“This Is It” wins weekend, extended past two week run… 2nd lowest weekend total of 2009

Sure it opened Wednesday, but just the Friday-Sunday estimated numbers ($21 million) add up to a box office win for “This Is It” the Michael Jackson concert documentary.   “This Is It” dominated the weekend, becoming the highest grossing concert movie.   Sony Pictures announced today that the flick that was orignally scheduled to to play for two weeks, will now play for 4 1/2 weeks …. through the Thanksgiving weekend.

“Paranormal Activity” was the only other movie with more than $10 million ($16 million) this weekend, the horror thriller is now in more than 2,400 theaters, its widest release so far, and again with the highest per theater average of the top 12 movies… which means the movie is making more money/has more people per showing.

Overall, as you could guess with only 2 movies in double-digit millions, it was a down weekend.  The box office saw a 25% decrease from last weekend, and at $79.42 million for the top 12 movies, is the 2nd lowest total of the year (Sept. 11-13 was $76.21 million).  If you’re wondering, last year’s Halloween weekend was also weak, totalling just $73.99 million (a 38% drop from the previous weekend).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “This Is It” - $21.30 million (1st week)

2. “Paranormal Activity” – $16.54 million
(6th week of release, was #1 last week, lost 22% of audience from last week)

3. “Law Abiding Citizen” – $7.30 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 41% from last week)

4. “Couples Retreat” - $6.10 million
(4th week, was #5 last week, lost 43% from last week)

5. “Saw VI” – $5.56 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 61% from last week)

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After weeks of climbing the charts while in limited release, “Paranormal Activity” grabs #1

Wow… “Paranormal Activity” is in its widest release yet this weekend, but still in 1,000 fewer theaters than “Saw VI”, the 6th installment in one of the most successful horror franchises at the box office… despite those odds, ‘Paranormal’ beat out its scary competition by $7 million.

“Where The Wild Things Are” is a close 3rd, and may slide into 2nd place when the final numbers come in.  Other new movies “Astro Boy”, “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant”, and “Amelia” all made less than $10 million each and struggled to compete with returning movies.  The other limited release darling “A Serious Man” had the 2nd highest per theater average ($6,415) of the top 12 movies (2nd only to ‘Paranormal’’s $11,311)… “A Serious Man” won’t be in the Grand Rapids market until at least November 6th.

Overall, the weekend ($109.95 million) was down about 14% from last weekend’s huge weekend, but still the 2nd highest box office total of the fall movie season.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Paranormal Activity” – $22.00 million
(5th week of limited release, was #3 last week, gained 12% – added 1,185 theaters from last week)

2. “Saw VI” – $14.80 million (1st week)

3. “Where The Wild Things Are” - $14.42 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 56% of audience from last week)

4. “Law Abiding Citizen” – $12.71 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 40% from last week)

5. “Couples Retreat” - $11.10 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 36% from last week)

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“Where The Wild Things Are” tops box office, but not so fast…. look inside the numbers!!

A quick look at box office returns and you would think “Where The Wild Things Are” dominated the weekend box office, winning by more than $10 million.   But if the box office were a level playing field, ‘Wild Things’ would have finished second to “Paranormal Activity”.

“Where The Wild Things Are” made an estimated $32.47 million at 3,735 theaters – a $8,693 per theater average.   “Paranormal Activity” grossed $20.16 million at just 760 theaters – a $26,530 per theater average.   If you extrapolate that per theater average, putting ’Paranormal’ in twice as many theaters (1,520), it would have made about $40 million… and if ‘Paranormal’ had been in just half the number of theaters that ‘Wild Things’ was playing (1,867) it would have made a whopping $49 million.

Last weekend’s #1 “Couples Retreat” was bumped to 4th.  Overall, the weekend saw a 36% increase from last weekend, with $129.8 million, it was the biggest weekend since August 7-9 (when “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra” was #1).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Where The Wild Things Are” - $32.47 million (1st week)

2. “Law Abiding Citizen” – $21.25 million (1st week)

3. “Paranormal Activity” – $20.16 million
(4th week of limited release, was #4 last week, gained 155% – added 600 screens from last week)

4. “Couples Retreat” - $17.95 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 48% of audience from last week)

5. “The Stepfather” – $12.30 million (1st week)

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“Couples Retreat” tops weekend box office

“Couples Retreat” dominated the weekend ($35.34 million), the biggest opening day for an October live-action comedy, although it was the only new movie in wide release… “Zombieland” held on to number two… “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” lost the least and held on to number three.   “Paranormal Activity” jumped up to 5th place in its 3rd week of limited release with its viral push.

Overall, the weekend saw a 5% increase from last weekend’s very successful weekend at the box office and at $96.37 million, it brought in $10 million more than the same weekend last year.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Couples Retreat” - $35.34 million (1st week)

2. “Zombieland” – $15.00 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 39% of audience from last week)

3. “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” – $12.00 million
(4th week, was #2 last week, lost 24% from last week)

4. “Toy Story”/”Toy Story 2″ – $7.67 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 39% from last week)

5. “Paranormal Activity” – $7.07 million
(2nd week of limited release, was #20 last week, gained 1200% added 127 screens from last week) COMES TO WEST MICHIGAN NEXT WEEK

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“Zombieland” tops weekend box office

The horror/comedy “Zombieland” feasted on the weekend box office, bumping “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” out of the number one spot it held for 2 weeks.   The “Toy Story”/”Toy Story 2″ 3D double feature was 3rd, while other new movies “The Invention of Lying”, “Capitalism: A Love Story”, and “Whip It” were #4, #6, and #7.

Overall, the weekend offerings helped the box office rebound – up nearly 14% from last weekend and with $94.52  million, the highest grossing weekend of the fall.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Zombieland” – $25.00 million (1st week)

2. “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” – $16.70 million
(3rd week, was #1 last week, lost 33% of audience from last week)

3. “Toy Story”/”Toy Story 2″ – $12.50 million (1st week)

4. “The Invention of Lying” – $7.35 million (1st week)

5. “Surrogates” – $7.34 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 51% from last week)

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For second week, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” tops the box office, new movies struggle

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” overshadowed the weekend, with nearly $10 million more than new movie “Surrogates” in 2nd place, “Fame” was 3rd, and “Pandorum” was a distant 6th.

Overall, the weekend was down 5% from last weekend and with $82.77 million, it ranks as the 2nd lowest total revenue of 2009 (September 4-6 was $81.12 million).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” – $24.60 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 19% of audience from last week)

2. “Surrogates” – $15.00 million (1st week)

3. “Fame” (2009) – $10.03 million (1st week)

4. “The Informant!” – $6.92 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 34% from last week)

5. “Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself” – $4.75 million
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 52% of audience from last week)

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“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” wins box office, makes overall weekend sunny for studios and theater owners

The very good family 3D movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” soared above the box office this weekend, winning with nearly 3x the revenue of 2nd place’s “The Informant!”, but the Matt Damon movie’s box office gross was a good showing, considering it nearly returned half of its $22 million budget.

“I Can Do Bad All By Myself” lost nearly 60% of its audience and slipped to 3rd place.   Other newbies “Love Happens” and “Jennifer’s Body” at least made the top 5… perhaps a surprise to some: “Love Happens” had the 3rd highest per screen average of the weekend, so it was pretty strong, but played in fewer theaters (only “The Final Destination” played in fewer theaters of the top 10).

Overall, the weekend was up about 15% from last weekend.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” – $30.10 million (1st week)

2. “The Informant!” – $10.55 million (1st week)

3. “Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself” – $10.06 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 57% of audience from last week)

4. “Love Happens” – $8.46 million (1st week)

5. “Jennifer’s Body” – $6.80 million (1st week)

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Fall season opens with two bangs and two blips at box office

“Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself” continues the success of all movies with the Director/Actor’s name in the title, earning at least $10 million on opening weekend.   The highly promoted animated action movie “9″ gained $15 million… not a ton considering that includes its Wednesday opening and Thursday box office returns.

Last weekend’s top 3 (”The Final Destination”, “Inglourious Basterds”, “All About Steve”) changed spots but out grossed newcomers “Soroity Row” and “Whiteout”.   Overall, the first weekend of fall was down just 4% from the last weekend of the summer season.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself” – $24.03 million (1st week)

2. “9″ – $10.86 million (1st week)

3. “Inglourious Basterds” – $6.55 million
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 44% of audience from last week)

4. “All About Steve” - $5.80 million
(2nd week, was #4 last week, lost 48% from last week)

5. “The Final Destination” – $5.50 million
(3rd week, was #1 last week, lost 56% from last week)

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2009 Summer box office breaks records, ends with horror on top

“The Final Destination” held on to number one, “Inglourious Basterds” held on to second place while Sandra Bullock’s new movie “All About Steve” did the best of the three new movies.

Normally last weekend would have been the final weekend of summer, but due to late Labor Day, the summer is now over, but summer 2009 had already broken records before Labor Day weekend.  Yesterday, Variety reported “Summer revenues topped out at an estimated $4.31 billion through Monday, up 4% over summer 2007, the previous recordholder at $4.16 billion. Admissions were essentially even with summer 2008.”

Summer 2009’s top movie revenues:
1. “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”  - $400.65 million
2. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” – $297.59 million
3. “Up” – $290.92 million
4. “The Hangover” - $272.17 million
5. “Star Trek” - $257.18 million

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “The Final Destination” – $12.32 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 55% of audience from last week)

2. “Inglourious Basterds” – $11.67 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 40% of audience from last week)

3. “All About Steve” - $11.23 million (1st week)

4. “Gamer” – $9.12 million (1st week)

5. “District 9″ - $7.10 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 31% from last week)

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 Horror storms the box office

“The Final Destination” beat out Rob Zombie’s “Halloween II”, but last week’s number one “Inglourious Basterds” split the two finishing in second place.   Three movies held their ground the best losing less than the average: “Julie & Julia” (lost 16% of audience from last week)  “(500) Days of Summer” (lost just 9% from last week), and “The Hangover” (lost just 2%).
Overall, the final weekend of summer movie season was up, turning around a two week slide, but it was only a 3% improvement… still clocking in as one of the lowest earning weeks of summer.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “The Final Destination” – $28.33 million (1st week)

2. “Inglourious Basterds” – $20.04 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 47% of audience from last week)

3. “Halloween II” - $17.40 million (1st week)

4. “District 9″ - $10.70 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 41% from last week)

5. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” – $8.00 million
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 35% from last week)

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