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ECLIPSE Tops with $161 Mil Debut
Third Twilight film has $69 million weekend. By
Jarrod Sarafin
July 05, 2010
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Tops the Box Office..
© Bob Trate
If there’s one thing that’s been proven every summer season, it’s that movie goers looking to spend their hard earned cash and critics don’t always see eye to eye. A film critically praised sometimes fails at the box office while another that’s considered a rotten apple (or tomato) pulls in enough cash to leave those movie analysts staggered. As you Maniacs know, some films are just critic-proof. Such was the case this July 4th holiday which saw the worldwide releases of Summit Entertainment’s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Paramount Pictures’ The Last Airbender.
Since striking theaters at the witching hour on Wednesday morning, the third Twilight installment found itself atop the charts by pulling $161 million over its first five days of release. Summit broke three records on its first day (total booked theaters: 4,416, highest midnight tally: $30 mil, highest Wednesday opener: $68.5 mil) and maintained their wide margin lead over the competition throughout the holiday race.
While the five-day tally of $162 million is below the studio’s forecast ($173 million) and behind the $165 million earned by The Twilight Saga: New Moon in as many days, you won’t find Summit executives complaining on the subject. Not after director David Slade and the producers managed to keep its budget down to only $68 million, guaranteeing the studio yet another very profitable release in the franchise.
"I think it has a ways to go before we can say it's falling short," said Richie Fay, Summit's president of domestic theatrical distribution.
“Eclipse” also earned another $100 million from 42 countries in the international frame. Worldwide, the film has sucked up $261.2 million in coin since hitting theaters.
You probably thought we were talking about the Twilight sequel when we brought up rotten reviews above but that’s not the case. It may have a 49% Tomatometer but that doesn’t compare to the critical whiplash that M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender received last week. Despite being one of the worst-reviewed releases of the year---with a dismal score of 8%--- the fantasy’s opening exceeded studio expectations by pulling in $40.6 million over the weekend for 2nd place. With its early Thursday sales included into the mix, it has a domestic tally of $53.2 million after four full days at the box office.
Parent company Viacom hoped for a $50 million-plus opening and they got it. With Monday being considered part of the holiday race, the studio predicted they could reach the $70 million mark by tomorrow night. For a film that reportedly cost $150 million to make, earning half its budget back in four days is likely a good development for the studio. Especially in consideration of that piss poor critical rating.
Let’s now look at one of the best-reviewed movies of the year, with Pixar’s Toy Story 3 dropping down to 3rd place after dominating the box office its first two frames. The animated adventure pulled in another $30.1 million, increasing its domestic cume to $289 million. The studio has added that this latest performance has made it the 10th biggest title in Walt Disney history, a decent accomplishment given their history of family-friendly fare. With it pulling in another $25.5 million overseas, its foreign gross now sits at $151 million. As you Maniacs will see down below, it now sits in the second spot on the worldwide summer ladder below with $439.8 million. Following behind in 4th place is Adam Sandler’s comedic ensemble Grown Ups. The film earned another $18.5 million in its second weekend, which pushes the domestic total to $77.0 million. With its budget set at only $80 million, it will be another profitable venture for Sandler and co-star Kevin James.
Taking down the 5th place spot is the action comedy Knight & Day. In a sign that Tom Cruise isn’t receiving the same support he did in years past, his latest release found only $10.2 million over the holiday weekend. The latest numbers has the two-week tally at $45.5 million, quite a distance behind its $117 million budget.
Here’s the rest of the top ten.
| Rank | Movie | Weekend | Theaters | Average | Total | Budget |
| 1 | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse | $69.0 mil | 4,468 | $15,443 | $161.0 mil | $68 |
| 2 | The Last Airbender | $40.6 mil | 3,169 | $12,827 | $57.0 mil | $150 |
| 3 | Toy Story 3 | $30.1 mil | 4,028 | $7,491 | $289.0 mil | $200 |
| 4 | Grown Ups | $18.5 mil | 3,534 | $5,235 | $77.0 mil | $80 |
| 5 | Knight & Day | $10.2 mil | 3,104 | $3,286 | $45.5 mil | $117 |
| 6 | The Karate Kid | $8.0 mil | 3,109 | $2,573 | $151.5 mil | $40 |
| 7 | The A-Team | $3.0 mil | 2,153 | $1,405 | $69.1 mil | $110 |
| 8 | Get Him to the Greek | $1.1 mil | 884 | $1,340 | $57.4 mil | $40 |
| 9 | Shrek Forever After | $799 k | 957 | $835 | $232.1 mil | $165 |
| 10 | Cyrus | $770 k | 77 | $10,000 | $1.4 mil | $7 |
With Toy Story 3 still pulling in strong numbers at the box office on 4,000 theaters across the nation, that gap between it and Iron Man 2 (finishing its box office run) is narrowing with each passing day. Since our last report, Prince of Persia and Robin Hood hit the $300 worldwide club but it’s likely stay around that mark with both films dropping out of theaters. And with the May releases standing pat, it seems very likely that The Twilight Saga: Eclipse will enter the top three spots by next Sunday’s report.
Iron Man 2 Numbers:
Budget: $200 mil
Opening: $128.1 mil
Domestic: $308.2 mil
Foreign: $303.0 mil
Worldwide: $611.2 mil
Toy Story 3 Numbers:
Budget: $200 mil
Opening: $110.3 mil
Domestic: $289.0 mil
Foreign: $150.8 mil
Worldwide: $439.8 mil
Shrek Forever After Numbers:
Budget: $165 mil
Opening: $70.8 mil
Domestic: $232.1 mil
Foreign: $92.0 mil
Worldwide: $324.1 mil
The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Numbers:
Budget: $200 mil
Opening: $30.1 mil
Domestic: $88.1 mil
Foreign: $226.0 mil
Worldwide: $314.1 mil
Robin Hood Numbers:
Budget: $200 mil
Opening: $36.0 mil
Domestic: $103.8 mil
Foreign: $198.8 mil
Worldwide: $302.7 mil
Sex and the City 2 Numbers:
Budget: $100 mil
Opening: $31.0 mil
Domestic: $93.6 mil
Foreign: $171.6 mil
Worldwide: $265.2 mil
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Numbers:
Budget: $68 mil
Opening: $69.0 mil
Domestic: $161.0 mil
Foreign: $100.2 mil
Worldwide: $261.2 mil
The Karate Kid Numbers:
Budget: $40 mil
Opening: $55.6 mil
Domestic: $151.5 mil
Foreign: $24.2 mil
Worldwide: $175.8 mil
The A-Team Numbers:
Budget: $110 mil
Opening: $25.6 mil
Domestic: $69.1 mil
Foreign: $46.3 mil
Worldwide: $115.4 mil
Grown Ups Numbers:
Budget: $80 mil
Opening: $40.5 mil
Domestic: $77.0 mil
Foreign: $2.3 mil
Worldwide: $79.4 mil
Knight & Day Numbers:
Budget: $117 mil
Opening: $20.1 mil
Domestic: $45.5 mil
Foreign: $24.7 mil
Worldwide: $70.2 mil
The Last Airbender Numbers:
Budget: $150 mil
Opening: $40.6 mil
Domestic: $57.0 mil
Foreign: N/A yet
Worldwide: $57.0 mil
Next weekend sees the releases of two heavily promoted films, the animated comedy Despicable Me and the sci-fi tale Predators. The only baffling development seen at this point of time is the estimate that Fox is releasing the alien thriller in only 2,700 prints next weekend. Obviously, these estimates are sometimes off and a studio will push the distribution up but more often than not, they keep it in the range listed.
With such heavy demographic competition in store for them, the studio may need to add Predators to more theaters if they want to make a dent at the box office.
Friday, July 9, 2010 Releases
Wide
Despicable Me (3,200+)
Predators (2,700)
Limited
Rec 2
Grease
The Kids Are All Right
Red Alert: The War Within
The Girl Who Played with Fire
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Is anybody shocked?
Didn't want to see Twilight or Airbender and Not looking forward to Predators or Despicable Me. I hope some more appealing movies are in the offing for later in the summer.