2009 at the Box Office - Page 3

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

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.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

'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.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

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.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

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.

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

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).

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

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]

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

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

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Weekend Estimates
3-day
(4-day estimates will be released tomorrow)

#1 "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" $33.8 million
#2 "Gran Torino" $22.2 million ($73.2 million) -25%
#3 "My Bloody Valentine 3D" $21.9 million
#4 "Notorious" $21.5 million
#5 "Hotel for Dogs" $17.7 million
#6 "Bride Wars" $11.8 million ($37.6 million) -44%
#7 "The Unborn" $9.8 million ($33.1 million) -50%
#8 "Defiance" $9.2 million ($9.5 million) +13,402%
#9 "Marley & Me" $6.3 million ($132.7 million) -45%
#10 "Slumdog Millionaire" $5.9 million ($42.7 million) +56%
#11 "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" $5.6 million ($102.6 million) -39%
#12 "Bedtime Stories" $4.8 million ($103.8 million) -45%

The industry enjoyed the biggest weekend haul ever for the month of January as business topped the $150 million mark (over the course of the 3-day portion of the weekend) for the first time in history. With tomorrow's holiday, experts expect the MLK 4-day frame to top the $200 million for the first time ever. This weekend was 25% stronger than last year, on top of being a whopping 70% more potent than this frame in '07.

2009's massive year-to-date gross of $641.5 million represents a 30% improvement over last year ($494.5 million), up an impressive 40% over '07 ($459.1 million), 35% stronger than '06 ($474.8 million), and a 34% increase over '05 ($477.3 million).

This weekend also saw 'Paul Blart' become only the third January release in history to open with more than $30 million, joining last year's "Cloverfield" ($40.1 million) and 1997's special edition release of the original "Star Wars" movie ($35.9 million). In terms of history, the most films per year that January has seen debut with more than $20 million has been three, achieved in 2005 with "Coach Carter" ($24.2 million), "White Noise" ($24.1 million), and "Hide and Seek" ($22.0 million). No other year saw more than two January openers top the $20 million mark. This year has already seen a record-shattering five films open north of $20 million with two weekends of business left in the month.

Four new releases hit theaters this weekend and all four ended up in the top five with Sony's "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" topping the field. The comedy ended up with the third biggest opening mark ever for the month of January, as well as earning a stellar per-theater average of $10,751 from its 3,144 locations, which was the second best of the top 12. At a cost of just over $25 million, the movie proved instantly profitable and will go on to be a big hit for the studio. This marks a personal best for star Kevin James as a film's solo above-the-title star, following second billings in such films as "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" and "Hitch".

WB's "Gran Torino" is turning into a big hit as it was off by only 25% this weekend. The drama has so far tallied more than $73 million and is clearly on its way to earning well north of the $100 million mark. The film cost a very modest $33 million to produce and as is the case with most films from director/star Clint Eastwood, will be hugely profitable for the studio.

Lionsgate's "My Bloody Valentine 3D" got off to a fantastic start as it debuted with close to $22 million. The horror flick earned an impressive average of $8,642 from its 2,534 theaters, which was the fourth best of the top 12. The movie isn't expected to have the strongest of legs, but expect it to go to be a huge hit for the studio.

Fox Searchlight's "Notorious" also got out of the gates with a solid opening as it tallied about $21.5 million. The biopic's whopping per-theater average of $13,126 from its modest 1,638 locations was easily the best of the top 12. While the film may be front-loaded, it will still end up being a hugely profitable venture for Fox.

DreamWorks/Paramount's "Hotel for Dogs" debuted with close to $18 million this weekend, earning a decent average of $5,413 from its 3,271 theaters. The studios are hoping this one has legs in the coming weeks. They also expect this one to be a solid performer once it gets to home video.

Fox's strong turnaround from their disastrous '08 continues as their comedy, "Bride Wars", had a better hold than most thought it would. The film took a moderate 44% dip this week and has so far tallied just under $38 million. A final domestic haul in the neighborhood of $65-$75 million is now expected for the film, which cost only $30 million to make.

Universal's "The Unborn" also had a stronger-than-expected hold as it was off by about 50% this weekend. Most horror flicks suffer greater declines during their sophomore frames. The movie has currently earned more than $33 million and looks headed for a final mark of about $50-$60 million.

Paramount Vantage's "Defiance" went into wide release this weekend and earned a solid mark of just over $9 million. The film enjoyed a decent average of $5,146 from its 1,789 locations. Fox's "Marley & Me" has now tallied $132.7 million. Fox is also enjoying a fantastic performance by the odds on Oscar favorite "Slumdog Millionaire" as it enjoyed a 56% increase in business this weekend. With the Oscar nods being announced this week, expect that, on top of the phenomenal word-of-mouth the film is earning, to eventually carry this one past the century mark. Both Paramount/WB's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and Disney's "Bedtime Stories" were able to pass the century mark this weekend as the two movies rounded out the top 12.

Next weekend will see Sony's "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" and New Line/WB's "Inkheart" battle it out for the top spot. Next week will also see Universal's "Frost/Nixon" and Paramount Vantage's "Revolutionary Road" each enter more than 800 theaters as the two films try to capitalize on whatever Oscar nominations they receive. Fox Searchlight/WB's Oscar favorite "Slumdog Millionaire" will also go into wide release as it hits more than 1,000 more theaters. Look for this one to make a pretty big dent in the top 12. WB's blockbuster "The Dark Knight" will also be entering 200-plus locations following what the studio hopes will be a very good outcome following the announcement of the Oscar nominations.

The studio's are currently enjoying the strongest beginning to a year they've ever had and with 'Underworld', "Inkheart", and 'Slumdog' entering wide release, there's no reason the current winning streak shouldn't continue. Next weekend should give January a fourth consecutive top 12 finish north of the $100 million, marking only the second time that's ever happened (following last year).

Re: 2009 at the Box Office

Lionsgate execs are hoping that since the 3D screenings were so tough to get into, that will translate in the movie having stronger than usual legs for a film from this particular genre. While 2D theaters will probably fall off, the 3D screenings could give the movie some sturdy legs.