By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
Wolverine in Wolf’s Clothing
The question wasn’t whether but how much as X-Men Origins: Wolverine entered the marketplace as the first of the summer tentpoles. The film’s estimated $85.5 million (including approximately $5 million from Thursday midnight shows) resounded with “a lot.” Not a record, not a benchmark but unquestionably a lot of moolah for a franchise that could quite easily have turned moribund.
Meanwhile a couple of other films bowed nationally as counter-programmers and neither quite lived up to expectations. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past ranked a distant second in the line up with $15.4 million and the animated adventure Battle for Terra didn’t reach the top 10 on a gross of $1 million.
Limited openers ranged from an encouraging $52,800 for the offbeat thriller The Limits of Control in three venues to a bland $68,600 for Michael Keaton’s directorial debut The Merry Gentleman on 24 screens. Austrian Oscar nominee Revanche was just OK with an $8,300 gross at two exposures.
There’s little question that Wolverine’s origins had the fans salivating and those avid film goers gobbled up in excess of 80% of the advance tickets sold last week by Fandango. Approaching opening day there were hundreds of sold-out screenings and you couldn’t turn sideways without bumping into an image to remind you of its coming (albeit side-by-side a Star Trek nudge). Some pundits trotted out the possibility of a $90 million plus weekend but there was little evidence to substantiate the spit-balling … once one climbs above the $60 million level, there are too few examples to do a projective survey anyway.
Weekend box office approached $160 million for a demonstrative 40% spike that one anticipates to herald in the summer season. It was, however, 3% behind the 2008 frame when Iron Man bowed to $102.1 million and Made of Honor took the consolation prize of $14.7 million.
The tale of the past weekend … or at least the industry lesson … is how broad Wolverine’s appeal has become. Warner Bros. is the king of counter-programming adult comedies and romances ranging in recent years from Must Love Dogs to Nights in Rodanthe. It’s just as much a formula as the tentpoles and as long as these films open to between $15 million and $20 million, they can be assured of a tidy profit once DVD and pay-cable kick in.
The more curious alternative was Battle for Terra, an animated feature a bit too hip to target the family audience and not quite the visceral thrill that the fan boy crowd demands. It got wedged in some box office Bermuda Triangle and likely won’t reappear until ancillary revenue windows open up.
Weekend Estimates – May 1-3, 2009
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change * | Theaters | Cume |
| X-Men Origins: Wolverine | Fox | 85.5 (20,860) | – | 4099 | 85.5 |
| Ghosts of Girlfriends Past | WB | 15.4 (4,860) | – | 3175 | 15.4 |
| Obsessed | Sony | 12.3 (4,910) | -57% | 2514 | 47.1 |
| 17 Again | WB | 6.2 (1,900) | -46% | 3255 | 48.3 |
| Monsters vs. Aliens | Par | 5.8 (2,210) | -32% | 2626 | 182.4 |
| The Soloist | Par | 5.5 (2,700) | -44% | 2033 | 18 |
| Earth | BV | 4.2 (2,330) | -52% | 1804 | 21.9 |
| Fighting | Uni | 4.1 (1,770) | -63% | 2312 | 17.4 |
| Hannah Montana: The Movie | BV | 4.0 (1,430) | -37% | 2819 | 70.8 |
| State of Play | Uni | 3.6 (1,470) | -48% | 2445 | 30.8 |
| Fast & Furious | Uni | 2.6 (1,020) | -58% | 2547 | 149.6 |
| Battle for Terra | Roadside | 1.0 (870) | – | 1159 | 1.0 |
| I Love You Man | Par | .71 (1,040) | -64% | 685 | 69.3 |
| Taken | Fox | .64 (1,290) | 80% | 494 | 143.4 |
| Knowing | Summit | .55 (670) | -72% | 822 | 77.9 |
| Crank: High Voltage | Lions Gate | .46 (640) | -82% | 724 | 13.3 |
| The Haunting in Connecticut | Lions Gate | .44 (730) | -71% | 603 | 55.1 |
| Sunshine Cleaning | Overture | .39 (830) | -34% | 471 | 10.4 |
| Observe and Report | WB | .30 (590) | -83% | 501 | 23.2 |
| Is Anybody There? | Story Island | .27 (2,410) | 133% | 122 | 0.51 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $152.10 | – | – | – | |
| % Change (Last Year) | – | -3% | – | – | – |
| % Change (Last Week) | – | 40% | – | – | – |
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Sin Nombre | Focus | .17 (1,960) | -17% | 87 | 1.75 |
| The Merry Gentleman | IDP | 68,600 (2,860) | – | 24 | 0.07 |
| Tyson | Sony Classics | 66,500 (5,120) | -22% | 13 | 0.2 |
| The Limits of Control | Focus | 52,800 (17,600) | – | 3 | 0.05 |
| Revanche | Janus | 8,300 (4,150) | – | 2 | 0.01 |
Domestic Market Share – January 1 – April 30, 2009
| Distributor (releases) | Gross (millio | Mrkt Share |
| Warner Bros. (17) | 544.1 | 17.30% |
| Paramount (8) | 438.7 | 13.90% |
| Sony (10) | 346.2 | 11.00% |
| Universal (10) | 336.1 | 10.70% |
| Fox (8) | 317.7 | 10.10% |
| Buena Vista (10) | 280.1 | 8.90% |
| Lions Gate (7) | 233.9 | 7.40% |
| Fox Searchlight (5) | 185.7 | 5.90% |
| Summit (4) | 131.1 | 4.20% |
| Focus (3) | 93.8 | 3.00% |
| Paramount Vantage (2) | 51.3 | 1.60% |
| MGM (3) | 42.3 | 1.30% |
| Miramax (4) | 37.9 | 1.20% |
| Weinstein Co. (6) | 34.5 | 1.10% |
| Overture (3) | 25 | 0.80% |
| Other * (108) | 49.2 | 1.60% |
| * none greater than 0.4% | 3147.6 | 100.00% |
