By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
Christmas Caroling with Marley
The other Marley — Marley and Me — proved no Scrooge at the box office with an estimated $51.5 million gross that barked to the top of the box office charts for the four-day seasonal span. In what was technically a box office record-breaking frame, four other films bowed on Christmas day to primarily upbeat returns.
A close race for second place pitted the family-pitched Bedtime Stories against the epic romanceThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Bedtime appeared to have a $500,000 edge over the three-day weekend with roughly $27.7 million, but Button was unspooling at about 700 fewer theaters with a running time more than an hour longer than its competitor.
Also off to a good start was the Second World War conspiracy thriller Valkyrie with $21.9 million for the weekend, but the adaptation of comic book classic The Spirit saw interest quickly evaporate to $6.6 million.
Overall box office revenues exceeded $205 million for the three-day portion and strictly speaking that’s a record. The caveat or asterix to be applied relates to where the holiday falls on the calendar and how that reflects in holiday days that can run to five-day spans.
The session also saw a handful of films debut in limited or niche fashion, including Bollywood thunderbolt Ghajini with Aamir Khan in the title role, which grossed $770,000 and appears headed for an opening week record in India. Among exclusives, the star-driven Revolutionary Road racked up a sturdy $64,000 average from three screens; there was more tepid response for Last Chance Harvey of a $15,720 average at six locations, and $6,650 for the award-winning Israeli animated documentary Waltz with Bashir from 11 venues.
Following two weeks of box office declines, recent holdover movies buttressed the incoming artillery quite well with erosion levels generally in the range of 10% to 20%. The slew of toe-dippers hoping to be award contenders continued to expand their expansions, including Gran Torino, Frost/Nixon,The Wrestler and The Reader. Doubt was the only one of the group to step up nationally with the addition of 1,228 plydates and a $5.5 million box office.
The concentration of new, commercial titles opening Christmas day ballooned ticket sales with revenues going skyward by 137% from last weekend. Compared with 2007 it was 11% improved, but there were no new national releases that premiered during that frame.
Bedtime Stories had been pegged by trackers to rank at the top of the holiday list but gauging buying preferences for under-15s has been notoriously lackluster in Hollywood. Marley, the cute dog movie, proved to be warmer and fuzzier and should emerge as one of the year’s most successful entries on a cost-to-return basis.
More problematic are the fates of Benjamin Button and Valkyrie, which opened well but need to sustain and perform considerably above domestic levels to sustain production and marketing costs approaching $200 million. The promotional campaign for Valkyrie has been oft-noted as vigorous and its opening salvo was several notches above expectations.
Weekend Estimates – December 26-28, 2008
Title | Distributor | Gross (averag | % chan | Theate | Cume |
Marley and Me | Fox | 36.8 (10,570) | – | 3480 | 51.5 |
Bedtime Stories | BV | 27.7 (7,520) | – | 3681 | 38.3 |
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button | Par | 27.2 (9.110) | – | 2988 | 38.9 |
Valkyrie | MGM | 21.9 (8,080) | – | 2711 | 30 |
Yes Man | WB | 16.4 (4,790) | -10% | 3434 | 49.6 |
Seven Pounds | Sony | 13.6 (4.940) | -8% | 2758 | 39.2 |
The Tale of Despereaux | Uni | 9.3 (2,990) | -8% | 3107 | 27.9 |
The Day the Earth Stood Still | Fox | 7.8 (3,260) | -21% | 2402 | 63.5 |
The Spirit | Lionsgate | 6.6 (2,640) | – | 2509 | 10.4 |
Doubt | Miramax | 5.5 (4,330) | 705% | 1267 | 8.6 |
Four Christmases | WB | 5.0 (1,980) | -35% | 2510 | 111.8 |
Twilight | Summit | 4.4 (2,360) | -16% | 1849 | 167 |
Slumdog Millionaire | Fox Searchlight | 4.4 (7,210) | 45% | 614 | 19.4 |
Bolt | BV | 3.5 (1,800) | -16% | 1923 | 102.7 |
Gran Torino | WB | 2.3 (26,900) | 66% | 84 | 4.1 |
Milk | Focus | 1.8 (5,880) | 6% | 311 | 13.6 |
Frost/Nixon | Uni | 1.5 (7,090) | 284% | 205 | 3.6 |
Quantum of Solace | Sony | 1.4 (1,580) | -31% | 891 | 164.3 |
Australia | Fox | 1.1 (1,500) | -51% | 711 | 44.3 |
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa | Par | .91 (1,130) | -42% | 808 | 174.9 |
Ghajini | Adlabs | .77 (9,280) | – | 83 | 1.4 |
The Reader | Weinstein Co. | .62 (5,340) | -33%- | 116 | 1.2 |
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | – | $200.50 | – | – | – |
% Change (Last Year) | – | 11% | – | – | – |
% Change (Last Week) | – | 137% | – | – | – |
Also debuting/expanding | |||||
The Wrestler | Fox Searchlight | .38 (21,330) | 89% | 18 | 0.9 |
Le Grand Depart | Alliance | .29 (3,710) | 55% | 78 | 0.6 |
Revolutionary Road | Par Vantage | .19 (64,000) | – | 3 | 0.19 |
Last Chance Harvey | Overture | 0.09 (15,720) | – | 6 | 0.13 |
Waltz with Bashir | Sony Classics | 74,100 (6,650) | – | 11 | 0.08 |
Domestic Market Share – To December 21, 2008
Distributor (releases) | Gross | Mrkt Share |
Warner Bros. (29) | 1706.4 | 18.50% |
Paramount (16) | 1522.3 | 16.50% |
Sony (26) | 1241 | 13.40% |
Universal (22) | 1087.7 | 11.80% |
Buena Vista (17) | 943.9 | 10.20% |
Fox (23) | 919.5 | 9.90% |
Lions Gate (20) | 425.7 | 4.60% |
Summit (5) | 214.1 | 2.30% |
Fox Searchlight (9) | 203.5 | 2.20% |
Focus (7) | 135.6 | 1.50% |
MGM (16) | 119.5 | 1.30% |
Overture (7) | 101.6 | 1.10% |
Paramount Vantage (11) | 86.8 | 0.90% |
Miramax (10) | 70.9 | 0.80% |
Picturehouse (7) | 63.3 | 0.70% |
New Line (4) | 61.8 | 0.70% |
Other * (318) | 331 | 3.60% |
* none greater than 0.5% | 9234.6 | 100.00% |
Top Global Grossers – To December 21, 2008
Title | Distributor | Gross |
The Dark Knight | WB | 992,583,849 |
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | Par | 786,558,759 |
Kung Fu Panda | Par | 632,367,299 |
Hancock | Sony | 625,872,147 |
Iron Man | Par | 582,178,590 |
Mamma Mia! | Uni | 572,523,780 |
Quantum of Solace | Sony | 534,032,111 |
WALL-E | BV | 506.407,681 |
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian | BV | 420,055,729 |
Sex and the City | WB | 410,684,724 |
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor | Uni | 394,291,012 |
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa | Par | 394,091,713 |
Wanted | Uni | 343,414,966 |
Horton Hears a Who | Fox | 295,162,019 |
I Am Legend* | WB | 270,507,723 |
10,000 B.C. | WB | 269,309,372 |
National Treasures: Book of Secrets | BV | 263,704,304 |
The Incredible Hulk | Uni | 262,559,844 |
High School Musical 3: Senior Year | BV | 237,591,939 |
Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis | Pathe | 232,616,489 |
Twilight | Summit | 232,558,981 |
Get Smart | WB | 228,847,674 |
Journey to the Center of the Earth | WB | 221,798,714 |
Jumper | Fox | 220,287,702 |
What Happens in Vegas | Fox | 218,207,559 |