The Box Office Report – May 11-13
Last week, in Box Office…
You’ve made your bed, America. Enjoy it.
The Avengers made $207.4 million. Think Like a Man made $8.1 million. The Hunger Games made $5.6 million. Pirates! Band of Misfits made $5.5 million. The Five-Year Engagement made $5 million. Everything else made less than $3 million.
Silence is golden.
This week, Dark Shadows is opening.
The Avengers will take first. It’ll make around $100 million. Dark Shadows will be second. That’ll probably be in the $30-35 million range. Everything else will be lucky to make $6 million.
It’s the fucking summer.
The Box Office Report – May 4-6
Last week in Box Office…
Weird week. Not sure what to make of it. Up was down, black was… actually, let’s skip the analogies.
Think Like a Man wins the box office for the second week in a row, mostly by default. It dropped around 50% to $17.6 million. This was expected, and I said that it would make this amount no matter what and would either win the weekend or finish second depending on what the other films did. So there was no surprise with this number at all. (P.S. It’s entire box office take last weekend was more than its entire budget.)
The Pirates! Band of Misfits finished second. That was slightly surprising, but not so much when you see how much it made. It only pulled in $11.1 million. That’s not that much. It cost like, $55 million to make. (Though it’s made almost $70 million overseas, so they’re doing fine.) So the number’s not that far off from expectations, it’s just that not many people saw this finishing second, I’d imagine.
The Hunger Games stayed strong again at #3. It only dropped 26% (26!), and in its sixth weekend, it made another $10.8 million. It’s on pace for about, oh — $380-something million domestically when all is said and done. Yeah. (more…)
The Box Office Report – April 27-29
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Think Like a Man makes (fucking how much?!) $33.6 million (a $16,700 per-theater average) to absolutely annihilate the box office. Most people thought $20 million was the number there (which, even that seemed too high to me). I really don’t know what to make of this, but, good for them. Only 2,000 theaters, too. (P.S. Its budget was only $12 million. So, seriously, good for them. They deserve every penny.)
The Lucky One, in a thousand more theaters than Think Like a Man, opened to second place, and $22.5 million. Which, can be considered overperforming, considering the estimates. The budget seems to have been around that number, so, whatever. I can’t get mad at films making money with low budgets. (I can get on it for being a huge piece of shit, though, so in that regard, I’m very excited to watch it.)
The Hunger Games dropped to third. I don’t think anyone’s complaining. They picked up another $14.7 million. 30% drop. In week 5. That’s incredible. $357 million for them domestically. They might end up $300 million above their budget with this. They really picked a winner here.
Chimpanzee opened to (how much? Really?) $10.7 million. I feel like every year people predict these things will open to $10 million, and they always open to 6 or 7. What makes chimps better than lions? Oh, right — a CG blockbuster and Project Nim. Chimps are in now.
Fingers crossed for that Every Which Way But Loose remake. (more…)
The Box Office Report – April 20-22
Last week, in Box Office…
Four weeks in a row for The Hunger Games. $21.1 million. Only a 36% drop. They’ve made about $350 million so far, domestically. Or at least, they will, by the end of this weekend.
The Three Stooges, which I will see by the end of the weekend, finished second, with $17 million. Slightly high, but also, it was put out in 3,500 theaters. It makes sense. This will end up being a decent hit for them. The budget was only $30 million. Remember that, people.
The Cabin in the Woods made $14.7 million, good for third place. Meh. I really don’t give a shit about this movie at all. I’m sure I’ll have to see it, but I can guarantee that I will not care, even a little bit, about this movie.
Titanic 3D made $11.9 million in its second weekend. I guess it’s like the ship. Took forever to go down. (more…)
The Box Office Report – April 13-15
Last week, in Box Office…
The Hunger Games wins again, to the surprise of no one. It drops only 43% in its third weekend for a total of $33.1 million. It has pulled in $300 million domestically and should be around $350 million when all is said and done.
American Reunion finishes second with $21.5 million. This seems in line with expectations if slightly on the weak side. But $20 million felt like what this was gonna do. It had a budget of only $50 million, so this is an opening that makes sense. I’ve yet to see it (or maybe I have and I’ve written up this portion of the article already, but whatever), so I don’t know if it’s good or not.
Titanic 3D opened to third and $17.3 million. This seems very weak, considering the estimates. I feel like most people considered this to be an easy second place finisher in the mid-20s this weekend. I can’t say I’m surprised (or even upset). They basically made their costs back anyway, so it’s all free money. Still, I can’t help but feel like the story was better served in 2D. (more…)
The Box Office Report – April 6-8
Last week, in Box Office…
Surprise, surprise. The Hunger Games wins again. $58.6 million. A 60% drop, but when you make $155 million, these things are bound to happen. Put it this way — their budget was $78 million. they needed to make — pretty much what they’ve made as of right now to break even. They’re doing fine.
Wrath of the Titans opened to an as-expected second place and $33.5 million. They advertised this enough to where it was bound to open to that number. So, yeah. It made that. It made less than the first one, and will do most of its business overseas. Whatever.
As you can tell, I care greatly about the films that are out.
Mirror Mirror opened to third place and $18.1 million. That feels like what it should have opened too. It was either $13 million or $18 million. And honestly, with a number like that, it doesn’t make me hate this. It’s a bit sad this is going to fail, but who didn’t see that coming? (more…)
The Box Office Report – March 30-April 1
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The Hunger Games wins everything. $152.5 million. There isn’t much more to say, is there?
21 Jump Street finished second with a 43% drop and $20.5 million. They’re doing real well here.
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax finished third with a 42% drop and $13.2 million. This all seems exactly as expected.
John Carter finished fourth with $5.1 million. 62% drop. It speaks for itself.
Nothing else made more than $2 million. No joke. I feel like I said this was gonna happen. (more…)
The Box Office Report – March 23-25
Last week, in Box Office…
21 Jump Street wins the weekend, as expected, with a more-than-expected $36.3 million. Honestly, the amount of advertising they pumped into this thing — I’m not surprised. I’m not surprised at all. Plus, with the real lack of direct competition, it’s not surprising at all. Here’s hoping it’s entertaining.
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax finished second with $22.8 million. That’s about a 40% drop, and is another sign that kids films hold well and make shitloads of money. Off a budget of $70 million, the film has pulled in about $160 million after 3 weeks. They’re in extreme profit on this one.
John Carter finished third, dropping 55% (ouch) to $13.6 million. It has made $53 million after two weeks, and I think I read that Disney is estimating a $250 million loss on this one. Yeesh. I don’t think I need to say anything after that. (more…)
The Box Office Report – March 16-18
Last week, in Box Office…
Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax holds well (but not quite as well as these films tend to do), winning the weekend with $38.8 million. Many people expected $42-45 million, but the film still held better than 50%. And considering it made its budget back in its first weekend, they’re doing all right here. The biggest news about this film’s win last weekend was…
John Carter falls with a resounding thud. This was coming for a while. We all kind of saw this happening. With a reported budget of $250 million and a rumored budget of closer to $500 million (is that even possible?), there was really no number this could have reasonably opened to that would have been good. So, when I saw that it finished second with only $30.2 million, I wasn’t surprised. There was no way people cared enough about this film to go out and see it more than they did. And with The Hunger Games coming next week — this was a series of poor decisions all around, it seemed. It actually makes more sense to see films like this fail than to see them inexplicably succeed due to saturation marketing or box office bullying. I don’t feel particularly bad about this at all.
Project X finished third with what feels like an expected $11.1 million. They’ve made $40 million off of this so far, which I imagine is more than they paid to make it. So, they got in, they got out, they made some money, and the budget wasn’t that big. Amazing how simple it is. (more…)
The Box Office Report – March 9-11
Last week, in Box Office…
The Lorax took a big shit all over everyone else. (Scene 3, the Loraxxx. Vivid Entertainment, 2013.) Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax just destroyed the competition with a $70.2 million opening. Apparently that was the film’s entire budget. Jesus. There’ really nothing else to say there, is there?
Project X opened second to a $21 million opening ($20.05 million, actually), which is solid for it, but next to that walnut with the flavor saver, it’s but pittance.
I mean, indubitably.
Act of Valor dropped 45% in its second weekend, finishing third with $13.6 million. That makes sense, since the kids dominated the one film and there wasn’t much around it. (more…)
The Box Office Report – March 2-4
Last week, in Box Office…
I don’t even know what opened. Seriously. I have to go back and look. That’s a first.
Act of Valor — oh yeah — opened to a strong $24.5 million. Because America is dumb and fetishizes soldiers. I hear the film is nothing more than a concept and has no story to tell of whatsoever. That’s about what I expected. But good for them, I guess. They opened to double their production budget, so that’s nice. At least they didn’t spend much. (Could have at least tried to write a decent story, though.)
Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds opened to (wow) $15.6 million. That seems a bit low for Tyler Perry. But honestly, it doesn’t matter. He wins no matter what, so it’s fine. You know what you’re getting, he doesn’t spend much, he makes money. Doesn’t matter. (I do want to see if that theorem holds up, though. By the rule I invented, this film will finish with somewhere between $30-33 million. I’ll keep you posted how it does.)
Journey 2: Mysterious Island is showing remarkable life at the box office (or maybe it’s just another one of those kids things. Gnomeo and Juliet did the same exact thing last year), dropping only 32% and finishing with $13.4 million. It has just about made its budget back domestically. That’s nice. It was harmless. (more…)
The Box Office Report – February 24-26
Last week, in Box Office…
Apparently it was a “holiday” weekend. I don’t believe in these holidays when it comes to box office. So my recap will only be the three day numbers and not what was reported to fudge the facts.
Either way, Safe House impressively wins the weekend by only dropping 40% to make $23.6 million. This was right in line with expectations, the only real difference was that Ghost Rider didn’t perform, so that’s what makes it seem very impressive.
Finishing second was The Vow, with $23.1 million. Slightly bigger drop than was forecasted, which is good, but overall it finished within expectations. I didn’t particularly enjoy either film, but they weren’t offensive, so I don’t mind so much that they’re making money.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (which was pretty bad, by the way), finished a weak third, with $22.1 million. That should be enough to kill the franchise, which was never particularly strong. (He only went full Cage once! In this movie?!) (more…)
The Box Office Report – February 17-19
Last week, in Box Office…
Well fuck me silly. Two films make $40 million!
The first was The Vow, which made $41.2 million. This was way higher than expected, and I’m sure the film will not live up to it at all.
Safe House finished second, with $40.2 million. Denzel continues to open. That’s nice. I saw the film. It was okay. But I’ll be honest with you… I enjoyed Man on a Ledge so much more.
Journey 2: The Center of the Earth finished third, with what I’m assuming is a huge overperformance of $27.3 million. It was pretty decent, though. I mean — it was what it was, but it accomplished what it wanted to accomplish. You can’t ask for more than that. I’m not this film’s age range, so I get it.
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, in 3D, opened to fourth with — wait, seriously? $22.5 million. Jesus. Though this happened last year, didn’t it? Everyone wanted to go to the movies, and couldn’t for the first six weeks because everything sucked, then they busted out and went to Adam Sandler and Justin Bieber. So maybe this was to be expected. They did do a great job of counter-programming. I didn’t think we’d get these totals, but I constantly underestimate the depths to which American taste has sunk. (more…)
The Box Office Report – February 10-12
Last week, in Box Office…
Chronicle wins the weekend with $22 million. Coulda sworn I said that it would beat The Woman in Black. I don’t remember the numbers, but I could have sworn I said this would happen.
The Woman in Black finishes second with $20.8 million. Just looking at these numbers, I can tell that both films overperformed. I’m sure I won’t like either of them.
The Grey finishes third, dropping 52%, with $9.3 million. This was a pretty badass movie. I really enjoyed this one. I’m glad they made their budget back. This was definitely better than most January fare you’d normally see.
Big Miracle opened to fourth place, and what I imagine is a very disappointing $7.8 million, considering the $40 million price tag on this one. Quel dommage. (more…)
The Box Office Report – February 3-5
Last week, in Box Office…
Liam Neeson beats the shit out of more things. The Grey wins the weekend, overperforming (though I don’t see how this wasn’t the expected number in the first place), to the tune of $19.7 million. It makes sense, considering Unknown (a vastly inferior film, if the reviews are to be believed. I’ll be seeing it this weekend, probably. I’m in that three week zone where I don’t watch anything, then gear up for the new year. AKA, Oscar month) also made around $20 million its first weekend. I hear good things, so, good for them.
Underworld: Awakening drops to second place, falling a standard 50%, making $12.4 million. That’s a standard drop, and the film has made $44 million after two weeks. That’s right on track with all the other entries in this franchise.
One for the Money, that fucking movie (I’m hearing Unforgivable things about this. I’m excited to see it), made $11.5 million, good for third place. I honestly don’t care that it made that much, since it’s looking like the film will barely cross $30-35 million, against a budget of $40 million, plus marketing. They’re not gonna make their money back here, and that’s all I care about. (more…)
The Box Office Report – January 27-29
Last week, in Box Office…
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Underworld: Awakening wins the weekend, making $25.3 million. Technically the second biggest opening in the series (they were all either $20-21 million or $25-26 million), I’d wager this one sold the least amount of tickets. Still, this is in line with the rest of them — $20+ million opening, and it’ll finish between $50-60 million domestically. Nothing new here. Get in, get out. Good for them.
Red Tails completely overperforms (which is great. I’m very happy for them) to the tune of $18.8 million. I am very happy about this, I wish them continued success, and I cannot wait to see it. (Also, just so you know how well that number is, it opened in 500 less theaters than Underworld did.)
Contraband finished third in its second weekend, dropping a standard 50% and making $12 million. This was completely anticipated and is right in line with expectations. The film has made $46 million after two weeks, and off a budget of only $25 million, I bet this is a nice success for them. Could have been a worse movie. (more…)
The Box Office Report — January 20-22
Last week, in Box Office…
Contraband wins the weekend with $24.3 million. (That $28 million they said was for the 4-day weekend. Homie don’t play that. I deal with 3 days only unless it’s a legitimate holiday like Christmas or I’m drunk.) The film was only budgeted at $25 million, so this will be considered a huge success, and knowing Mark Wahlberg, he’ll want to do a sequel. Mark Wahlberg is more of a producer nowadays than an actor.
Beauty and the Beast 3D finished second with $17.8 million. Not as big a number as The Lion King. Possibly because The Lion King is the most beloved Disney film. Or because people are just tired. Honestly, I don’t know. It’s free money for them. I just don’t want it to turn into them just rereleasing shit rather than put out new stuff. Otherwise, let’s see how it holds up this week before we make any statements.
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol finished third with $11.7 million. This film continues to do amazing business. It’s gonna hit $200 million stateside, which is pretty awesome. Nice going, Brad Bird.
Joyful Noise opened to fourth place, and $11.2 million. Don’t worry, they only spent $25 million. I hope all the old women and fat housewives loved it. (more…)
The Box Office Report – January 13-15
Last week, in Box Office…
God help us all. This is how we start a new year?
The Devil Inside wins the weekend with, I believe, the second or third biggest January opening ever, $33.7 million.
I have nothing to say. Fuck you, America. (Nothing against Paramount there. They only spend $1 million on the budget. I don’t love the idea of spending $30+ million for an opening weekend, but it’s fine. My problem is with the people who went out to see it just because that’s what the commercials told them to do.)
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol finished second with $19.9 million. Good for them. They’ve got a huge success here.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows finished third with $13.7 million. That’s also really solid, and they’re doing pretty well themselves. I think this one will be considered a bit soft for a sequel, but I think they’ve made enough money to where this will be a success. Really, all they need to do for a sequel is cut the budget a little bit, tone down the action a little bit, and tell a strong story, and they’ll be fine. (more…)
The Box Office Report: January 6-8
Last week, in Box Office…
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol won the weekend (in its third weekend. Remember, the first one was a limited one) with $29.4 million. That is a 0.5% drop. Don’t worry, this isn’t surprising. Everything else did plus business. I won’t tell you how much it’s up to, because in 4 days time (that be Tuesday), an article will go up detailing what every film that came out this year (for the most part) made. You’ll see what I mean. Just know that this won, and it’s doing really, really well.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows finished second, with $20.9 million. This is also doing well. Hollywood seemed to freak out about these films underperforming, and here they are — doing quite well. Both of them pretty much have their budgets back after three weeks.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked finished third, with $16.4 million. It is nearing $100 million, so expect a sequel in two years. (more…)
The Box Office Report – December 30-January 1
Last week, in Box Office…
In what shocked the shit out of everyone, Tom Cruise stood up and said, “Fuck y’all, I’m still a badass motherfucker at the box office.”
Okay, so maybe he didn’t say that. He said, “I can go back to my well really well. And my movie made $46 million, so I can rhyme well with well. Do something.”
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (I hope you’re all appreciative of the fact that I get the punctuation right every time for your benefit when trying to repeat it.) made $29.5 million. And this is after it opened really strong last week. Everyone is amazed at how this happened. Some blame Scientology. I, honestly, blame no one, since this was actually a really entertaining film, and was everything a Mission: Impossible film should be. So let it make the money. It’s well on its way to recovering its budget back. It has currently pulled in about $95 million so far (off a budget of around $150 million. Not to mention pulling in almost $200 million worldwide so far).
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows finished second for the weekend, with $20.3 million. Still pretty strong for it. I’m not sure why they’re considering this such a failure. “Oh no, it only made $40 million instead of $60 million! We’re fucked a dinosaur’s story! It’s crossed $100 million domestically already. Disappointment, my ass! (more…)
The Box Office Report — December 23-25
Last week, in Box Office…
I love when a $40 million weekend is considered soft.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows wins the weekend with $39.6 million. Most films (especially this year) would kill for such an opening. Soft… fucking Hollywood, man. They complain that no one’s going to see the films and then bitch that they didn’t make more money when people do go to see them. Amazing.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked finished second with $23.2 million. This makes me happy. Finally, one of these films did not come back with more money than the last one. Of course, there’s still international money to take into account, but at the moment — it looks like this will be the last one of this franchise. At not too soon, either.
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol finished third this weekend, with an incredible $12.8 million. In 425 theaters! That means Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible is more bankable than Robert Downey, Jr. Take that, naysayers. I bet Tom is feeling pretty happy right about now. Praising that Christmas Thetan. (more…)
The Box Office Report — December 16-18
Last week, in Box Office…
Oh, you fucking know I’m happy.
New Year’s Eve wins the weekend (as expected. How could it not?), but not in the landslide I was expecting. Hell, not in the landslide anyone was expecting. Most estimates put this at mid 20s for the weekend, and I wasn’t convinced that it wouldn’t do higher than that (since Valentine’s Day, the unofficial first entry into this ensemble holiday series, did $5o million its first weekend. I underestimated how little of a fuck people give about New Year’s). But, lo and behold — a very, very, very soft $13 million opening. That’s crazy. And yet — I’m so fucking ecstatic about that.
The Sitter opened to $9.9 million. It’s a little softer than expected, but not much. And considering the overall weekend — it did fine. What I’m hearing about this is varying from awful to “lot of fun.” So I don’t know. I’m expecting 3 stars and moderately funny at parts, and stupid/by the numbers for others. Which is fine. Also, since they only (reportedly) spent $25 million on this, it should end up okay. This will make much more money in ancillary than it will now. (more…)
The Box Office Report — December 9-11
Last week, in Box Office…
It was a slow week in Tinseltown (named such to make up for the fact that it doesn’t have Christmas). Nothing new opened and absolutely no one went to the movies. Know how I know?
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1 won the weekend with only $16.5 million (another 60% drop). Typically the film that wins this weekend makes at least $20 million. Yeesh, that’s a slow weekend. The good news for the film is that it’s made just shy of $250 million domestically after three weeks. That’s double the budget they spent for both parts of this finale. It’s kind of like being dealt a straight flush, and then betting out the rest of the hand, knowing other people will call you and you’re guaranteed to make a shitload of money. It must feel good.
The Muppets also dropped 60%, which is sad, but okay. It made $11.1 million in second place, bringing its domestic total to $56.4 million after two weeks. Considering that’s above the film’s reported budget, I think they’ll be fine. On a side note, I saw this movie last weekend, and it was fucking magical. Great job, everybody involved with this. It’s what a Muppet movie should be. (The end was a bit rushed though, I feel.)
Hugo finished third, having a nice 33% drop (aka 67% hold) and making $7.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $25 million after two weeks in relative limited release. Something tells me though that this film will still not get the audience it deserves and it won’t end up making much of its budget back (which is really sad, because it’s beautiful). (more…)
The Box Office Report – December 2-4
Last week, in Box Office…
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1 (fuck, that’s a mouthful) wins the weekend yet again, as expected, with another $41.7 million, bringing it to $220.8 million domestically in ten days. It’s also crossed $500 million worldwide after twelve days. I don’t really have anything to say. Train’s almost over.
The Muppets finished second with $29.2 million for the weekend, bringing its total from Wednesday through Sunday to $41.5 million. Considering it had a $45 million budget, they’re gonna make a nice profit on this one, all things considered. (Though I imagine, not immediately, since I can’t see them not having spent at least $60 million to market this.)
Happy Feet Two finished third this weekend with $13.4 million, bringing its two week total to $43.8 million. This seems incredibly low for a film whose budget is reported at being $135 million and whose predecessor grossed almost $200 million. It wasn’t that bad. It was actually better than most animated sequels, and those tend to do $500 million worldwide easy. It doesn’t make sense. (more…)
