The weekend estimates are out and to the Bourne Ultimatum (great movie) is now king of the box office. At least until next weekend. Transformers dropped again taking in 5.9 million for the weekend. These numbers are estimates and don't include foreign numbers nor the film opening in Japan this weekend. The numbers seem low but according to Box Office Mojo, "Transformers remains in the running to surpass Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End as the third-biggest grosser of the summer." I think this is based on a pattern where year leaders' foreign sales tend to be around 2 times the domestic sales, pretty much cementing to me that a successful film is no longer about how it opens in the United States but how it opens globally. If the powers that be at the studios have any brains they will pay a great deal of attention to this pattern and market accordingly. Potter 5 for instance probably benefited (among other reasons of course) from a simultaneous worldwide opening, already slipping into the 3rd spot for the year.
Weekend numbers in millions:
1. The Bourne Ultimatum - $70.2 million
2. The Simpsons Movie - $25.6 million ($128,550,000)
3. Underdog - $12 million
4. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - $10.5 million ($91,697,000)
5. Hairspray - $9.3 million ($78,954,000)
6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - $9.3 millino ($260,790,000)
7. No Reservations - $6.6 million ($24,157,000)
8. Transformers - $5.9 million ($296,308,000)
9. Hot Rod - $5 million
10. BRATZ $4.3 million
Top 5 Movies for 2007:
1. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Budget: 300 million
Opening Weekend: 114.7 million
Total Domestic: 307.1 million
Total Foreign: 644.4 million
Worldwide Total: 951.6 million
2. Spider-Man 3:
Budget: 258 million
Opening Weekend: 151.1million
Total Domestic: 336 million
Total Foreign: 553 million
Worldwide Total: 889 million
3. Harry Potter And The Order of the Phoenix:
Budget: 150 million
Opening Weekend: 77.4 million
Total Domestic: 260.8 million
Total Foreign: 509.7 million
Worldwide Total: 770.5 million
4. Shrek 3:
Budget: 160 million
Opening Weekend: 121.6 million
Total Domestic: 320.2 million
Total Foreign: 398.7 million
Worldwide Total: 718.9 million
5. Transformers:
Budget: 150 million
Opening Weekend: 67.6 million
Total Domestic: 296.3 million
Total Foreign: 249.5 million
Worldwide Total: 545.8 million
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Ticket sales are an important indicator that a movie has good marketing, or that a sequel has a good following and marketing.
ReplyDeleteClearly if you released a movie on the wrong day, or time of year, and didn't tell anyone, don't expect good ticket sales. You have to time everything as best you can. You must also get the word out, to anyone who will listen as a few that wont.
If you can get people to stay past the 15 minute mark, you get to keep the money.
All of the movies on the top 5 list appear to be in the sequel category, except Transformers, but it's a continuation of a brand so it might as well be a sequel.
This looks to be the year of the sequel, and good marketing. The business of film seems to be alive and well.
I did hope that Ticket sales for Transformers would have been higher. After all it was marketed exceptionally well to a level I had never seen before, and for a much longer time than I'd seen before. Seems the marketing began in 2005 and did not stop. The movie opened in almost every theater in the US.
Well, being #1 is not really important. A good return on the investment is important, if you want to get future investment for your projects. From the looks of it, they might have hit their mark, and we can expect that people associated with the production who are not locked into a contract are in negotiations. Maybe not for the sequel, but with their new money making clout, they're going to go where they can be paid the best.
I'm surprised at the gap between shrek and transformers, especially since tranformers had so much more buzz going in. I mean hell, even my voicemail provider had an old-school greeting they put out for free:
ReplyDeletehttp://login.youmail.com/login/greetingView.do?id=3027