Box Office 2009: Robots, Potter, Pixar Rule
As 2010 dawns, it's clear that (for better or worse) the mega-budget franchise ruled the box office in 2009.
The biggest winner of the year was a film so appalling most viewers could barely comprehend its sheer dreadfulness - which proves that Hollywood producers are geniuses and that PT Barnum's misattributed dictum - "There's a sucker born every minute", not to mention "A constant hammering on one nail will generally drive it home." - still hold true. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen earned $402,111,879 in the US alone, plus another $432,857,937 in the rest of the world, making it to (to date) the 20th most successful film of all time. Good grief.
At #2, a good $100M behind, is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with $301,959,197. However its worldwide total of $929,359,401 (the eighth largest in history), gives it the #1 spot overall, and makes it the third most successful in the franchise, behind Sorcerer's Stone ($947.7M) and Order of the Phoenix ($938.2M).
Those looking for some hope for humanity and the soul of the American people, can take solace in the fact that Pixar's Up holds the #3 spot with $293,004,164 ($683M worldwide), making it the second most successful Pixar movie after Finding Nemo ($339.71M), the most successful 3D movie of all time, and bringing the Emeryville studio's total take to $2.42 Billion. The Twilight Saga: New Moon is at #4 with $283,897,000, ($665.40M worldwide) making it one of the most profitable films of the year and eclipsing (sorry) the original's $192.76M.
Avatar looks set to break records with $283,811,000 ($760M worldwide) after 13 days on release and the #5 spot for the year (it's currently the eighth most successful science fiction film ever), while #6 is claimed by one of only two non-genre films in the Top 10, The Hangover, with $277,322,503 ($459.42M worldwide), making it the most successful R-rated comedy of all time, ahead of Wedding Crashers ($209.25M) and There's Something About Mary ($176.48M).
The Star Trek reboot sits at #7, with $257,730,019 ($385.46M worldwide), making it the most successful Star Trek film, ahead of 1986's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ($109.71M) and the ninth most successful science fiction film. Animated hits Monsters vs Aliens and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs are next, with $198,351,526 ($381.46M worldwide) and $196,573,705 ($887.56M worldwide) respectively, while Sandra Bullock's surprise hit The Blind Side rounds out the Top 10 with $196,403,000 (no worldwide release yet).
Other genre films in the Top 20 include X-Men Origins: Wolverine (#11 with $179.88M US/$373.06M world); Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (#12, $177.24M US/$412.68M world); 2012 (#14, $161.49M US/$734.28 world); and A Christmas Carol (#19, $136.68M US/$254.88M world).
The most profitable film of the year sits at #28, Paranormal Activity earned $107,783,000 (foreign takings unavailable), showing that, contrary to evidence at the top of the table, sometimes all you need is $15,000 and a couple of friends.
Overall, both box office takings and bums on seats are up 9.4% over 2008, on a roster of 516 movies versus 605 the previous year, with average ticket prices holding steady at $7.18.
Happy new year!
Figures courtesy of boxofficemojo.com and boxoffice.com. Worldwide figures are US plus foreign territories.
Box Office 12/21/09: Cameron King Again
The prevailing critical opinion: clichéd, predictable – and really quite wonderful, either didn't matter, or worked in Avatar's favor and swept it to $77.02M at the weekend box office, beating even its own studio's estimates (see my review here). Heavy snow on the East Coast held it back from breaking too many records, but it stands as the highest grossing original work (not a sequel or a remake) in history, the second highest December release (just beaten by I Am Legend's still bewildering $77.20M), and the highest ever 3D release, earning $55M from 3,129 screens, beating Up's $35.4M by quite some margin. Of those 3D screens, 178 were IMAX, and the film earned $9.5M in those theaters for the second highest IMAX opening, behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's $11.70M.
Overseas, Avatar brought in an additional $164.54M, bringing its worldwide total to $241.57M, the largest ever for an original work, but ninth overall – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince holds the record with $394M, and this year's The Twilight Saga: New Moon, at #6 with $274.9M, means that three of this year's releases are in the all-time Top 10.
At #2, Disney's The Princess and the Frog hopped down a predictable 50%, with $12.18M, for a running total of $44.71M, while The Blind Side continues to hold on with $10.02M for a running total of $164.72M, making it the most successful film of Sandra Bullock's career.
Did You See the Morgans failed to overcome the "Seen it all before, on TV" feeling exuded by its trailer and earned a meagre $6.61M at #4, a disappointment given its $58M budget. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, continues to descend, falling 45% with $4.40M, its US total now standing at $274.59M ($634.69M worldwide).
Invictus is at #6 with $4.20M, while A Christmas Carol fell 50% and 332 screens (including relinquishing all its IMAX locations to Avatar), bringing in $3.44M for a US total of $130.81M ($249.01M worldwide). The Top 10 is rounded out by Up in the Air ($3.21M), Brothers ($2.88M), and Old Dogs ($2.34M), while 2012 sits at #11, with $2.20M for the weekend, a US tally of $159.02M, and an astonishing worldwide total of $714.21M, making it the fourth biggest earner of the year, behind the Harry Potter ($929.40M), Ice Age ($883,70M), and Transformers ($835M) sequels.
Christmas weekend sees the opening of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, It's Complicated, and expansions for Up in the Air and Nine.
Box Office 12/15/09: Frog Leaps to #1
Another quiet pre-Avatar weekend at the box office was lead by the wide release of Disney's return to traditional animation The Princess and the Frog, which grossed $24.20M in 3,434 theaters against a budget of $105M. The Blind Side continues to do remarkable business, with $15M for a total of $149.81M after four weeks.
Clint Eastwood's Invictus lands at #3 with a modest $8.61M, but this Yorkshire-man's heart is glad to see a rugby-themed movie by a major director with major stars anywhere in the Top 10. The Twilight Saga: New Moon is down 48% at #4 bringing in another $7.96M for a staggering $267.32M total.
A Christmas Carol dropped just 12% on seasonal sentiment, earning $6.83M for a six week total of $124.42M. The rest of the chart mainly consists of films we've seen before, The Road continues to stumble along, adding seven theaters and $505,878 for a total of $4.01M, which must be a tiny fraction of its undisclosed budget and Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones debuts at #30 in three theaters to mostly negative reviews, with $116,616, winning the week's highest per-theater average with $38,872.
At #52 Transylmania drops 94% (and 889 theaters) earning $16,018, a miserable $136 per screen, for a 10 day total of $390,486, making to officially the least successful horror comedy ever to open in more than 1,000 theaters - earning a mere 10% of its nearest rivals, 1993's My Boyfriend's Back and 1988's Critters 2: The Main Course.
This coming weekend see the opening of James Cameron's Avatar and some other films very few people will see.
Box Office 12/08/09: Transylmania Lack Bite
Very little excitement for genre fans this week as we all hold our collective breath for the Avatar juggernaut (tickets go on sale today). The Blind Side continues to rise and takes the #1 spot with $20.04M, while The Twilight Saga: New Moon comes in at #2 with $15.42M, down 64% after adding 84 theaters - but with a US running total of $255.36M and a global take of an additional $243M, nobody's worried.
Jim Sheridan's Brothers opened at #3 with $9.52M, while A Christmas Carol dropped 467 theaters and 50% with $7.76M for a combined US tally of $115.24M (foreign totals are unavailable, but it took the #1 spot and £1.67M/$2.71M in the UK after five weeks). Old Dogs took $6.89M at #5, closely followed by 2012 with $6.77M (worldwide total of $600.25M).
Armored opened with a weak $6.51M, although its $20M budget can probably handle that. Ninja Assassin also failed to impress in its second weekend, dropping 62% from a poor opening with $5.06M ($29.82M total against a $40M budget). Planet 51 is at #9, down 57% with $3.85M (a total of $34.05M, marking the halfway point to its $70M budget). Robert De Niro failed to find an audience with Everybody's Fine at #10, pulling in only $3.85M in 2,133 theaters.
At #11 Fantastic Mr Fox looks unlikely to take hold as a family holiday hit, down $58% with $2.91M, for a disappointing $14.08M after 10 days on wide release. Meanwhile at #15 The Road dropped 57%, despite expanding to 126 screens, adding $749,535 for a 10-day total of $3.19M.
This week's biggest flop however is Transylmania, which debuted in 1,007 theaters, managing a paltry $262 per screen for a total of $263,941. This makes it the worst ever opening for a film playing in more than 1,000 cinemas and hopefully, after this and Stan Helsing, we'll see a hiatus for the unfunny horror spoof – the distributors of UK flop Lesbian Vampire Killers are presumably not looking forward to the holidays, as this opens in the US on 12/29.
Friday sees the following openings: Disney's The Princess and the Frog, Clint Eastwood's Rugby-themed, post-apartheid Invictus, Peter Jackson's eagerly awaited The Lovely Bones, fashion designer Tom Ford's directorial debut A Single Man, and the latest from Broken Lizard, The Slammin' Salmon.
Box Office 11/30/09: Moon Sinks, Carol Sings
An inauspicious opening for Viggo Mortensen in The Road, at this week's #10
The astonishing performance of The Twilight Saga: New Moon came to something of a halt over the Thanksgiving weekend, recording the largest dollar decline on record for a film in its second weekend. Of course, all things being equal it still won the holiday, with $42.90M for a 10 day total of $230.90M, becoming the most successful vampire film ever released.
Sports-themed heart-tugger The Blind Side added 30 theaters and $40.11M, for a 10 day total of $100.23M (not bad for an investment of $29M), while 2012 sank 33.2% after adding 36 theaters, bringing in $17.65M for a not too disastrous $138.45M in its third week of release. At #4, Travolta and Williams showed no new tricks and Old Dogs launched with $16.89M ($24.22M for the full five days), while A Christmas Carol dropped 565 theaters but increased by 28.4%, pulling in $15.75M for a total of $104.92M - it has a hold on the IMAX screens until December 18th when James Cameron's Avatar will no doubt leave all other films weeping in its wake.
At #6, Ninja Assassin opened with $13.31M ($21.19 in five days), followed by Planet 51, which held on well, down just 16.8% with $10.21M, but a running total of $28.48 is still a long way shy of its $70M budget. Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, declined steeply with $7.08 at #8 and this week's big disappointment is Fantastic Mr Fox at #9, which added 2,029 theaters, but only managed to pull in $6.95M for a total of $10,024.
At #10, The Road debuted on 111 screens, but post-apocalyptic art-house didn't strike a holiday chord and it could only scare up $1.50M ($1.97M over five days), though it did have the highest per-screen average ($13,534) of films playing over 100 theaters.
Disney's return to old-school animation, The Princess and the Frog opened in two theaters and received the highest per screen rating, with $393,095, for a total of $786,190 and the #18 slot.
This coming weekend sees a dearth of genre releases, with heist thriller Armored, from Vacancy (and upcoming Predators) director Nimród Antal, Jim Sheridan's drama Brothers, Robert DeNiro family holiday film Everybody's Fine, Jason Reitman's eagerly awaited Up in the Air, and the final screenplay of Waitress writer Adrienne Shelley, Serious Moonlight. The sole genre release is horror 'comedy' Transylmania from National Lampoon's Hillenbrand brothers, which arrives just in time to appear on the year's Top 10 lists.
Keep an eye on the UK also, as The Descent: Part 2 opens against Paranormal Activity in its second week (it took £3.59M/$5.98M this weekend) and New Moon in its third (total so far of £20.32M/$33.80M).
Box Office 11/23/09: New Moon Rises
The Twilight Saga: New Moon was unable to sustain its record breaking opening day ($72.7M) through the weekend, but still raked in an impressive $142.8M from a $50M budget. Not surprising, given that its predecessor is the highest-grossing vampire movie in history, with $384.99M worldwide – Van Helsing is second, God help us, with $300.25M. Opening simultaneously just about everywhere on the planet, its weekend global take (including US) was $274.93M.
Football tearjerker The Blind Side opened at #2 with $34.11M, while 2012 took an expected dive of 59% with $26.41M for a 10 day US total of $108.13M. At #4, the animated Planet 51 opened with a decent $12.28M and at #5 A Christmas Carol dropped 105 theaters and 45% with $12.27M, bringing a total of $79.83M as it enters its third week of release.
The rest of the chart holds little genre excitement as horror movies beat a post-Halloween retreat, The Fourth Kind limps along adding another $1.74M to its $23.35M haul, while Paranormal Activity (which debuts on DVD on December 29th) pulled in $1.40M for a nine week total of $106.08M.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans opened at #22, with $245,398 in 27 theaters and Fantastic Mr Fox dropped 23.5% in its limited four theater run pulling in just $203,512, expect that to change this week as the film goes wide for Thanksgiving.
Red Cliff opened in two screens and earned $13,104, but like The House of the Devil (#84 with $3,927 on three screens) its money will more likely be earned from downloads – it's also available from amazon.com's Theatrical Rental program.
This week sees the opening of John Hillcoat's eagerly anticipated film of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, although this will also be a limited release (dammit!). James McTiegue's Ninja Assassin also debuts, along with Richard Linklater's Orson Welles and Me, John Travolta/Robin Williams vehicle Old Dogs and the drama The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.
