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Box Office: Families Give Box Office Thanks to FOUR CHRISTMASES
By
Jarrod Sarafin
November 30, 2008
Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn show the wear and tear of family celebrations in FOUR CHRISTMASES(2008).
© Warner Bros.
With Thanksgiving being the holiday celebrated for a lot of people, it was a week where most families gather together to eat some turkey, try to find digestive room for even more tasty pie and then pass out before they have to think about surviving through long black Friday checkout lines while looking for decent discounts. But in between all this, a lot of families also find time to check out the latest movies at their local theaters which points to family movies usually performing the best for during Thanksgiving year in and year out. And this year is no different.
Families who know all about the chaotic Christmas scene chose comedy this holiday weekend by checking out Warner Bros. Four Christmases first and foremost. Imagine having to deal with Christmas four times a year? That’s what Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon went through in the holiday comedy and as such, audiences contributed $46.7 million to the madness since it opened in theaters Wednesday. For the weekend alone, it pulled in an estimated $31.6 million on its 3,310 theaters around the nation. Since the film clocked in at only one hour and 22 minutes long, this was obviously a factor in showings per day in each of those theaters. WB and New Line have set the budget at around 80 million so this is a very decent opening for their comedy.
The 2nd place is seriously too close to call but we’ll go with what the estimates are saying here with the understanding that it may change by tomorrow’s accurate numbers come in.
For now, Walt Disney’s Bolt is leading Summit’s Twilight by only $226,000. The animation featuring the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus pulled in $26.5 million on its 3,654 theaters across the nation this weekend. Unless Disney has a massive budget (which is unlikely), the film is performing up to speed for the house that Mickey built after pulling in $66.8 million in ten days at the domestic box office.
As said above, right behind is Summit Entertainment’s Twilight tale. Family movies may have taken the top two spots this weekend but teenagers still enjoyed the vampire adaptation over the holiday with the film pulling in an estimated $39.5 million since Wednesday. For the weekend alone, it grabbed another $26.3 million on 3,425 theaters. The sixty percent drop aside, these are all very good numbers once again for Summit who produced the film for only $37 million and has already begun preproduction on their sequel New Moon. As of today’s estimates (without this weekend’s foreign numbers), Twilight has grossed $119.6 million domestically and another $9.8 million from foreign markets.
MGM and Columbia Pictures rolls into 4th place with their latest James Bond adventure Quantum of Solace. The second Craig-led installment tallied up another $19.5 million in box office sales this weekend while showing on 3,501 theaters. This means the film is averaging $5,570 per showing with audiences in its third weekend. Not counting this weekend’s foreign numbers, “Quantum” has a worldwide gross of $450.4 million. The domestic aspect of that gross is $142.0 million while its foreign tally is at $308.3 million.
With a romance-driven western epic clocking in at two hours and forty-five minutes and entering only 2,642 theaters, a lot of people wondered about 20th Century Fox’s decision to release Australia this weekend. There was just too much demographic competition with shorter films entering more theaters and as such, Baz Luhrmann’s latest film grabbed the 5th spot with only $14.8 million this weekend. Since opening on Wednesday, the film has pulled in $20 million so it has quite a long way to go before it can reach its $130 million production costs. Will this film have a long theater life or will it drop like a stone amidst all the winter competition? The latter outcome seems likely but we shall see.
Following in 6th place is Paramount and DreamWorks’ Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa which pulled in another $14.5 million this weekend. This has the film overcoming its $150 million budget in its fourth weekend of domestic release by having a tally of $159.5 million. If you include the $57.5 million from foreign box office sales, the animated sequel has a worldwide gross of $217.0 million.
The final film to hit double digits this holiday weekend is Lionsgate’s next installment Transporter 3. The Statham-led third film grabbed $12.3 million in its debut on 2,626 theaters across the nation. Since its Wedneday bow, the film has tallied up $18.5 million with audiences. The first film opened up in 2002 with only $9.1 million while the sequel debuted in 2005 with $16.5 million. No budget has been released for the third film as of yet.
Universal Pictures takes the 8th place spot with their buddy comedy Role Models which is already a moderate success for the studio. The film laughed up another $5.2 million this weekend and has a domestic gross of $57.8 million in four weekends of release. Not bad at all for a film costing only $28 mil to produce.
The last two spots belong to limited releases from Miramax and Focus Features. The former’s Boy in the Striped Pajamas landed in 9th place by taking on another $1.6 million on 582 theaters.
The latter had an amazing opening with Milk hitting only 36 theaters and yet pulling in an estimated $1.3 million. Obviously, with the film hitting only 36 theaters, this makes for the best average rate of the weekend with $38,361 per showing. Focus will be expanding the film next weekend.
| Rank | Movie | Weekend | Theaters | Average | Total | Budget |
| 1 | Four Christmases | $31.6 mil | 3,310 | $9,571 | $46.7 mil | 80 |
| 2 | Bolt | $26.5 mil | 3,654 | $7,279 | $66.8 mil | ---- |
| 3 | Twilight | $26.3 mil | 3,425 | $7,699 | $119.6 mil | 37 |
| 4 | Quantum of Solace | $19.5 mil | 3,501 | $5,570 | $142.0 mil | 200 |
| 5 | Australia | $14.8 mil | 2,642 | $5,607 | $20.0 mil | 130 |
| 6 | Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa | $14.5 mil | 3,709 | $3,909 | $159.5 mil | 150 |
| 7 | Transporter 3 | $12.3 mil | 2,626 | $4,695 | $18.5 mil | ---- |
| 8 | Role Models | $5.2 mil | 2,195 | $2,407 | $57.8 mil | 28 |
| 9 | The Boy in the Striped Pajamas | $1.6 mil | 582 | $2,904 | $5.1 mil | ---- |
| 10 | Milk | $1.3 mil | 36 | $38,361 | $1.8 mil | ---- |
Understanding that early theater count estimates are sometimes off or adjusted the week before a debut, we still have to wonder about Punisher: War Zone coming into only 2,400+ theaters next weekend.
It may get pushed to over 3,000 theaters by next weekend but if that doesn’t happen, Lionsgate will likely be debuting somewhere in the middle in next weekend’s box office report. The film is an R-rated feature as the fans wanted but the current theater estimate is much too low to make an impact against all these family films with 3,000+ theaters apiece.
Friday December 5, 2008 Releases:
Wide
Punisher: War Zone (2,400+ theaters)
Nobel Son (750+ theaters)
Cadillac Records (600+ theaters)
Limited
Hunger
Extreme Movie
Ciao
Frost/Nixon
Expanding
Milk
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First of all, a belated happy Thanksgiving to all you maniacs, members and staff (heehee, members and staff)
Four Christmas was fairly decent. We had a good time, especially liked Favreau's part in it. I just like Vaughn's characters most of the time and he didn't disappoint me.
Transporter was just what I expected, brainless fun, sexy girl and some nice fighting sequences and of course some car stunts. Nothing special, if you expect more wait for the rental
Bolt was a lot of fun. I'm a dog person so anything with a pooch usually strikes my fancy. Loved the hamster, funny
Not surprised Twilight fumbled this far. I said it last week the film just wasn't that good and if people are honest withy themselves and don't fall for the hype they'll agree.
Punisher has an open road next week with no new major releases. I'm looking forward to it and hope Lexi delivers cause I'd hate for this to be the Punisher's last film for a while