Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey celebratiing in ENCHANTED(2007).
© Walt Disney Co.
ENCHANTED Dances into Top Spot
By: Jarrod Sarafin, News EditorDate: Sunday, November 25, 2007
The holiday weekend played out exactly as expected for the most part with Disney’s Enchanted weaving its magical fairytale straight into 1st place above the rest of the pack. It was a weekend for the family as this box office report will point, spelling trouble for some studios (Fox and Paramount) if this trend is prevalent on the Christmas holiday as well.
Disney’s Enchanted strikes 1st with a 35.3 million pull over the three day weekend, debuting in 3,730 theaters across the nation and averaging $9,472 per showing. The film, starring Amy Adams, James Marsden & Susan Sarandon, has a domestic total of 50.0 million since debuting on Wednesday. Disney hasn’t released the budget for this film but it’s a sure thing that this kind of opening has it in good shape to make a profit for the studio, the same studio which already has had a great year with The Game Plan, Ratatouille & Pirates of the Caribbean:At World’s End.
Screen Gems continues to make smart decisions (for the most part) with their releases. They tend to keep their budgets at a bare minimum and show profits from well-timed releases. Their latest film This Christmas did very well over the holiday weekend, pulling in 18.6 million over the 3-days and 27.1 million over the 5-day tally. They’ve already doubled their budget since the film is listed at only 13 million in costs. In cash per showing category, it edged ahead of Enchanted, pulling in 500 dollars more per showing.
Following behind in 3rd place is the returning adventure Beowulf, based on the epic poem by the same name. The film pulled in 16.2 million over the last three days while appearing on 3,218 theaters around the nation. The question for Paramount now becomes “How long will it take to overcome its budget?” The Robert Zemeckis-directed film has a budget of 150 million and its half-way there in 2 weeks. The film has a worldwide total of 73.6 million, 56 mil being domestic and another 17 mil from foreign receipts. The foreign numbers are from last week so expect it to be near the 100 mark by the end of tomorrow when the numbers get updated.
Now, it’s time to talk about the only Rated-R film which performed decent numbers this holiday weekend. Fox landed into 4th place with its debuting Hitman by taking in 13.0 million over the weekend and 21.0 million over the 5-day holiday. The film could have done better for the studio but it could have done worse, which you will see later in the report when we discuss Weinstein’s The Mist. Fox didn’t release a budget for Hitman yet but this kind of opening has it ready to make its money back at the end of the day. Once we see how it does in foreign territories, we’ll have a better gauge on determining whether it’s a success or not for the studio.
Paramount/Dreamworks’ release of Bee Movie continues its steady pace at the box office. For the holiday, the animated Seinfeld adventure landed in 5th place with 12.0 million in domestic receipts. Even after 4 weeks of release, the film is still getting good screen time in 3,507 theaters across the world. It has a domestic total of 112.0 million and the film began its foreign release last week by pulling in 11.0 million. Like the same question that I posed for Beowulf, the jury is still out on how successful a film it will be by the end of the day. The budget is listed at 150 mil and as of right now, it has a worldwide gross of 123.0 million after 24 days of release.
The holiday-themed Fred Claus follows behind the beehive in 6th place this weekend, pulling in 10.7 million over the weekend. The Christmas film, starring Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti, has grabbed 53.0 million in domestic cash over the course of the last three weeks. WB hasn’t given us a budget for Claus but this kind of film will continue to perform steady during the next few weeks due to its storyline matching the spirit of the season. More than likely, the film didn’t have too high a budget for the studio.
The same can be said for the other WB film this weekend, August Rush, a film which follows right behind in 7th place with 9.4 million in receipts. August wasn’t exactly a well-advertised film but the studio can take comfort in the knowledge that it beat out American Gangster, The Mist and No Country for Old Men over the last three days. In the past 5 days, Rush has taken in 13.3 million in receipts.
Universal’s American Gangster only dropped 28% from its previous weekend, landing in 8th place with 9.2 million in cash. The Ridley Scott-directed, starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe & Cuba Gooding Jr, has pulled in 115.7 million in domestic receipts over the last 4 weeks of release. The film has also pulled in another 30.7 million in foreign sales. The critically praised film is a clear success for Universal, the studio setting the price tag at 100 million while its worldwide gross has it at 146.4 million at this time.
The Weinsteins continued their failure of releasing rated-R genre films over family-themed holidays. While the Hitman managed decent/average numbers for the last 5 days, the same can’t be said for The Mist. The Frank Darabont-directed film, based on the Stephen King novel, grossed only 13.0 million over the course of the last five days. MGM and the Weinstein Company gave a half-way decent advertising campaign for the film and gave it a respectable theatrical release of 2,423 screens but it still didn’t hold up well against the other holiday competition out there. No budget is given on this film but it needs to be low in hopes of making its money back for the studios. MGM and the Weinsteins should do better next week since their next film Awake is the only new wide release for next Friday.
No Country for Old Men was the most limited release of the group and yet it shares a spot in the top 10 films for the weekend, due to good reviews and decent advertising from Miramax. The film, starring Tommy Lee Jones & Javier Bardem, landed in 10th place with 8.1 million to show for it even with a theatrical release of only 860 screens. This kind of box office numbers has it with an average per showing rate of $9,432 per showing for the studio. This is the 3rd week of release for the film but the 1st week in wide release after the studio added it to 712 more theaters. Over the course of the last three weeks, the film has pulled in 16.6 million in sales.
Note: The table below stands for the 3-day weekend. To see the 5-day numbers for the debuting films, just check out the Total $ category.
| Rank | Movie | Weekend $ | Theaters | Average | Total $ | Week # |
| 1 | Enchanted | 35.3 mil | 3,730 | $9,472 | 50.0 mil | 1 |
| 2 | This Christmas | 18.6 mil | 1,858 | $10,010 | 27.1 mil | 1 |
| 3 | Beowulf | 16.2 mil | 3,218 | $5,046 | 56.3 mil | 2 |
| 4 | Hitman | 13.0 mil | 2,458 | $5,303 | 21.0 mil | 1 |
| 5 | Bee Movie | 12.0 mil | 3,507 | $3,424 | 112.0 mil | 4 |
| 6 | Fred Claus | 10.7 mil | 3,603 | $2,979 | 53.0 mil | 3 |
| 7 | August Rush | 9.4 mil | 2,310 | $4,082 | 13.3 mil | 1 |
| 8 | American Gangster | 9.2 mil | 2,799 | $3,289 | 115.7 mil | 4 |
| 9 | The Mist | 9.0 mil | 2,423 | $3,739 | 13.0 mil | 1 |
| 10 | No Country for Old Men | 8.1 mil | 860 | $9,432 | 16.6 mil | 3 |
As I see what happened to Grindhouse on Easter weekend and now seeing it repeated this holiday week on Thanksgiving, I do have to wonder what Fox and Paramount executives are thinking with their Christmas schedule.
Sure, Fox didn’t do half bad with their Hitman release this week but the fact remains that family films tend to rule these types of holiday-themed schedules.
So, why are Fox and Paramount execs insisting on releasing rated-R films such as Aliens vs. Predator:Requiem and Sweeney Todd on Christmas against some clear family competition?
I understand that alternative programming is a good thing in some cases such as releasing Dan in Real Life on Halloween weekend but Dan wasn’t a tent pole release with a high budget. It wasn’t a film which required fast box office cash in return for the studio.
The R-rated Aliens vs. Predator is a winter tentpole release for Fox. The R-rated Sweeney Todd is a winter tentpole release for Paramount & Dreamworks.
So, why do the studios insist on releasing these hard R films against family films such as National Treasure: Book of Secrets, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, P.S I Love You & Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story?
December 21 Releases:
National Treasure: Book of Secrets= Adventure genre
Sweeney Todd= Musical
P.S I Love You= Romance genre
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story=Comedy genre
December 25 Releases:
Aliens vs. Predator:Requiem=Sci-fi/Horror
Charlie Wilson’s War=War Drama
The Great Debaters=Drama
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep=Fantasy/Children
I may end up wrong here. Aliens vs. Predator:Requiem and Sweeney Todd may rake in the cash on the Christmas holidays but it does strike me as odd decision-making for studio executives to believe that a hard-R musical and a hard-R sci-fi horror sequel will do anything against that demographic/genre competition on a family-themed holiday…
Time for your thoughts!
Friday November 30, 2007 Releases:
Wide Releases
Awake (2,000 Theaters)
Limited Releases
Chronicle of an Escape
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Protagonist
The Rocket
The Savages
With the range of creatures in it, and the military aspect, I think this movie is screaming for a videogame adaptation, preferably FPS.