Gold Star … Silver Star
The lizards of Rango slithered easily into audience hearts with an estimated $38.7 million that topped weekend viewing charts. Three other new wide releases entered the marketplace with the “what if” antics of The Adjustment Bureau ranking second with $20.9 million and the modern fairy tale Beastly following with $9.7 million. The romantic Take Me Home Tonight captured few hearts with a $3.4 million gross.
Limited and exclusive debuts were largely uninspired with the coming of age HappyThankYouMorePlease generating $29,700 on two screens and Thai award winner Uncle Bonmee grossing $25,400 from four venues. Box office for the 3D presentation of opera favorite Carmen from England’s Royal Opera weren’t reported.
The infusion of new titles expanded sales by 24% from the prior weekend but couldn’t compete with last years $116.1 million bow for Alice in Wonderland. Revenues slumped by 34% from 2010 and the year to date is lagging behind the prior year’s pace by 16%.
The enthusiastic reviews for the 3D animated gunslinger yarn Rango did little to bolster interest for the film’s non-family audience and the film bowed on the low end of industry estimates. Generally positive reviews for the sci-fi romance The Adjustment Bureau place that film on the high side of tacking predictions.
Conversely tracking for both Beastly and Take Me Home Tonight veered radically from expectations with the latter expected to out perform in its debut. With the former predicted to do no better than $6 million, you can guess the rest.
With the exhibition sector’s convention just three weeks away (now re-named CinemaCon) one can expect some hard questions being bruited. It’s decidedly not a period of warmth between theater owners and the studios and waning audiences; particular among the key under 25s will certainly heat up the issue of making new releases available on other platforms including home screens.
Oscar sheen (a distant relative of Charlie) appeared to dim rapidly for all save The King’s Speech. Though it’s hardly a new phenomenon, the shorter award season (and threat of an even shorter one in the near future) is likely to create the employ of new strategies to exploit films reliant on statuettes and the like this year.
Weekend (estimates) March 4 – 6, 2011 | |||||
Title | Distributor | Gross (average) | % change | Theaters | Cume |
Rango | Par | 37.8 (9,660) | NEW | 3917 | 37.8 |
The Adjustment Bureau | Uni | 20.9 (7,350) | NEW | 2840 | 20.9 |
Beastly | CBS | 9.7 (4,980) | NEW | 1952 | 9.7 |
Hall Pass | WB | 8.8 (2,990) | -35% | 2950 | 26.8 |
Gnomeo and Juliet | BV/eOne | 7.0 (2,350) | -48% | 2984 | 83.8 |
The King’s Speech | TWC | 6.5 (2,890) | -12% | 2240 | 123.8 |
Just Go With It | Sony | 6.4 (2,200) | -39% | 2920 | 88.1 |
Unknown | WB | 6.4 (2,210) | -49% | 2913 | 52.9 |
I Am Number 4 | BV | 5.7 (1,970) | -48% | 2903 | 46.5 |
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never | Par | 4.2 (1,880) | -55% | 2254 | 68.8 |
Take Me Home Tonight | Relativity | 3.4 (1,710) | NEW | 2003 | 3.4 |
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son | Fox | 3.2 (1,950) | -58% | 1642 | 33.2 |
Drive Angry | Summit | 2.1 (930) | -59% | 2290 | 9 |
The Fighter | Par/Alliance | 1.1 (1,840) | -33% | 575 | 92 |
Black Swan | FxSrch | 1.0 (1,440) | -26% | 681 | 105.1 |
True Grit | Par | .94 (1,300) | -52% | 725 | 168.6 |
Cedar Rapids | FxSrch | .77 (3,280) | 16% | 235 | 3.3 |
Tangled | BV | .74 (1,760) | 76% | 421 | 195.7 |
The Roommate | Sony | .59 (970) | -70% | 606 | 36.8 |
The Grace Card | IDP | .51 (1,450) | -50% | 352 | 1.7 |
Barney’s Version | eOne/SPC | .40 (1,900) | -27% | 211 | 5.7 |
No Strings Attached | Par | .36 (850) | -75% | 425 | 69.6 |
Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) | $127.75 | ||||
% Change (Last Year) | -33% | ||||
% Change (Last Week) | 24% | ||||
Also debuting/expanding | |||||
Of Gods and Men | SPC | .26 (7,420) | -16% | 42 | 0.73 |
The Illusionist | SPC | 77,500 (1,020) | -48% | 76 | 1.9 |
HappyThankYouMorePlease | Anchor Bay | 29,700 (14,850) | 2 | 0.03 | |
Uncle Bonmee | Strand | 25,400 (6,350) | 4 | 0.03 | |
Bereavement | Paradigm | 22,300 (1,120) | 20 | 0.02 | |
Detective K | CJ Ent | 13,500 (13,500) | 1 | 0.01 | |
I Saw the Devil | Magnolia | 12,100 (6,050) | 2 | 0.01 | |
The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom | Mongrel | 9,400 (1,880) | 5 | 0.01 | |
The Human Resources Manager | FilmMove | 8,300 (2,770) | 3 | 0.01 | |
Domestic Market Share (Jan. 1 – March 3, 2011) | |||||
Distributor (releases) | Gross | Market Share | |||
Paramount (8) | 283.2 | 19.60% | |||
Sony (9) | 267.7 | 18.50% | |||
Buena Vista (5) | 198.7 | 13.70% | |||
Warner Bros. (12) | 157.7 | 10.90% | |||
Universal (5) | 135.8 | 9.40% | |||
Weinstein Co. (3) | 112.8 | 7.80% | |||
Fox (5) | 78.8 | 5.50% | |||
Fox Searchlight (3) | 73.6 | 5.10% | |||
CBS (2) | 29.3 | 2.00% | |||
Relativity (2) | 24.8 | 1.70% | |||
Focus (2) | 20.3 | 1.40% | |||
eOne/Seville (7) | 10.9 | 0.80% | |||
Sony Classics (5) | 8.7 | 0.60% | |||
Summit (3) | 8.5 | 0.60% | |||
Other * (68) | 35.2 | 2.40% | |||
* none greater than 0.4% | |||||
Top Domestic Grossers (Jan. 1 – March 3, 2011) | |||||
Title | Distributor | Gross* | |||
The King’s Speech * | TWC | 99,641,843 | |||
True Grit * | Par | 97,285,477 | |||
The Green Hornet | Sony | 96,820,070 | |||
Just Go With It | Sony | 81,700,070 | |||
Gnomeo and Juliet | BV/eOne | 76,782,010 | |||
No Strings Attached | Par | 69,289,473 | |||
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never | Par | 64,551,441 | |||
Little Fockers * | Uni | 63,484,205 | |||
Black Swan * | FxSrch | 63,240,197 | |||
Tron: Legacy * | BV | 53,579,845 | |||
The Fighter * | Par/Alliance | 51,877,355 | |||
The Dilemma | Uni | 48,475,290 | |||
Unknown | WB | 46,509,264 | |||
I Am Number 4 | BV | 40,738,416 | |||
Yogi Bear * | WB | 40,506,801 | |||
The Roommate | Sony | 36,260,283 | |||
Tangled * | BV | 33,709,950 | |||
The Rite | WB | 32,464,547 | |||
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son | Fox | 29,969,678 | |||
The Mechanic | CBS | 28,812,145 | |||
* does not include 2010 box office |