Weekend Estmates by Pro Bowl Klady
Ah, Riiiiite. WB did a Screen Gems movie and opened, probably, $4m or $5m short of where Screen Gems would have opened it and about $15m short on what will be the total domestic gross… because Screen Gems is really good at that kind of marketing. On the other hand, Screen Gems probably left $20m or so on the table for Easy A domestically because big studios tend to do a better job of marketing that kind of movie. Everyone has a skill set. And the more success a marketing team has with a certain kind of movie, the more they seem to do better and better with that kind of movie and less so with other kinds of films.
But hey… is $14.7m for The Rite something to be unhappy with? No.
Peaking of that, give Sony a lot of credit for taking a film that looked like a $30 million writedown for a long time and making it in to a $100 million domestic grosser with some real upside in the Asian markets in particular.
No Strings Attached is no Norbit… which is to say, unlikely to slow Portman’s Oscar role and unlike to gross more than 2/3 of the Eddie Murphy comedy.
The Mechanic is CBS Films’ 2nd best opening, just an estimated $700k behind The Back-Up Plan. It’s not great, but you know, aside from the Twilight phenomenon, it took Summit more than 2 years to get to its third 9-figure opening. CBS Films, thus, has more than a year to get to #3. Yes, it is leap to eliminate Twilight from the conversation. On the other hand, shouldn’t a hit of that size have made it easier to grab some 9-figure openings? Summit is on its way, heading into its fourth year of distribution, now making hits that are not such phenomena that the job is to stay out of its way. (And that’s not always so easy for distributors to do.) And I guess my overall point it, CBS Films has not had a beautiful start and they don’t have a phenom to hide behind… but there is still a chance to turn the ship around to a successful direction. (Some other time, we can discuss whether Sumner Redstone needs a brain exam to understand why he allows the two sides of Viacom to continue to compete with one another this way.)
The Oscar Racers dominate the rest of the Top Ten: Speech, Grit, Swan, Fighter. The King’s Speech expansion is excellent, though do note that the per-screen is still behind the second weekend of Portman/Kutcher. Black Swan is showing the most sign of slowing, albeit as it passes $90 million, which is a figure that I don’t think Fox ever thought was possible. (Aronofsky definitely did not.) True Grit, nearing $150 million domestic, is clearly finding some stragglers thanks to Oscar nods, estimated off just 1% in the sixth weekend of its very commercial run. The Fighter also benefited from its nods, in spite of losing screens for the fourth straight weekend.
Also, a spark of life for 127 Hours, which had its first $2m weekend after 13 weekends in theaters… 916 screens, which more than doubles the previous high count of 433.
The Current Oscar BP Box Office List
Toy Story 3 – $415m domestic (out of theaters, in Home Ent)
Inception – $293m (oot, in HE)
True Grit – $148m ($7.2m this weekend)
The Social Network – $96m (367 screens, around $500k a week, in HE)
Black Swan – $91m ($4.9m tw)
The Fighter – $79m ($3.9m tw)
The King’s Speech -$72m ($10.4m tw)
The Kids Are All Right – $21m (oot, in HE)
127 Hours – $13m ($2m tw)
Winter’s Bone – $6m (oot, in HE)
And though obviously a very rough set of numbers… why not?
Projecting End Of Next Weekend
Toy Story 3 – $415m
Inception – $293m
True Grit – $162m
Black Swan – $100m
The Social Network – $96m
The King’s Speech -$90m
The Fighter – $87m
Projecting Feb 13 grosses
Toy Story 3 – $415m
Inception – $293m
True Grit – $175m
Black Swan – $107m
The King’s Speech -$106m
The Social Network – $97m
The Fighter – $94m
Projecting Feb 20 grosses
Toy Story 3 – $415m
Inception – $293m
True Grit – $185m
The King’s Speech -$120m
Black Swan – $112m
The Fighter – $99m
The Social Network – $98m
A pity about “Somewhere”.
And Hornet is nearing $80 mil? Success?
Nice to see a bump for 127 Hours, although with all of the advertising I saw for it this week (it was all over NBC’s Thursday night lineup) I honestly thought it would do double that. It would be nice to see it break 20M. A few months back, I would have predicted 127 to be the big breakout for Searchlight, with Black Swan struggling to find a wide audience despite critical acclaim…shows how much I know.
The King’s Speech has become a bit of a mini-juggernaut, which is pretty incredible all things considered. I’m too lazy to fact check, but this has to be the biggest hit ever for the Weinstein Company, does it not? Harvey is back in the saddle.
Good second week for NSA as well. Portman is on fire.
Wonder if they’ll consider a limited reissue for Inception — “See it on the big screen!” — just to push it past the $300 million mark?
Basterds is still Weinstein Company’s biggest hit. $120 domestic, and a worldwide total of $313. That still blows my mind.
King’s Speech is 3rd, behind Scary Movie 4.
Agreed on “127 Hours”. Fox/Searchlight spent a ton of money advertising the film this week treating it as a wide opening on 2,200 screens and that didn’t pan out. Gotta keep Mr. Boyle happy/good investment in his future. Spending a little of the monster company profit from “Black Swan” not a bad gamble.
Are we not counting Chicago, Good Will Hunting, and Scary Movie, sdp?
Just TWC is very limited. In 5 years, only four $50m movies, much less $100m movies.
That’s all I was counting as I assumed it was what botner was referring to. Actually, I’m not even sure “assumed” is the right word considering he explicitly named the Weinstein Company. His post also seemed to imply that the pool wasn’t very deep, and that the Weinsteins had been successful previously.
So yes, just TWC.
And yes, I was only referring to the most recent incarnation of The Weinstein Company (moreso than even Dimension, their offshoot). Forgot about Basterds.