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Leonard Klady

By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com

Posted Sunday, September 26th, 2010 - 1 Comment »
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Weekend Box Office Report – September 26

Depressed Derivatives

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps topped the weekend box office charts with a logy estimate of $19.5 million. The new batch of national releases generally underperformed based on tracking including second place Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga Hoole, which hooted up $16.3 million. The other wide newbies were the romantic comedy You Again with $8.4 million and The Virginity Hit, limping to $290,000.

The response to limited and exclusive freshmen was considerably friendlier with the education-related doc Waiting for Superman posting the best per screen of $37,070 at four classrooms, and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger from Woody Allen not far behind with $25,220 at six rendezvous. There were also encouraging results for the claustrophobic thriller Buried of $106,000 from 11 internments and a roaring $45,100 for the beat poets of Howl from five screams.

Despite limpid returns from new entries box office generated a slight gain from 2009 and was on par from the immediate prior weekend.

The highly anticipated follow up to the seminal Wall Street was expected to enter the marketplace with between $22 million and $25 million in assets. The recognition factor and topicality of the subject matter was thought to trump mixed response when it was unveiled last May in Cannes. Still audiences failed to connect with the new math and the film failed to energize the under 25s.

Also below par was Legends of the Guardians, a kid lit favorite in 3D. That skewed toward families and according to exit polling generated 72% of its box office from stereoscopic engagements. There appeared to be malaise directed to the all too familiar scenario of You Again and a total turn off factor for The Virginity Hit, which, while viewed as a slow starter, nonetheless was expected to gross close to $1 million in its initial round.

Once again weekend ticket sales approached $100 million for an infinitesimal drop of 1% from seven days back. It was however 5% improved from last year when opening box office of $14.9 million and $10 million for Surrogates and Fame failed to match the $25 million second week gross by Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Domestic box office passed $8 billion Thurdsay, which puts the 2010 revenue pace roughly 3% ahead of last year. Admissions continue to lag with the current estimate pegging it at about 95% of 2009 at this point.

Holdovers largely propped up this weekend’s sales with the prior frame’s leaders The Town and Easy A displaying resilience. There was also good news for Never Let Me Go that’s employing a slow platform expansion that’s working so far. The fate of Jack Goes Boating looks considerably less fortuitous.

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Weekend Estimates – September 24-26, 2010

Title Distributor Gross (average) % change * Theaters Cume
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Fox 19.5 (5,620) New 3465 19.5
Legend of the Guardians WB 16.3 (4,550) New 3575 16.3
The Town WB 15.9 (5,520) -33% 2885 49
Easy A Sony 10.7 (3,760) -40% 2856 32.8
You Again BV 8.4 (3,044) New 2548 8.4
Devil Uni 6.4 (2,290) -48% 2811 21.7
Resident Evil: Afterlife Sony/Alliance 4.8 (1,820) -52% 2642 51.9
Alpha and Omega Lions Gate 4.6 (1,770) -49% 2625 15.1
Takers Sony 1.6 (1,150) -46% 1413 53.26
Inception WB 1.2 (1,370) -37% 907 287
The Other Guys Sony 1.0 (940) -50% 1047 116.9
The American Focus .88 (670) -67% 1315 34.6
Eat Drink Pray Sony .69 (810) -57% 855 79
Machete Fox .62 (910) -65% 682 25.7
Despicable Me Uni .58 (950) -36% 610 245.5
The Expendables Lions Gate .53 (620) -61% 852 102
Catfish Uni .46 (8,120) 80% 57 0.83
Nanny McPhee Returns Uni .38 (500) -61% 765 28.2
The Last Exorcism Lions Gate .34 (480) -72% 707 40.8
Toy Story 3 BV .31 (1,040) -33% 302 411.1
Lottery Ticket WB .31 (840) -50% 317 23.9
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) $93.70
% Change (Last Year) 5%
% Change (Last Week) -1%
Also debuting/expanding
The Virginity Hit Sony .29 (420) 700 0.29
Never Let Me Go Searchlight .24 (9,150) 112% 26 0.43
Incendies eOne .20 (7.810) 30% 26 0.51
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger Sony Classics .15 (25,220) 6 0.2
Waiting for Superman Par Vantage .15 (37,070) 4 0.15
Buried Lions Gate .11 (9,650) 11 0.11
Jack Goes Boating Overture 84,200 (2,160) 191% 39 0.12
Like Dandelion Dust Blue Collar 77,800 (2,990) 26 0.08
A l’origine d’un cri TVA 47,600 (2,380) 20 0.05
Howl Oscilloscope 45,100 (9,020) 5 0.05
Enter the Void IFC 41,400 (13,800) 3 0.04

Domestic Market Share – January 1 – September 23, 2010

Distributor (releases) Gross Market Share
Warner Bros. (22) 1268.6 15.80%
Fox (15) 1236.6 15.40%
Paramount (11) 1228.1 15.40%
Buena Vista (13) 1087.9 13.60%
Sony (21) 1011.3 12.60%
Universal (16) 736.9 9.20%
Summit (9) 424.7 5.30%
Lions Gate (11) 396.1 4.90%
Fox Searchlight (4) 70.9 0.90%
Overture (5) 67.4 0.80%
Focus (6) 66.7 0.80%
Weinstein Co. (6) 60.6 0.80%
Sony Classics (18) 50.9 0.60%
MGM (1) 50.4 0.60%
CBS (2) 50 0.60%
Other * (243) 206.3 2.60%
8013.4 100.00%
* none greater than .04%

Top Domestic Grossers: January 1 – September 23, 2010

Title * Distributor Gross
Avatar * Fox 476,579,497
Toy Story 3 BV 410,772,220
Alice in Wonderland BV 334,191,110
Iron Man 2 Par 312,445,596
Twilight: Eclipse Summit 300,174,331
Inception WB 285,806,286
Despicable Me Uni 244,932,080
Shrek Forever After Par 238,596,008
How to Train Your Dragon Par 218,685,707
The Karate Kid Sony 176,614,026
Clash of the Titans WB 163,214,888
Grown Ups Sony 161,172,180
The Last Airbender Par 131,601,062
Shutter Island Par 128,051,522
Salt Sony 117,076,314
The Other Guy Sony 115,974,169
Valentine’s Day WB 110,509,442
Sherlock Holmes * WB 106,967,985
Robin Hood Uni 105,425,146
The Expendables Lions Gate 101,505,966
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1 Comment »

One Response to “Weekend Box Office Report – September 26”

  1. John Spenlove says:
    October 6, 2010 at 3:40 am

    hey, you have a great site. i really enjoyed reading you blog. only thing tha confuses me is that the rss feed is not working properlly, right?

Klady

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