By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
Star Shrek: The Wrath of Con
May 23, 2010
Shrek Forever After held sway ogre the weekend with an estimated debut of $72.5 million. The session’s other wide opener MacGruber wound up a causality of ware with a humorless $4.1 million bow.
The Bollywood hybrid Kites touched a toe in the water with 208 playdates and its $1 million box office proved a warm result. The Hindi version in India opened to the second biggest debut of all time.
Hardly built for speed was the non-fiction Racing Dreams that ground to a halt with $5,800 after 33 laps. Newcomers in exclusive runs had some more encouraging results including the pre-Wall Street Michael Douglas in Solitary Man, which grossed $84,200 on a quartet of screens, and the drug-and-yarmulke Holy Rollers was blessed with $35,600 from a trio of venues. Also strong was the Filipino Here Comes the Bride with $46,600 in six exposures.
Overall business spiked from both the prior weekend and from the same period of 2010.
The fourth installment of Shrek was highly anticipated with advance expectations in the neighborhood of $100 million or just shy of it. However, as opening day loomed, tracking appeared to flag and pundits readjusted down to $75 million to $80 million. Industry honchos pondered how the reduced gross would be spun into a positive result.
The diminished return of Shrek Forever After is likely the result of a couple of key factors such as the franchise’s increasing shift toward a younger audience. Exit polls revealed that 56% of ticket buyers were 25-years-old or younger and females comprised 59% of the crowd. So it’s now a three quadrant movie. We may also be Shreked to death with library discs and merchandize that make it difficult to provide a new chapter that provides novelty and surprise.
The film also opened in nine markets internationally where it tallied an estimated $26 million. Russia’s $20 million estimated bow usurped Avatar (by 1%) as the biggest debut ever. Viewed as more commercially potent overseas, its release is largely being held up in Europe in light of the start of World Cup fever in three weeks.
Weekend box office climbed to roughly $155 million for a 9% boost from last weekend’s Robin Hood launch. It was 10% improved from 2009 when the debut of Angels & Demons nudged past Star Trek with $46.2 million to the latter’s $43 million.
If Shrek proved disappointing, the SNL-derived MacGruber had to be viewed as a catastrophe. Low end estimates had it at slightly better than $10 million and it climbed up into the mid-teens. One can well imagine the twitter effect working overtime with early viewers texting the bad news. Still, its Friday to Saturday decline was only 6% suggesting its target crowd wasn’t nibbling on the bait from the get-go.
The current weekend is likely to raise anxieties for a couple of upcoming sequels such as Sex and the City 2 and the finale of the Twilight saga. The 2010 summer is rife with sequels and remakes and if history is any barometer movie goers tend to become jaded and cynical after a couple of installments fail to live up to their hype.
Weekend Estimates: May 21 – May 23, 2010
| Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change * | Theaters | Cume |
| Shrek Forever After | Par | 72.5 (16,630) | New | 4359 | 72.5 |
| Iron Man II | Par | 26.7 (6,400) | -49% | 4177 | 251.4 |
| Robin Hood | Uni | 18.6 (5,310) | -48% | 3505 | 66 |
| Letters to Juliet | Summit | 9.0 (3,040) | -33% | 2975 | 27.4 |
| Just Wright | Fox | 4.2 (2,300) | -49% | 1831 | 14.6 |
| MacGruber | Uni | 4.1 (1,610) | New | 2551 | 4.1 |
| Date Night | Fox | 2.8 (1,510) | -26% | 1869 | 90.7 |
| Nightmare on Elm Street | WB | 2.3 (1,060) | -51% | 2125 | 59.9 |
| How to Train Your Dragon | Par | 1.8 (1,030) | -64% | 1751 | 210.9 |
| Kites | Big Picture | 1.0 (4,950) | New | 208 | 1 |
| The Back-Up Plan | CBS | .88 (820) | -63% | 1079 | 35.9 |
| Babies | Focus | .68 (1,720) | -32% | 395 | 5.1 |
| Death at a Funeral | Sony | .53 (940) | -53% | 561 | 41.4 |
| Furry Vengeance | Summit | .51 (370) | -77% | 1369 | 16.3 |
| Alice in Wonderland | BV | .47 (1,140) | 7% | 411 | 332.2 |
| The Secret in Their Eyes | Sony Classics | .43 (3,300) | 17% | 131 | 2.7 |
| City Island | Anchor Bay | .41 (1,760) | -7% | 234 | 4.2 |
| Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Music Box/Alliance | .39 (2,010) | 4% | 196 | 7.1 |
| Clash of the Titans | WB | .37 (900) | -70% | 412 | 161 |
| Oceans | BV | .36 (690) | -52% | 524 | 18.5 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $145.60 | – | – | – | |
| % Change (Last Year) | – | 10% | – | – | – |
| % Change (Last Week) | – | 9% | – | – | – |
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| Please Give | Sony Classics | .24 (4,570) | -2% | 53 | 1.1 |
| Harry Brown | IDP | .17 (2,590) | 23% | 64 | 0.83 |
| Princess Kaiulani | Roadside | .14 (2,940) | -25% | 48 | 0.42 |
| Solitary Man | Anchor Bay | 84,200 (21,050) | New | 4 | 0.08 |
| Here Comes the Bride | ABS | 46,400 (7,730) | New | 6 | 0.05 |
| Holy Rollers | First Look | 35,600 (11,870) | New | 3 | 0.04 |
| Racing Dreams | Hannover | 5,800 (180) | New | 33 | 0.01 |
| Two in the Wave | Lorber | 5,100 (5,100) | New | 1 | 0.01 |
| 180 South | Magnolia | 4,800 (2,400) | New | 2 | 0.01 |
| John Rabe | Strand | 3,900 (1,300) | New | 3 | 0.01 |
| Leslie, My Name is Evil | E1 | 2,900 (970) | New | 3 | 0.01 |
Domestic Market Share: January 1 – May 20, 2010
| Distributor (releases) | Gross | Market Share |
| Fox (8) | 874.8 | 22.20% |
| Warner Bros. (14) | 722.5 | 18.40% |
| Paramount (7) | 686.8 | 17.50% |
| Buena Vista (8) | 476.4 | 12.10% |
| Universal (8) | 258.7 | 6.60% |
| Sony (13) | 240.9 | 6.10% |
| Lionsgate (7) | 194.7 | 5.00% |
| Summit (7) | 84.9 | 2.20% |
| Overture (4) | 67.4 | 1.70% |
| Fox Searchlight (3) | 63.1 | 1.60% |
| MGM (1) | 49.3 | 1.20% |
| CBS (2) | 47.5 | 1.20% |
| Weinstein Co. (4) | 34.7 | 0.90% |
| Sony Classics (11) | 30.4 | 0.80% |
| Other * (145) | 98.9 | 2.50% |
| * none greater than 0.4% | 3931 | 100.00% |
