Box Office

[GoldenFleece]

I just love following box office and seeing how it behaves differently, depending on the kind of movie (adaptation vs. original property vs. sequel, children's film vs. rom-com, etc.) and the time of year it's released. Here are the weekend's Top 12 at the box office:

1 1 The Expendables $16,968,032 -51.3% 3,270 - $5,189 $65,357,117
2 N Vampires Suck $12,202,831 - 3,233 - $3,774 $18,566,733
3 2 Eat Pray Love $12,111,162 -47.6% 3,082 - $3,930 $47,214,078
4 N Lottery Ticket $10,652,297 - 1,973 - $5,399 $10,652,297
5 3 The Other Guys $10,163,337 -41.6% 3,472 -179 $2,927 $88,253,482
6 N Piranha 3D $10,106,872 - 2,470 - $4,092 $10,106,872
7 N The Switch $8,436,713 - 2,012 - $4,193 $8,436,713
8 N Nanny McPhee Returns $8,407,685 - 2,784 - $3,020 $8,407,685
9 4 Inception $7,838,179 -30.5% 2,401 $3,265 $262,031,594
10 5 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World $5,201,970 -51.0% 2,820 $1,845 $20,898,255
11 6 Despicable Me $4,662,065 -33.1% 2,236 $2,085 $231,056,990
12 8 Dinner for Schmucks $3,520,805 -44.0% 2,149 $1,638 $65,800,919

Top 10 of 2010 so far (US/Canada):

1 Toy Story 3 $403,803,642
2 Alice in Wonderland (2010) $334,191,110
3 Iron Man 2 $312,128,345
4 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse $297,216,798
5 Inception $262,031,594
6 Shrek Forever After $237,736,710
7 Despicable Me $231,056,990
8 How to Train Your Dragon $217,581,231
9 The Karate Kid $175,514,424
10 Clash of the Titans (2010) $163,214,888

Top 10 of 2010 (worldwide) shows some differences. The numbers are total gross (in millions), US/Canada gross, % of total made in US/Canada, international numbers and international %:

1 Alice in Wonderland (2010) $1,024.3 $334.2 (32.6%) $690.1 (67.4%)
2 Toy Story 3 $984.4 $403.8 (41.0%) $580.6 (59.0%)
3 Shrek Forever After $693.2 $237.7 (34.3%) $455.5 (65.7%)
4 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse $653.9 $297.2 (45.5%) $356.7 (54.5%)
5 Iron Man 2 $621.7 $312.1 (50.2%) $309.6 (49.8%)
6 Inception $619.5 $262.0 (42.3%) $357.5 (57.7%)
7 Clash of the Titans (2010) $491.9 $163.2 (33.2%) $328.7 (66.8%)
8 How to Train Your Dragon $488.0 $217.6 (44.6%) $270.4 (55.4%)
9 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time $329.4 $90.4 (27.4%) $239.0 (72.6%)
10 Robin Hood $310.6 $105.3 (33.9%) $205.4 (66.1%)

I always like seeing how Hollywood movies can fare differently in other parts of the world. Some movies are big everywhere (Avatar), some are only really hits in America (Sandler can struggle and Tyler Perry films are barely released outside of North America), and some might perform well here but just go nuts oversees, i.e. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs making $196 million here but nearly $700 million more everywhere else. Who knew Scrat was that popular?

[twodollars]

I love Box Office watching.

The top 2010 movies are depressing - 4 cartoons and 1 kid's movie, while there is only 1 movie starring a woman. I was hoping Eat, Pray, Love or even Salt would make the top 10, otherwise I am afraid we'll end up with more cartoons and even fewer movies starring women.

[bklynred]

I've only seen two of the top 10 (Inception and The Other Guys). Prince of Persia making the top ten worldwide is baffling, but what do I know.

[Deleted]

Worldwide box office is not totally depressing, female-wise, though. I know Alice's main star is Depp, but it is at least a story with a female protagonist. So is Twilight (whatever I think of that franchise...). Toy Story's success is to be expected: kids movie + Pixar + Toy Story 1 & 2 being groundbreaking movies when it comes to computer animation. Salt and EPL haven't been out long enough to make a total mark yet I think, at least not worldwide.

[Atreides]

I love following box office. I read the predictions every weekend and check over the weekend to see how they really did. In the mid-late 90s, I even secretly rooted for Paramount Pictures over the other studios.

[GoldenFleece]

I love the fanwars you get on the box office boards, like the Potterhead fury at Twilight's huge opening days and the upward financial trajectory of the series (each successive movie has made more than the last, something the Potter series wasn't able to pull off). The anti-3D people feel pretty vindicated about all the recent underwhelming openings of 3D films; it was looking pretty bleak for them after Avatar, Alice in Wonderland even stuff like Clash of the Titans got a huge box office boost from the format.

I could tell the studio had no faith in The Switch because they released it so late in August. The first or second weekend in August is a good spot for the late summer sleeper comedy that makes a run for $100 million. Later than that for a comedy, and the studio doesn't think much of it. I don't have much hope for that one with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long coming out soon. Last year, they put out All About Steve on Labor Day weekend, which is one of the ultimate box office dumping grounds for new films. The box office tends not to pick up again until later in September.

[canuckcutie]

Yes I am a total numbers geek as well. I secretly cheer for some movies to do well and others to flop. It is always interesting how some movies perform domestically vs internationally.

Certain times of year are just dead zones at the box office so you know if a movie is released then it's a dud. Bumping a movie's date is generally also a sign that it's a dud.

[GoldenFleece]

Certain times of year are just dead zones at the box office so you know if a movie is released then it's a dud. Bumping a movie's date is generally also a sign that it's a dud.

Unless it gets moved from a dead zone to summer or the holiday season or in time for an Oscar run, and then that's a sign that the preview screenings went really well and the studio does think it's good enough to make money/get attention after all. Much more common is when a movie bounces around because the studio can't decide which release date will be the least painful and you end up seeing the trailer of the movie for what seems like years before it finally comes out. It felt like this happened with The Weather Man (the one where Nic Cage had food thrown at him repeatedly) and All About Steve ("We know, it totally sucks. What the hell was Sandra Bullock thinking to agree to star in this...hey, wait, maybe enough people who liked The Hangover and The Proposal can be duped into seeing this dog!").

[Atreides]

The Last Exorcism is going to open very well, in the neighbourhood of $25M or so, much more than what people were predicting. Rule of thumb is to always bet on an exorcism movie to do well!

[GoldenFleece]

Weekend Box Office: August 27-29, 2010

1 N Takers $20,512,304 - 2,206 - $9,298 $20,512,304
2 N The Last Exorcism $20,366,613 - 2,874 - $7,087 $20,366,613
3 1 The Expendables $9,527,937 -43.8% 3,398 $2,804 $82,040,183
4 3 Eat Pray Love $6,815,555 -43.7% 3,108 $2,193 $60,531,326
5 5 The Other Guys $6,285,712 -38.2% 3,181 $1,976 $99,018,172
6 2 Vampires Suck $5,221,780 -57.2% 3,233 $1,615 $27,834,256
7 9 Inception $4,876,356 -37.8% 2,070 $2,356 $270,519,920
8 8 Nanny McPhee Returns $4,714,215 -43.9% 2,798 $1,685 $16,991,285
9 7 The Switch $4,583,481 -45.7% 2,017 $2,272 $16,410,009
10 6 Piranha 3D $4,302,878 -57.4% 2,491 $1,727 $18,266,889

11 N Avatar: Special Edition $4,007,750 - 812 - $4,936 $4,007,750
12 4 Lottery Ticket $3,854,303 -63.8% 1,974 $1,953 $17,284,641
13 11 Despicable Me $2,859,680 -38.7% 1,833 -403 $1,560 $236,276,085
14 10 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World $2,505,555 -51.8% 1,566 $1,600 $26,166,945
15 13 Salt $1,883,890 -44.8% 1,168 $1,613 $113,260,644
16 12 Dinner for Schmucks $1,779,540 -49.5% 1,501 $1,186 $69,204,372
17 18 Get Low $1,640,176 +129.8% 570 $2,878 $3,633,451
18 14 Step Up 3-D $1,227,816 -61.0% 901 $1,363 $39,715,304
19 16 Toy Story 3 $1,010,710 -33.6% 600 $1,685 $405,659,221
20 15 Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore $675,231 -60.3% 823 $820 $41,279,244