By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
Nice Age 3
It was a box office photo-finish for Independence weekend with sequels to Transformers and Ice Age going toe-to-toe and estimates giving the former a slight edge of $42.4 million to the latter’s $42.1 million. The session’s other major release was vintage gangster opus Public Enemies, which was next in the lineup with $26.1 million.
Other newcomers included the Bollywood-goes-Hollywood Kambakkht Ishq with a $560,000 tally from 100 Hindi-circuit screens. Limited and exclusive bows saw an okay $84,900 gross for French import The Girl from Monaco at 23 venues and a dynamic $18,700 for the non-fiction The Beaches of Agnes at a solo L.A. launch. Nia Vardalos’s directing debut I Hate Valentine’s Daysputtered out with $4,700 at three exposures.
The weekend portion of the holiday frame experienced a significant box office ebb from the immediate prior session and was ever so marginally improved from last year’s performance level.
Expectations going into the July 4 celebration favored Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs to lead in ticket sales with prognosticators crystal balling a $75 million salvo for its five-day opening. It was also anticipated that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen would see a precipitous drop of around 70% from its mammoth bow. But a few percentage points in both directions turned the frame into a horse race with the strong prospect that Sunday actuals could reverse weekend bragging rights around noon Monday.
The much-ballyhooed Public Enemies with Johnny Depp taking on the role of John Dillinger raised industry anxiety levels in light of recent under-performing adult tilted movies. However when the dust cleared its roughly $41 million gross was in line with high-end hopes and now fingers are crossed that the picture can hold its own against more youthfully targeted movies.
The session generated just shy of $165 million in sales and that translated into a 20% recession from seven days earlier. It was no more than a flicker (0.08%) better than Independence weekend ’08 when Hancock was the sole newcomer with a $62.6 million gross for the three-day segment.
The summer box office advanced to $2.16 billion, which rates 12% better than where it stood last year at the half-way seasonal point.
Bollywood is trying to make up for lost time with Kambakkht Ishq. Superstar Akshay Kumar limbs a Hollywood stuntman with the likes of Sylvester Stallone showing up as himself.
Weekend Estimates – July 3-5, 2009
| Title | Distributor | Gross (averag | % change * | Theaters | Cume |
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Par | 42.4 (10,020) | -61% | 4234 | 293.4 |
| Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | Fox | 42.1 (10,280) | – | 4099 | 67.1 |
| Public Enemies | Uni | 26.1 (7,820) | – | 3334 | 40.9 |
| The Proposal | BV | 12.8 (4,120) | -31% | 3099 | 94.2 |
| The Hangover | WB | 10.7 (3,490) | -37% | 3070 | 204.5 |
| Up | BV | 6.7 (2,530) | -49% | 2656 | 265 |
| My Sister’s Keeper | WB | 5.4 (2,070) | -57% | 2606 | 26.1 |
| The Taking of Pelham 123 | Sony | 2.4 (1,270) | -55% | 1908 | 58.4 |
| Year One | Sony | 2.2 (990) | -63% | 2240 | 38.2 |
| Night at the Museum 2 | Fox | 2.1 (1,460) | -43% | 1419 | 167.7 |
| Star Trek | Par | 1.8 (1,600) | -50% | 1148 | 249.9 |
| Away We Go | Focus | 1.1 (2,050) | -37% | 506 | 6.1 |
| Whatever Works | Sony Classics | .94 (2,810) | 161% | 334 | 1.9 |
| Kambakkht Ishq | Eros | .56 (5,570) | – | 100 | 0.56 |
| Angels and Demons | Sony | .48 (1,360) | -56% | 352 | 131.1 |
| Cheri | Miramax | .38 (2,730) | -6% | 140 | 1 |
| X-Men Origins: Wolverine | Fox | .32 (1,060) | 3% | 303 | 178.3 |
| Under the Sea 3D | WB | .31 (8,080) | 21% | 38 | 11.6 |
| Terminator Salvation | WB | .29 (940) | -73% | 311 | 122.7 |
| Land of the Lost | Uni | .28 (740) | -76% | 385 | 47.6 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $157.30 | – | – | – | |
| % Change (Last Year) | – | 1% | – | – | – |
| % Change (Last Week) | – | -20% | – | – | – |
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Moon | Sony Classics | .25 (5,360) | 103% | 47 | 0.93 |
| The Hurt Locker | Summit | .13 (14,780) | -8% | 9 | 0.37 |
| The Girl from Monaco | Magnolia | 84,900 (3,650) | – | 23 | 0.07 |
| The Stoning of Soraya M | Roadside At. | 69,500 (2,780) | -40% | 27 | 0.24 |
| Tetro | Zoetrope | 25,700 (2,430) | -43% | 11 | 0.23 |
| The Beaches of Agnes | Cinema Guild | 18,700 (18,700) | – | 1 | 0.02 |
| Local Color | Monterey | 5,900 (840) | – | 7 | 0.01 |
| I Hate Valentine’s Day | IFC | 4,700 (1,570) | – | 3 | 0.01 |
Domestic Market Share – January 1 – June 28, 2009
| Distributor (releases) | Gross | Market Share |
| Paramount (12) | 966.5 | 18.50% |
| Warner. Bros (21) | 944.6 | 18.10% |
| Fox (10) | 662.5 | 12.70% |
| Buena Vista (12) | 628.2 | 12.10% |
| Sony (13) | 597.9 | 11.50% |
| Universal (12) | 452.3 | 8.70% |
| Lionsgate (7) | 237.4 | 4.60% |
| Fox Searchlight (6) | 194 | 3.70% |
| Summit (7) | 147.2 | 2.80% |
| Focus (5) | 99.6 | 1.90% |
| Paramount Vantage (2) | 52.4 | 1.00% |
| MGM (3) | 42.3 | 0.80% |
| Miramax (5) | 39.1 | 0.80% |
| Weinstein Co. (6) | 34.5 | 0.70% |
| Overture (3) | 27.1 | 0.50% |
| Other * (151) | 80.2 | 1.50% |
| * none greater than 0.35% | 5205.8 | 100% |
