2008 at the Box Office (1 Viewer)

[Mark Hawley]

I'm not sure about that though. The film should have at least $40 million by Sunday and could pass the $100 million mark. Not amazing considering the budget, but certainly better than many feared considering Cruise is playing a one-armed, eye patch-wearing German and considering the aura the actor has due to his behavior of the last few years.

And it's fourth, but not a distant fourth. It made just under $2 million less than the more audience-friendly, kid-oriented Adam Sandler film, so all in all it did alright.

 

[DavidPla]

Heh, so much for the "no interest" in Benjamin Button. Looks like it's going to become David Fincher's biggest hit if the numbers continue to be this big.

 

[TravisR]

I can't wait to see it but I think it'll nosedive next weekend and still won't be a commercial hit. In all fairness, I don't think the studio paid for it thinking it would be a hit either- they wanted a prestige picture and got it.

 

[Pete-D]

He's not young enough to sit around doing nothing for 10 years and then launch a relevant come back.

Movie stars generally have a limited shelf life anyway, and Cruise has had a very lengthy run as a box office draw anyway.

As for CCoBB ... not surprised at all with the solid box office there.

Doesn't matter if its a Fincher film, 98% of the movie going audience doesn't know who directs what or don't know many filmmakers beyond Spielberg, Tarantino, Lucas, or Shyamalan.

CCoBB is a romantic epic starring one of the most famous movie stars on the planet, with an unusual special effects touch of fantasy which will help draw the male demographic. Its also been pretty solidly marketed and fairly well reviewed.

It should have done well, and it is doing well.

 

[TerryRL]

Friday Estimates

#1 "Marley & Me" $14.0 million ($28.6 million)
#2 "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" $10.2 million ($22.0 million)
#3 "Bedtime Stories" $9.9 million ($20.2 million)
#4 "Valkyrie" $8.1 million ($16.5 million)
#5 "Yes Man" $5.9 million ($39.1 million) 9% Friday-to-Friday drop
#6 "Seven Pounds" $4.8 million ($30.4 million) 8% Friday-to-Friday drop
#7 "The Tale of Despereaux" $3.2 million ($21.7 million) 10% Friday-to-Friday drop
#8 "The Day the Earth Stood Still" $2.8 million ($58.5 million) 3% Friday-to-Friday drop
#9 "The Spirit" $2.6 million ($6.5 million)
#10 "Four Christmases" $1.87 million ($108.7 million) 17% Friday-to-Friday drop
#11 "Doubt" 1.85 million ($5.0 million) 912% Friday-to-Friday increase
#12 "Twilight" $1.6 million ($164.2 million) 1% Friday-to-Friday drop

 

[TerryRL]

I spent the better part of this morning writing out a long and very detailed report on this the final weekend of '08, but when I loaded it there was some sort of error and everything was lost. I'm way too frustrated to do it all again. Sorry to go all "sad bastard" on everyone, but damn if that's not frustrating.

Anywho, have a safe and happy new year everybody. Let's hope we moviegoers have a lot to talk about in '09.

From Comingsoon.net...
TW LW Title Studio Weekend Theaters Total Week
1 - Marley & Me 20th Century Fox $37,000,000 3,480 $51,675,000 1
2 - Bedtime Stories Walt Disney Pictures $28,069,000 3,681 $38,598,000 1
3 - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Paramount Pictures $27,000,000 2,988 $39,008,000 1
4 - Valkyrie United Artists $21,531,000 2,711 $30,024,000 1
5 1 Yes Man Warner Bros. Pictures $16,450,000 3,434 $49,591,000 2
6 2 Seven Pounds Columbia Pictures (Sony) $13,400,000 2,758 $39,026,000 2
7 3 The Tale of Despereaux Universal Pictures $9,368,000 3,107 $27,945,000 2
8 4 The Day the Earth Stood Still 20th Century Fox $7,900,000 2,402 $63,615,000 3
9 - The Spirit Lionsgate $6,510,000 2,509 $10,352,000 1
10 15 Doubt Miramax Films $5,675,000 1,267 $8,825,000 3
11 5 Four Christmases New Line Cinema (Warner Bros. Pictures) $5,045,000 2,510 $111,817,000 5
12 6 Twilight Summit Entertainment $4,518,000 1,849 $167,063,000 6

Topping the list was 20th Century Fox's Marley & Me, which earned an estimated $37 million from 3,480 theaters for an average of $10,632 per location. The dramedy, based on John Grogan's best-seller, set a new Christmas Day record with $14.7 million on Thursday, surpassing 2001's Ali ($10.2 million) - a record also broken by fellow newcomers The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ($12 million) and Bedtime Stories ($10.5 million). Starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, Marley & Me has collected an impressive $51.7 million in four days.

Adam Sandler's new adventure comedy Bedtime Stories took second place with $28.1 million from 3,681 theaters, an average of $7,625 per site. The Walt Disney Pictures release has made $38.6 million since opening on Christmas Day.

Coming in close at No. 3 was David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The drama about a man aging backwards collected $27 million over the three days from 2,988 theaters, averaging $9,036. Budgeted for about $150 million, the Paramount film topped Bedtime Stories for the four days with $39 milion.

Bryan Singer's new WWII thriller Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise, debuted in the fourth spot with $21.5 million from 2,711 theaters. The United Artists pic averaged $7,942 over the three days and has garnered $30 million since opening on Thursday.

Warner Bros. Pictures' Yes Man dipped just 9.9% in sales, adding $16.5 million its second weekend for a total of $49.6 million. It was followed in sixth place by Sony's Seven Pounds, which also dropped just 9.8% and earned $13.4 million for a two-week total of $39 million, and Universal's The Tale of Despereaux, which saw a drop of just 7.3% and another $9.4 million for a total of $27.9 million after two weeks.

Fox's The Day the Earth Stood Still made $7.9 million its third weekend to bring its total to $63.6 million. The Keanu Reeves starrer cost about $80 million to make.

Frank Miller's adaptation of Will Eisner's comic book The Spirit earned $6.5 million over the weekend and $10.4 million for the four days. The Lionsgate adaptation stars Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Paulson, Eva Mendes, Dan Lauria, Paz Vega, Jaime King and Scarlett Johansson.

John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis, was expanded into wide release and rounded out the top 10. The drama, based on Shanley's play, brought in $5.7 million from 1,267 theaters and averaged $4,479. It has earned $8.83 million after three weeks.

In limited release, Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road, reuniting Titanic stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Kathy Bates, earned an impressive $192,000 from just three theaters, while Overture Films' Last Chance Harvey, with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, made $96,000 from six theaters for a total of $132,000, and Sony Pictures Classics' Waltz with Bashir collected $51,200 from five theaters for a total of $55,100.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Bummer, Terry. I've had similar issues with HTF in the past. Now I write out my longer posts in Notepad and paste them into the message box when I'm ready to post.

 

[TerryRL]

I'm going to start doing that very same thing Adam. It has happened to me more than once and I should've been doing that a long time ago.

By the way, many are now predicting that 'Benjamin Button' will earn no less than $150 million domestically based on how it performed this weekend. The female demo is going to be huge for this movie, the same can also be said for "Seven Pounds". It probably won't become Will Smith's ninth consecutive $100 million-plus domestic earner, but it will still end up being a solid performer for him.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I would love for Fincher to have a huge hit. That would absolutely make my year.

Terry, thanks for your continued herculean efforts in 2008! I anxiously await arguing Titanic's box office in the 2009 thread at some random point.

 

[TerryRL]

Funny how "Titanic" always comes up in these box office threads. I expect to see more references to the movie in '09, especially with its director making his long awaited return to mainstream filmmaking. I wouldn't be at all surprised if "Avatar" ended up dominating pages of conversations after it hits theaters.

Checking through this year's thread and "The Dark Knight" was easily the most talked about movie of the year.

 

[TerryRL]

Overseas b.o. breaks record with $9.9 bil
The six majors pass $1 bil each for second consecutive year
By Frank Segers

Jan 1, 2009, 08:16 PM ET
Things may be tough economically around the globe, but the major Hollywood film distributors still managed to gross record high overseas boxoffice in 2008, garnering an estimated $9.9 billion, up 4% from 2007's $9.5 billion international total.

Overseas operations of the six major studios -- Paramount, Warner Bros., Universal, 20th Century Fox, Sony and Disney -- each bagged more than $1 billion in revenue for the second consecutive year, according to preliminary estimates from each distributor.

Paramount Pictures International generated the most foreign revenue with an estimated $2.037 billion, an increase of 28.2% from 2007 -- a new international record for the studio. It is the first time Paramount, which ranked fourth among the big six in 2007, crossed the $2 billion overseas boxoffice threshold.

The biggest single title on the international circuit last year was Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which bowed May 21, and went on to gross $469.5 million foreign (versus $317 million domestic), according to Paramount figures. Second was Warner Bros. International's Batman pic "The Dark Knight," which tallied an estimated $465 million overseas.

Thanks to its 2008 product stream from DreamWorks Animation, PPI also capitalized overseas with "Kung Fu Panda," which garnered $416.5 million abroad (versus $215.4 million domestic) and "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," which opened Oct. 30 and is still playing internationally. The "Madagascar" sequel grossed an estimated $305 million in 2008, and appears on track to double its domestic gross of $175.7 million. Marvel's "Iron Man, which PPI handled in most overseas markets, tallied $214.2 million.

In addition to "Dark Knight," Warners parlayed a roster including "I Am Legend" with Will Smith -- perhaps the biggest Hollywood name overseas in 2008 -- and "10,000 B.C." to a second-place finish with an estimated $1.8 million overall. "Legend" grossed $210.7 million foreign last year, while "10,000" finished with $173.4 million.

In third place is Universal, which scored $1.7 billion in boxoffice overseas last year, a record for the distributor. Uni's previous international record was $1.164 billion in 1999. The big driver for the company was the musical "Mamma Mia!," which had extraordinary success abroad -- grossing $428.5 million, nearly three times its domestic tally ($144.1 million).

Universal also showed overseas returns of more than $100 million with "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" ($294.3 million vs. $102.5 million domestic); "Wanted" ($209.5 million vs. $134.5 million domestic) and "Incredible Hulk" ($100.6 million in territories serviced by the company).

Fourth was 20th Century Fox, which grossed an estimated $1.6 million in 2008 -- about even with the previous year -- on the strength of "Horton Hears a Who" ($142.5 million), "What Happens in Vegas" ($139 million), "Jumper" ($133.9 million) and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" ($110.7 million).

Fifth was Sony, which generated an estimated $1.383 billion, the distributor's second-biggest year after 2006's $1.634 billion. "Hancock" with Will Smith lead the Sony roster with an overseas gross of $396.4 million (versus $227.9 million domestic), followed by the latest James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace," which grossed $377.3 million in 2008 (an opening in Japan scheduled for this month). "Quantum's" domestic tally is $164.3 million.

Disney, which ranked third among the big six last year, finished sixth in 2008, grossing $1.37 billion, down 19% from 2007. The company had an unusually strong 2007 on the strength of third title in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series (which grossed $653 million, the third largest international gross in history) and the animation title, "Ratatouille" ($406 million).

This year, Disney capitalized overseas on "WALL-E" ($289.4 million); "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" ($278.3 million); "National Tresure: Book of Secrets," $173.9 million in 2008, $237.1 million total); "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" ($151 million versus $89.4 million domestic); and "Enchanted" ($100.7 million in 2008, $213.4 total).

The biggest of the indie distribs is New Line Cinema, which collected $607 million in 2008 largely on the back of "Sex and the City" ($257.4 million foreign versus $153 million domestic). Mandate International grossed an estimated $219 million in 2008, while Summit International came in with an estimated $517 million.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Is there anyway to find out when "The Wrestler" is coming to a theater near you? It's one of the few remaining films of 2008 I want to see. Since I see it advertised at AMC theaters, perhaps AMC will be carrying it soon.

 

[TerryRL]

"The Wrestler" isn't going to be playing in anything near a wide release until after the Oscar nominations are announced. Currently, the movie has done very well in limited play and Fox Searchlight is hoping this trend continues as it continues to slowly expand. If so, the stronger the possibility will be for the movie to go into wider release down the line.

 

[Brett_B]

Patrick,

I found this information on the official site (Fox Searchlight - The Wrestler - Official Site)

 

[Patrick Sun]

Thanks you both, Terry and Brett! Looks like I have 2 more weeks to wait until "The Wrestler" finally shows up in my town. Also need to see "Revolutionary Road" and probably a couple more films to have seen most of the Oscars contenders.

 

[Greg Layton]

Nice pull on the Wrestler list! Looks like I'll be watching it here Jan. 23. I wonder if there's a similar list out there for Revolutionary Road?

 

[TerryRL]

The initial year-end estimate was released today and the studios received some troubling news. The final box office tally for December was $795.3 million, which marks the lowest December tally since 1999 ($637.8 million). A grand total of 112.3 million admissions were sold during the month, marking the lowest December tally since the mid-90s.

For the year, $9.624 billion was spent, marking the second best yearly haul in history, trailing only last year's tally of $9.664 billion. Here's the troubling part, 1.359 billion tickets were sold during the year, marking the lowest admission sales since 1996 (1.338 billion). Here's a list of year-end grosses and total ticket sales since the 1990s...

1990: $5.022 billion (1.206 billion admissions)
1991: $4.803 billion (1.140 billion admissions)
1992: $4.871 billion (1.181 billion admissions)
1993: $5.154 billion (1.256 billion admissions)
1994: $5.396 billion (1.295 billion admissions)
1995: $5.494 billion (1.264 billion admissions)
1996: $5.912 billion (1.338 billion admissions)
1997: $6.366 billion (1.394 billion admissions)
1998: $6.949 billion (1.482 billion admissions)
1999: $7.448 billion (1.476 billion admissions)
2000: $7.661 billion (1.435 billion admissions)
2001: $8.413 billion (1.481 billion admissions)
2002: $9.167 billion (1.607 billion admissions)
2003: $9.186 billion (1.542 billion admissions)
2004: $9.418 billion (1.522 billion admissions)
2005: $8.840 billion (1.398 billion admissions)
2006: $9.210 billion (1.400 billion admissions)
2007: $9.664 billion (1.405 billion admissions)
2008: $9.624 billion (1.359 billion admissions)

The studios were also distressed that DVD sales fell off a bit this year as well, if not for the massive success of WB's "The Dark Knight" at both the box office and on home video, this would've been an even more dismal year for studios. Still, overseas ticket sales hit an all-time high ($9.9 billion) in '08 and that looks to continue in '09.

The studios are putting a lot of pressure on themselves to avoid these type of numbers for '09. Yes, ticket prices are going to increase, but the studios also are hoping they've put together a decent enough schedule to drive sales past the marks reached in the previous four years.

We'll see what happens.

 

[Patrick Sun]

The studios only have themselves to blame for shifting big tentpole films of the late fall into next summer, mainly due to the fallout from the WGA strike.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I agree with Patrick. Summer 2009 is going to need a lot of help. I see TF2 doing Iron Man business and nothing doing anything near TDK. It's going to be a softer summer than 2008. Paramount screwed the pooch. Trek would have KILLED this Christmas.

 

[TerryRL]

I agree that "Star Trek" would've been huge this Christmas. Moving it to the week after 'Wolverine' may have been a mistake, we'll see. 'Harry Potter' will be gigantic regardless of when WB releases it, but it definitely would've helped 2008's "bottom line" had it opened in November.