2009 at the Box Office - Page 37

Paramount was hoping for more with 'G.I. Joe', but they are happy with the results thus far.  The movie will end up well north of the $150 million plateau, as well as topping the $300 million mark in global earnings.  While not as big as the studio hoped, the movie's performance has got the studio heads talking sequel.

Friday Estimates

#1 "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself" $8.6 million
#2 "9" $3.3 million ($7.7 million)
#3 "Sorority Row" $1.93 million
#4 "Inglorious Basterds" $1.90 million ($99.7 million) 37% Friday-to-Friday drop
#5 "All About Steve" $1.83 million ($17.8 million) 49% Friday-to-Friday drop
#6 "Whiteout" $1.80 million
#7 "The Final Destination" $1.7 million ($54.4 million) 54% Friday-to-Friday drop
#8 "District 9" $1.1 million ($106.0 million) 39% Friday-to-Friday drop
#9 "Gamer" $1.0 million ($14.0 million) 69% Friday-to-Friday drop (Ouch!)
#10 "Julie & Julia" $940K ($83.0 million) 30% Friday-to-Friday drop
#11 "The Time Traveler's Wife" $720K ($57.4 million) 40% Friday-to-Friday drop
#12 "Extract" $720K ($7.2 million) 46% Friday-to-Friday drop

Weekend Estimates

#1 "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself" $24.0 million
#2 "9" $10.9 million ($15.3 million)
#3 "Inglorious Basterds" $6.5 million ($104.3 million) -44%
#4 "All About Steve" $5.8 million ($21.8 million) -48%
#5 "The Final Destination" $5.5 million ($58.3 million) -56%
#7 "Whiteout" $5.1 million
#8 "District 9" $3.6 million ($108.5 million) -49%
#9 "Julie & Julia" $3.3 million ($85.4 million) -38%
#10 "Gamer" $3.1 million ($16.1 million) -66%
#11 "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" $2.5 million ($144.3 million) -51%
#12 "The Time Traveler's Wife" $2.3 million ($59.1 million) -46%

Historically, September is the lowest grossing and least attended month of every calendar year.  This weekend moviegoers spent $78 million on the top 12 films, marking the smallest top 12 finish of the year, but the tally also ranks as the best second-weekend haul ever for the month.  2009's year-to-date domestic gross now stands at a towering $7.567 billion, which is up 8% compared to last year ($7.039 billion), a 7% improvement over '07 ($7.083 billion), 15% stronger than '06 ($6.592 billion), and 21% increase over '05 ($6.257 billion).

Lionsgate's 'I Can Do Bad All By Myself' easily took the top spot this weekend as it earned the seventh best September opening in history, as well as giving writer/director Tyler Perry the third biggest debut of his career.  This is also the second #1 opening Perry has enjoyed this year, following the $41 million start of 'Madea Goes to Jail' back in February.  Look for 'Bad' to become yet another profitable hit for Perry as he continues to add to his reputation of being one of the industry's most consistent filmmakers in terms of box office success.  The film earned a stellar per-theater average of $10,656 from its modest 2,255 locations.  Perry's next outing will be the sequel "Why Did I Get Married Too", which opens next spring.

Focus Features' "9" got out of the gates with a five-day haul of just over $15 million.  The animated flick took in a solid average of $6,536 from only 1,661 theaters.  The studio is hoping this one demonstrates strong staying power in the coming weeks.

Weinstein/Universal's "Inglorious Basterds" passed the century mark this weekend.  Fox's "All About Steve" has now earned just under $22 million.  New Line/WB's "The Final Destination" has tallied close to $60 million.  Summit's "Sorority Row" and WB's "Whiteout" both crashed and burned this weekend with openings of only $5.3 and $5.1 million respectively.  Both will fade quickly from theaters.

Sony's "District 9" has taken in $108.5 million.  Sony's "Julie & Julia" continues to show very strong legs as it has now tallied more than $85 million.  Lionsgate's "Gamer" took a steep 66% hit and has only pulled in a little over $16 million.  Paramount's 'G.I. Joe' continues its course toward the $150 million plateau, while New Line/WB's "The Time Traveler's Wife" rounds out the top 12.  That film has earned just under $60 million.

Next weekend will see the releases of Sony's "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", Fox's "Jennifer's Body", WB's "The Informant!", and Universal's "Love Happens".  The industry is hoping for a big weekend of business to lessen the impact of the traditionally slow period at multiplexes.

With just three months left in the year, here are the biggest hit films of this decade (2000-2009)...

(domestic)
#1 "The Dark Knight" (WB) $533.3 million (2008)
#2 "Shrek 2" (DreamWorks) $441.2 million (2004)
#3 "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (Disney) $423.3 million (2006)
#4 "Spider-Man" (Sony) $403.7 million (2002)
#5 "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (DreamWorks/Paramount) $401.2 million (2009/still in theaters)
#6 "Star Wars: Episode III- Revenge of the Sith" (Lucasfilm/Fox) $380.3 million (2005)
#7 "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line) $377.0 million (2003)
#8 "Spider-Man 2" (Sony) $373.6 million (2004)
#9 "The Passion of the Christ" (NewMarket) $370.8 million (2004)
#10 "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (New Line) $341.8 million (2002)

(worldwide)
#1 "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line) $1.119 billion (2003)
#2 "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (Disney) $1.066 billion (2006)
#3 "The Dark Knight" (WB) $1.002 billion (2008)
#4 "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (WB) $974.7 million (2001)
#5 "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (Disney) $961.0 million (2007)
#6 "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (WB) $938.2 million (2005)
#7 "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (New Line) $925.3 million (2002)
#8 "Shrek 2" (DreamWorks) $919.8 million (2004)
#9 "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (WB) $918.7 million (2009/still in theaters)
#10 "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (WB) $895.9 million (2005)

(biggest ticket sellers domestically)
#1 "The Dark Knight" (WB) 74.3 million theater admissions (2008)
#2 "Shrek 2" (DreamWorks) 71.0 million theater admissions (2004)
#3 "Spider-Man" (Sony) 69.5 million theater admissions (2002)
#4 "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (Disney) 64.6 million theater admissions (2006)
#5 "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line) 61.5 million theater admissions (2003)
#6 "Spider-Man 2" (Sony) 60.2 million theater admissions (2004)
#7 "The Passion of the Christ" (NewMarket) 59.7 million theater admissions (2004)
#8 "Star Wars: Episode III- Revenge of the Sith" (Lucasfilm/Fox) 59.3 million theater admissions (2005)
#9 "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (New Line) 57.6 million theater admissions (2002)
#10 "Finding Nemo" (Pixar/Disney) 56.3 million theater admissions (2003)
NOTE: 'Revenge of the Fallen' has so far sold 55.9 million tickets, currently placing it as the 12th best of the decade behind "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (56.2 million tickets sold).

Weekend Estimates

#1 "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" $30.1 million
#2 "The Informant!" $10.5 million
#3 "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself" $10.1 million ($37.9 million) -57%
#4 "Love Happens" $8.5 million
#5 "Jennifer's Body" $6.8 million
#6 "9" $5.5 million ($22.8 million) -49%
#7 "Inglorious Basterds" $3.6 million ($109.9 million) -49%
#8 "All About Steve" $3.4 million ($26.7 million) -40%
#9 "Sorority Row" $2.5 million ($8.9 million) -51%
#10 "The Final Destination" $2.4 million ($62.4 million) -57%
#11 "Whiteout" $2.1 million ($8.5 million) -58%
#12 "Julie & Julia" $1.9 million ($88.4 million) -40%

Thanks to the stronger-than-anticipated start of the animated 'Meatballs' flicks, business was brisk at the box office this weekend as the top 12 earned the fourth best haul ever for the month of September.  This also marks only the sixth time ever that September has seen a top 12 finish earn north of $80 million.  2009's year-to-date domestic total now stands at $7.690 billion, representing 7% increases over both last year ($7.162 billion) and '07 ($7.185 billion), up 15% over '06 ($6.691 billion), and an impressive 21% stronger than '05 ($6.367 billion).

Sony's "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" opened a bit stronger predicted as it earned the third biggest September opening haul in history, trailing only "Sweet Home Alabama" ($35.6 million) and "Rush Hour" ($33.0 million).  Along with "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" ($30.05 million), 'Meatballs' is only the fourth $30 million-plus debut the month of September has ever seen.  The studio is expecting this one to have a very leggy run in the coming weeks.  That animated flick's very strong per-theater average of $9,651 from its 3,119 was easily the best of the top 12.

The other three new releases, "The Informant!", "Love Happens", and "Jennifer's Body" all yielded disappointing results this weekend as all are expected to fade fairly quickly from theaters.  Many believed that "The Informant!" would garner serious Oscar consideration for star (and Oscar-winner) Matt Damon, but the movie was met with very lukewarm reviews.  "Love Happens" will give star Jennifer Aniston back-to-back flops (following "Management") after headlining three consecutive hits ("The Break-Up", "Marley & Me", and "He's Just Not That Into You").  "Jennifer's Body" was supposed to be the big coming out party for star Megan Fox as a legit headlining act, but the film crashed and burned upon release.  Fox will probably have better luck in her next film, "Jonah Hex", which will see her playing opposite star Josh Brolin.

Next weekend will see the releases of MGM's remake of "Fame", Disney's sci-fi actioner "The Surrogates", and Overture's sci-fi/horror flick "Pandorum". 

Weekend Estimates

#1 "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" $24.6 million ($60.0 million) -19%
#2 "Surrogates" $15.0 million
#3 "Fame" $10.0 million
#4 "The Informant!" $6.9 million ($21.0 million) -34%
#5 "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" $4.8 million ($44.5 million) -52%
#6 "Pandorum" $4.4 million
#7 "Love Happens" $4.3 million ($14.7 million) -46%
#8 "Jennifer's Body" $3.5 million ($12.3 million) -49%
#9 "9" $2.8 million ($27.1 million) -49%
#10 "Inglorious Basterds" $2.7 million ($114.5 million) -29%
#11 "All About Steve" $2.3 million ($30.0 million) -32%
#12 "Julie & Julia" $1.2 million ($90.5 million) -37%

With only a few films making any significant noise at the box office, the studios have to be pleased that this is the final weekend of what usually turns out to be the least successful movie-going month of every calendar year.  Just $518 million has been earned thus far in September '09 with three days to go in the month.  Regardless of this month's meager showing, 2009's year-to-date domestic haul now stands at a towering $7.815 million, representing a 7% increase over both last year ($7.284 billion) and '07 ($7.307 billion), up 15% when compared to '06 ($6.814 billion), and 20% stronger than '05 ($6.492 billion).

With only a 19% dip from last week, Sony's "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" is clearly headed for a final domestic tally well north of the century mark.  The movie has so far earned $60 million and will become only the seventh September release in history to earn more than $100 million domestically.  It will join "Rush Hour" ($141.2 million), "Sweet Home Alabama" ($127.2 million), "Double Jeopardy" ($116.7 million), "Remember the Titans" ($115.7 million), "The First Wives Club" ($105.5 million), and "Eagle Eye" ($101.4 million).  With a budget reportedly in the area of $100 million, the Sony film has emerged as the fall's first major hit.

Disney's "Surrogates" (which carried a production budget of more than $80 million), MGM's "Fame", and Overture's "Pandorum" didn't draw much interest from moviegoers this weekend as the films earned a combined $29.4 million.  "Surrogates" was the real surprise as many predicted that this one would take the top spot from 'Meatballs' this week.  This decade hasn't been that good for star Bruce Willis at the box office as he's only had six hits out of the 19 films he's headlined since the mega success of "The Sixth Sense" ($293.6 million) back in '99.  His biggest hit since then was his voice work in "Over the Hedge" ($155 million) back in '06.  His last live-action success of 2007's "Live Free or Die Hard" ($134.5 million). 

The new release that did make an impact was the latest from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, "Captialism: A Love Story" from Overture Films.  The movie launched in only four theaters and pocketed a $240k, giving it a whopping average of $60K, which was far and away the best average of any film playing this week.  The studio hopes to capitalize on the film's solid performance this weekend as it will enter 1,000 more locations next weekend.

Next weekend will see the first frame of the October session of business as Disney re-releases the first two 'Toy Story' flicks in their revamped 3D incarnations.  Those that attend the double-feature will be treated with a preview of next summer's "Toy Story 3", which will also be in 3D.  Sony's "Zombieland", Fox Searchlight's "Whip It", and WB's "The Invention of Lying" will also hit theaters.