By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
The Weekend Report
Tidal Bowl Sunday
Goodnight Irene!
Pounding rains that shuttered most of the multiplexes in the Northeast U.S. hobbled weekend box office. Grosses sank to levels that are normally associated with the man-made catastrophe Super Bowl; and new national releases hoping to cash in on late season largesse received a blank check.
The winner by default was The Help that retained the crown with an estimated $14.5 million. The distaff actioner Colombiana took the bridesmaids slot with $10.2 million. Even more disappointing were the fourth and fifth ranks for spooky Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and silly Our Idiot Brother with respective entries of $8.4 million and $6.5 million.
Regionally French comedy blockbuster Rien a declarer fell short of a smooth Atlantic crossing with $53,300 at 26 cinemas. But hardest hit were a clutch of exclusive and limited upscale releases that included Circumstance, Brighton Rock and Higher Ground that saw many screenings cancelled due to inclement weather and now face grim prospects to regain momentum once the storm passes.
Overall revenues squeaked to a little better than $90 million that represented a 28% decline from last weekend and a 22% fall from 2011. A year ago two newcomers battled for bragging rights with Takers nosing out The Last Exorcism by $150,000 with $20.5 million.
The bright spot however is that summer 2011 will be an improvement on last year’s box office with the current weekend bringing its gross to slightly more than last year’s $4.05 billion total. The season’s final eight days should be sufficient to provide 4% to the plus that would be about equal to the 2009 finish. And, yes, admissions will continue to shrink.
In Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire (not to mention New York, Boston and Philadelphia) hurricanes hardly happen. But when they do it has crippling effect on box office and reports of virtual movie going blackouts on Saturday, Sunday or both extended to as far south as Washington, D.C. The industry largely expects that winter blizzards will intrude on business several times a season but one has to go back to the 1994 California earthquake to find a comparable box office impact caused by forces of nature.
Once the debris clears, the armchair quarterbacking can truly assess why Irene appeared to keep the audience from buying tickets for Our Idiot Brother to a far greater extent than Colombiana or Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.
Keep safe, keep warm.
Weekend (estimates) August 26 – 28, 2011
| Title | Distributor | Gross (avg) | % chng | Thtrs | Cume |
| The Help | BV | 14.5 (5,220) | -28% | 2778 | 96.8 |
| Colombiana | Sony | 10.2 (3,890) | NEW | 2614 | 10.2 |
| Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Fox | 8.6 (2,550) | -47% | 3374 | 148.4 |
| Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark | Film District | 8.4 (3,050) | NEW | 2760 | 8.4 |
| Our Idiot Brother | Weinstein Co, | 6.5 (2,550) | NEW | 2555 | 6.5 |
| Spy Kids: All the Time in the World | Weinstein Co, | 5.8 (1,750) | -50% | 3305 | 21.8 |
| The Smurfs | Sony | 4.6 (1,620) | -41% | 2861 | 125.8 |
| Conan the Barbarian | Lions Gate | 3.1 (1,020) | -69% | 3015 | 16.5 |
| Crazy, Stupid, Love | WB | 3.0 (1,930) | -37% | 1577 | 69.7 |
| Fright Night | BV | 3.0 (970) | -63% | 3114 | 14.2 |
| 30 Minutes or Less | Sony | 2.5 (1,220) | -60% | 2071 | 31.6 |
| Final Destination 5 | WB | 2.5 (1,190) | -68% | 2085 | 37.9 |
| Harry Potter & the Deadly Hollows, Part 2 | WB | 2.3 (1,750) | -49% | 1328 | 370.6 |
| One Day | Focus | 2.3 (1,350) | -54% | 1725 | 9.6 |
| Cowboys & Aliens | Uni | 2.3 (1,460) | -46% | 1559 | 93.4 |
| Captain America: The First Avenger | Par | 2.1 (1,490) | -49% | 1424 | 168.6 |
| The Change-Up | Uni | 1.2 (1,340) | -57% | 904 | 34.5 |
| Midnight in Paris | Sony Classics | .71 (1,090) | 29% | 652 | 51.6 |
| Sarah’s Key | Weinstein/A-Z | .66 (2,350) | -15% | 281 | 4.2 |
| Horrible Bosses | WB | .62 (1,330) | -52% | 465 | 113.8 |
| Transformers: Dark of the Moon | Par | .61 (1,180) | 1% | 518 | 349.4 |
| The Guard | Sony Classics | .40 (3,710) | -5% | 107 | 1.8 |
| Super 8 | Par | .29 (1,210) | 189% | 242 | 126 |
| Mr. Popper’s Penguins | Fox | .24 ((1,110) | -20% | 219 | 67 |
| Senna | PDA/Mongrol | .23 (6,850) | 46% | 34 | 0.61 |
| Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $85.50 | ||||
| % Change (Last Year) | -22% | ||||
| % Change (Last Week) | -28% | ||||
| Also debuting/expanding | |||||
| The Whistleblower | IDP/eOne | .13 (1,930) | -13% | 68 | 0.6 |
| Another Earth | Fox Searchlight | 90,600 (960) | 9% | 94 | 1.1 |
| Devil’s Double | Lions Gate | 85,700 (1,030) | -42% | 78 | 1.2 |
| Rien a declarer | Seville | 53,300 (2,050) | 26 | 0.05 | |
| Circumstance | Roadside | 39,700 (5,640) | 7 | 0.04 | |
| Brighton Rock | IFC | 28,200 (2,560) | 11 | 0.03 | |
| Chasing Madoff | Cohen Media | 26,800 (2,440) | 11 | 0.03 | |
| Higher Ground | Sony Classics | 23,400 (7,800) | 3 | 0.02 | |
| Way Back Home | ABS | 21,600 (3,090) | 7 | 0.02 | |
| Redemption Road | FreeStyle | 18,200 (700) | 26 | 0.02 | |
| La Run | K Films | 13,600 (760) | 18 | 0.01 | |
| Suing the Devil | River Rain | 8,300 (590) | 14 | 0.01 | |
| The Family Tree | Entertainment | 4,200 (2,100) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Shut Up Little Man | TriBeCa | 2,250 (1,125) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Politics of Love | FlickBag | 1,950 (975) | 2 | 0.01 | |
| Domestic Market Share (Jan. 1 – Aug. 25, 2011) | |||||
| Distributor (releases) | Gross | Market Share | |||
| Paramount (14) | 1409.1 | 19.80% | |||
| Warner Bros. (22) | 1323.2 | 18.50% | |||
| Universal (14) | 905.1 | 12.70% | |||
| Sony (19) | 869.5 | 12.20% | |||
| Buena Vista (13) | 833.9 | 11.70% | |||
| Fox (13) | 729.5 | 10.20% | |||
| Weinstein Co. (9) | 203.8 | 2.90% | |||
| Lions Gate (11) | 133.2 | 1.90% | |||
| Relativity (5) | 125.5 | 1.70% | |||
| Fox Searchlight (9) | 107.8 | 1.50% | |||
| Focus (6) | 85.6 | 1.20% | |||
| Sony Classics (12) | 71.3 | 1.00% | |||
| Summit (6) | 69.9 | 1.00% | |||
| CBS (3) | 57.5 | 0.80% | |||
| Film District (1) | 54 | 0.80% | |||
| Other * (230) | 154.8 | 2.20% | |||
| 7133.7 | 100% | ||||
| * none greater than 0.4% | |||||
| Top Global Grossers * (Jan. 1 – Aug. 25, 2011) | |||||
| Title | Distributor | Gross | |||
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 2 | WB | 1,284,440,397 | |||
| Transformers: Dark of the Moon | Par | 1,100,104,396 | |||
| Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | BV | 1,041,010,194 | |||
| Kung Fu Panda 2 | Par | 630,537,304 | |||
| Fast Five | Uni | 607,183,426 | |||
| The Hangover 2 | WB | 580,768,459 | |||
| Cars 2 | BV | 510,434,944 | |||
| Rio | Fox | 483,787,468 | |||
| Thor | Par | 448,515,250 | |||
| The King’s Speech * | Weinstein/FilmNation | 408,711,643 | |||
| X-Men: First Class | Fox | 352,157,104 | |||
| The Smurfs | Sony | 344,875,919 | |||
| Captain America: The First Avenger | Par | 318,341,218 | |||
| Tangled * | BV | 296,514,084 | |||
| Black Swan * | Fox Searchlight | 287,879,561 | |||
| Bridesmaids | Uni | 274,974,902 | |||
| Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Fox | 274,271,376 | |||
| Rango | Par | 243,100,005 | |||
| Super 8 | Par | 238,534,641 | |||
| The Green Hornet | Sony | 227,892,167 | |||
| Just Go With It | Sony | 215,073,990 | |||
| Battle: Los Angeles | Sony | 202,921,199 | |||
| Green Lantern | WB | 201,404,280 | |||
| Bad Teacher | Sony | 198,384,847 | |||
| Gnomeo and Juliet | BV/eOne; Pathe | 195,014,691 | |||
| * does not include 2010 box office |
Well at least it wasn’t a big weekend for the box office anyway, if some superhero movie had had its opening weekend squashed by the storm I would be bummed.