The Weekend Report: October 2, 2011

Wail of a Tale

Families continued to hold sway at the multiplex as Dolphin Tale ascended to the top of the weekend movie charts with an estimated $14.3 million. Holdovers dominated frame sales with a quartet of new national releases bowing to mostly fair to poor response. The exception was the inspirational Courageous that ranked fourth with $8.8 million from a modest run of 1,161 playdates.

Trailing behind were the Cancer comedy 50/50 with $8.7 million, the chiller Dream House with $8.1 million and the teen targeted What’s Your Number eking out $5.5 million.

In Canada Breakaway, a tale of a Hindi hockey team, scored with $472,000 from 46 ice rinks. Conversely Bollywood import Force provided an ironic $99,000 at 58 venues and the black comic horror yarn Tucker & Dale vs. Evil dribbled $53,100 from 30 splattertoriums.

Bows in exclusive and limited release were rife but with few stand outs. Fest fave Take Shelter was upbeat with a $55,300 gross from three screens and on solo openings the policier Munger Road tracked down $40,400 in Chicago while Korean import War of the Arrows had a $21,800 bullseye following its $46 million tally at home.

Session revenues were slightly shy of $100 million that saw box office recede 18% from last weekend while registering a modest 3% rise from 2010. Last year the debut of The Social Network dominated with an opening $22.4 million salvo with holdovers of Legend of the Guardians and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps following respectively with $10.8 million and $10 million.

Pundits anticipated that holdovers would reign at the box office but weren’t unanimous about the order of Dolphin Tale, Moneyball and The Lion King. Unquestionably there was a mighty force from family viewing that’s been evident this time of year while Moneyball benefited from strong reviews and positive word of mouth.

The incoming movies all skewed female (admittedly exit demos weren’t available for Dream House) and older. Courageous _ which was aimed toward a faith-based crowd _ was expected to appeal older though perhaps not as decidedly as the 77% plus 25 years old indicated from exit polls. Tracking was pretty much on the mark with projections of between $8 million and $10 million.

The big question mark movie was 50/50, a comedy but centered on a young man diagnosed with cancer. Tracking indicated to would open between $10 million and $12 million. And while buttressed by positive reviews, audiences remained unconvinced the experience wouldn’t be a downer. Its fate now rests with strong word of mouth and bringing down the opening profile that registered a 65% plus 25 year old crowd.

For the nonce the industry is taking a deep breath in anticipation of a big bounce back at Thanksgiving.

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