Weekend Report, June 12, 2011

Format Challenged
By Leonard Klady

The debut of Super 8 _ the spooky, peek-a-boo thriller _ topped weekend movie sales with an estimated $36.1 million. In what’s been a generally flatish marketplace the only other national bow was the kid lit favorite Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer that ranked seventh in the lineup with $6.2 million.

The session also featured largely modest to dismal results for a raft of exclusive debuts ranging from the touted Norwegian chiller Trollhunter (with marked similarities to Super 8) that’s already been scooped up for a U.S. remake to cult favorite Monte Hellman’s first feature in 11 years Road to Nowhere. The sole exception was the award winning Brit comedy The Trip that grossed $74,800 from an initial six engagements.

Overall box office reached about $142 million to register a 12% decline from last weekend. It was also off 7% from 2011 when debuts of The Karate Kid and The A-Team topped the charts with respective openings of $55.7 million and $25.7 million.

Super 8 received close scrutiny for its fierce determination to keep its plot under wraps and whether that tactic would translate into boffo box office. Tracking suggested just an OK bow between $35 million and $40 million. And its Thursday midnight sneaks of roughly $1 million were viewed as disappointing.

Studio exit polls indicated a not unexpected male skew of 54% but a worrisome 71% attendance by plus 25s. To great amazement the core audience appears to be an older crowd nostalgic (the film unfolds in 1979) for a bygone chill experience. Well into the summer season all claims that seasonal fare would bring back the eroding younger avid folk seem to be going up in smoke. The final acid test of the assertion comes in a couple of weeks with the launch of the third installment of the not terribly wistful Transformers.

Next weekend’s bow of The Green Lantern also poses a series of intriguing prospects. Certainly the most aggressively marketed of summer pictures to date, the character has a legion of older fans who remember him in his original incarnation. Additionally the rebooted noble avenger is DC Comics’ current most popular seller.

Judy Moody was also on the low end of tracking estimates that rose as high as $7 million. However, its demos reflected its essential appeal with 88% of ticket buyers classified as families and between kids and parents it was dominated by the fairer sex (78%).

The dominance of industry identified older viewers (they got the bucks) provided a big boost for Midnight in Paris that expanded into wide release, charted in the top 10 and maintained a sturdy per screen average. Slow expansions also appear to be working for both The Tree of Life and Beginners though their prospects for wide exposure appear less assured.

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