences really . it's a dig @myself ofcourse since i also do venture and watch stuff like it frequently. so i am not the paragon of 'good films'. but in my own defense, i watched Up THRICE (twice 3-D, once 2-D) thus far.

where is a good site to find ticket counts? dollar figures don't do much for me these days since ticket prices keep going up. is attendance for this summer's films up or down?

PS i predict Transformers 2 to be: $150mil at least. it's got way2much hype around it.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

The Hangover is a good film for what it is. It's this summer's Superbad with older characters.

Up is holding up (no pun intended) very well too, The Hangover is the more recent release, it should be no.1. Up is going to be Pixar's biggest hit since "Finding Nemo", so that says the audience is responding to that film in a big way.

If anyone should be upset it should be the suits that invested a ton of $$$ into Land of the Lost.

This recent box office stretch reminds me more of the 80s/90s where films were allowed to play for a couple of weeks and build an audience, both The Hangover and Up are benefitting from that, as opposed to the norm today where there's a new tent pole picture out practically every weekend.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

I'm happy to see Terminator Salvation doing well outside the US, I saw it last week and thought it a cracking action movie and an improvement on T3, what's more I didn't miss Arnie's iconic cyborg.
Roll on Terminator Resurrected.

I'm predicting a $250m opening weekend for Transformers 2 The Wrath of Megatron... worldwide gross. Not impossible, Indiana Jones opened worldwide with $311m weekend last year, a third of a billion in less than a week, crikey!

$130-$140m predicted US weekend, not sure when it's opening, can the IMDB be trusted? It's listing Transformers opening this friday over here in the UK and next week in the US?

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

June 24 in the U.S

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Thanks Tino, a bit strange that it's opening here first. I've just been reading Variety's review -


So more of the same than, only "longer and louder" (and more destructive no doubt)!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review - Read Variety's Analysis Of The Movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

More from the above review:


Ah, yes. Just what I expect, and hope for, from Mr. Bay, whose undeniably great-looking, and ludicrous, films I unabashedly love. Count me in.

Very happy to see Tony Scott's Pelham doing well. A solid thriller for adults built around strong performances and an exciting visual aesthetic. It may be over the top, but I really enjoy seeing Tony's visual experimentation on the big screen- all the slow shutter stuff was great, especially in the opening credits, which riff on Koyaanisqatsi while being unmistakably Tony. Witness the moment where the slow-motion Travolta careens toward the camera out of the sidewalk crowd after a series of slow-shutter and fast-motion shots. Yeah, baby.

Highly recommended for what it is,
Nathan

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Transformers will do very, very well.

Interesting to see North America being more discerning about the mess that Terminator Salvation is.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

The current tracking points to 'Transformers' pulling in about $175 million during its first five days (Wed.-thru-Sun.) in theaters

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Bay had talked some smack about wanting *the* record - opening 3 day weekend - and beating TDK. Moving it to Wednesday preventing that from even being a possibility. Did Paramount do that on purpose? Silly question, but I am curious.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

All I know is that while I didn't hate the first film, I didn't like it enough to go see the second one.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Chuck, Paramount wanted the movie to open day and date with most of its international dates. The studio also figured they'd get a jump on the weekend and fatten up the movie's five-day global gross instead of going for TDK's $158 million domestic opening record. TF2 will be opening in the UK on the 19th, Japan on the 20th, and 28-30 countries (including the U.S.) on the 24th. As many as 17 more territories will launch the film on the 25th and 26th.

Bay will have to wait until 2012 for a crack at the record, which will likely have changed hands a few times with "Iron Man 2" (May 2010), "Spider-Man 4" (May 2011), and "The Avengers" (May 2012) each being the likely contenders to (briefly) hold the title. Still, don't feel too bad for Bay. TF2 is tracking so well that the studio believes that it will have taken in a minimum of $175 million during its first five days domestically. Rival studios are speculating that the movie could nab as much as $210 million during that frame. Regardless of how big the movie opens, TF2 will be the year's first $100 million-plus Friday-thru-Sunday performer. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is the only other summer '09 release expected to open north of the century mark.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

.....or maybe they are not fixated on the idea that it is not a Terminator film unless James Cameron is directing it and "Arnie" is starring in it. A lot of North American fans seem to hold that view.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Perhaps but both sides of the pond suffered the same affliction for the 'Cameronless' T3 which I thoroughly enjoyed.

On the BO front quite pleased, and suprised, with the amount of coin that Star Trek has pulled in.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Terry...Any idea when we may get a glimpse of Avatar?

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

How will "Public Enemies" do? I'm sensing there isn't much interest/buzz/hype for it, but perhaps I'm wrong. With a $100 million budget (at least) and another $20-30 million for ads/marketing, I'd say they've got to make in the $120-150 million area (domestic total) for it not to appear to be a bomb.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

comic con 2009. there are big rumors that cameron will be there to show the first footage from the movie.
that is in late july for avatar.

Jacob

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Chris, as Jacob pointed out, there are rumors that Cameron will unveil footage from the movie at this year's San Diego Comic Con. As far as a trailer goes, many believed that Fox would release a teaser with 'Transformers', but that isn't likely. There has been some talk about a teaser attached to Fox's latest 'Ice Age' movie, which, like "Avatar", will be presented in 3D.

At this point, the only people that know when a trailer will (finally) be released are Cameron and the top execs at Fox. The movie is about six months away and there will be at least two trailers released before the film's December release.

Patrick, Universal is clearly banking on Johnny Depp's star power to lure in moviegoers. The early buzz from the movie has been strong and the studio is confident their (reportedly) $80 million budgeted flick will be a big summer hit.