The Weekend Report, June 26, 2011

Honk … If You Love Pixar

Cars 2 animated the box office as it fast tracked to an estimated $68.5 million and left the pack in a cloud of dust. The session’s other wide national Bad Teacher was in the bridesmaid position with $30.8 million.

In the niches Bollywood newcomer Double Dhamaal got strong response of $313,000 from 54 screens while Telegu language 180 was just fair with $74,300 in 21 initial engagements. The Chinese historic epic Beginning of the Great Revival fell short of blockbuster business with $63,400 from 29 venues.

There was Ok response for the non-fiction Conan O’Brien can’t stop of $144,000 from 40 gigs while Turtle: The Incredible Journey wound up tire tracked on a $27,900 box office at 21 ponds. Best of the exclusives was Passione: A Musical with a $16,800 tally in its solo flight.

Weekend ticket sales climbed to roughly $185 million for a sizable rise from last weekend biz. It was also a heartening improvement from 2010 box office when the second weekend of Toy Story 3 beat out incoming freshmen Grown Ups and Knight and Day with a $59.3 million gross. The debs had respective bows of $40.5 million and $20.1 million.

Cars 2 had strong tracking and it was expected to be the easy leader in its debut lap with estimates pretty much on the hood between $65 million and $70 million. The only glitch in the scenario was this season’s recurring speed bump in 3D engagements. The film’s 59% stereoscopic compliment generated just 38% of the overall box office. Considerably better were the 150 Imax engagements that rang up screen averages of $22,000. A studio spokesman conceded that young viewers that provided 36% of weekend business appear to be averse to 3D glasses and unaware of recently available child size goggles.

The film also bowed in 18 international territories that added $42.9 million to its coffers. It set new Pixar records in Russia, Mexico and Brazil and, in a bizarre twist, went head to head with Kung Fu Panda in Australia and prevailed by a healthy 15%.

Bad Teacher also exceeded expectations that generally anticipated a $25 million ceiling. It played to its target with an audience composed 63% female and 57% in the plus 25 category. Teacher opened a week ago in the U.K. and added a handful of foreign stops this weekend including a potent $6.1 million bow in Germany.

The summer’s other story continues to be the mature sector with Midnight in Paris emerging as Woody Allen’s best grosser in decades and continued brisk business for The Tree of Life and Beginners. This week saw a surprising addition to the group with real life horse whisperer Buck adding 50 playdates and a sturdy $5,200 theater average.

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