Pixar and Disney celebrated their tenth straight number one smash with the 3D
flying house flick Up which enjoyed a strong opening
atop the North American box office. The new horror film
Drag Me to Hell played well to those
looking for a scare with its third place finish. Most holdovers fell by more
than 50% from last weekend’s holiday session but overall sales for the top ten
still matched up to last year.
Moviegoers spent the weekend with a grumpy old man and an adventurous young
scout as the animated film Up debuted at number one
with an estimated $68.2M from 3,766 locations. Averaging a stellar $18,109 per
location, the PG-rated film continued Pixar’s lucky streak which has seen every
one of its offerings debut at number one in its first weekend of wide release.
Grosses were boosted by extra surcharges that theaters collected for the 3D
presentation, the first ever for Pixar. For example, New York City’s Lincoln
Square theater charges $12.50 for regular tickets, but $16.50 for Up in
3D.
Showered with praise and glowing reviews from critics, Up enjoyed the
fourth biggest opening of 2009 trailing just
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
($85.1M), Star Trek
($75.2M), and
Fast & Furious ($71M). Friday kicked off the release with $21.4M,
Saturday rose 24% to $26.5M, and Sunday is estimated to decline by 24% to
$20.3M. Up unspooled in a record 1,534 3D locations with Disney reporting
those theaters grossing 2.2 times more than the regular-priced 2D screens.[rtimage]MapID=1195997&MapTypeID=2&photo=22&legacy=1[/rtimage]
Up was able to fly past the $63.1M of its studio’s last entry
WALL•E, although the higher ticket prices meant the
audience size was a bit smaller. But a clear victory was won over this year’s 3D
smash Monsters
vs. Aliens from rival DreamWorks Animation which bowed to $59.3M in
March. Not only did Monsters benefit from higher 3D prices but it also
opened wider in 338 more locations. Up now holds the record for the biggest
opening for a 3D pic.
For Pixar, Up ranks as its third best debut ever after
The Incredibles
($70.4M in 2004) and
Finding Nemo ($70.3M in 2003). And it was the sixth largest bow for any
animated film in history behind
Shrek the Third
($121.6M in 2007), Shrek 2
($108M in 2004),
The Simpsons Movie ($74M in 2007), Incredibles, and Nemo.
Disney was able to reach all audiences this weekend. Studio data showed that the
crowd was 53% female and 53% 18 and older. With a CinemaScore rating of A+, one
notch higher than WALL•E‘s A from last summer, a long life is expected.
Plus kidpic offerings are light between now and
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs on July 1. With more and more schools
closing for the school year in the coming days, Up should be able to hold
up well in the weeks ahead and challenge Star Trek for the summer box
office crown. That is, until the mid-summer tentpoles
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince arrive.[rtimage]MapID=1195997&MapTypeID=2&photo=19&legacy=1[/rtimage]
With the Pixar folks stealing away the family audience, Fox’s
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian took a sizable hit
falling 53% to second place with an estimated $25.5M in ticket sales. After ten
days of release, the PG-rated comedy adventure has pulled in an impressive
$105.3M becoming the tenth film of the year to join the century club. A final
tally in the vicinity of $170M seems likely putting Smithsonian about
one-third behind the $250.9M of the first
Museum
which opened over Christmas weekend in 2006.
Universal’s supernatural thriller Drag Me to
Hell from director Sam Raimi debuted in third place with an estimated
$16.6M from 2,508 theaters for a solid $6,630 average. While not a bad opening,
the debut was a bit disappointing given the starpower of the filmmaker, lack of
horror films for two months, and the spectacular reviews from critics. Fellow
PG-13 spookfests
The Unborn and
The Haunting
in Connecticut opened to $21.1M and $23M respectively this year.
Universal even generated a $21M bow for its horror pic
The Strangers a
year ago this very weekend. Drag‘s 11% Friday-to-Saturday drop should
mean a shaky road ahead.[rtimage]MapID=1198119&MapTypeID=2&photo=6&legacy=1[/rtimage]
John Connor saw most of his followers vanish as the action sequel
Terminator
Salvation tumbled 62% in its second weekend to an estimated $16.1M
falling two spots to fourth place. It was a larger drop than the 56% decline
suffered by
T3:
Rise of the Machines in July 2003 after its extended holiday debut.
Released by Warner Bros., Salvation has generated $90.7M over 11 days and
looks headed for a final domestic tally of roughly $135M. That would put the new
Christian
Bale actioner 13% behind the $150.4M gross of T3, and a troubling 28%
behind in actual tickets sold. Salvation cost a reported $200M to produce
and was backed by a pricey marketing campaign. Overseas, the sci-fi film opened
at number one in seven Asian territories through Sony this weekend and grossed
$8.6M from 673 runs for a solid $12,700 average.
Posting the smallest decline in the top ten was
Star Trek which
dropped to fifth with an estimated $12.8M, down 44%. Paramount’s reboot hit
crossed the $200M mark on Friday in its 22nd day of release and became the first
film of the year, and first since last summer’s
The Dark Knight,
to surpass the double-century mark. With $209.5M in the bank, Trek is
still plotting a course to reach $245-250M domestically.[rtimage]MapID=1186973&MapTypeID=2&photo=51&legacy=1[/rtimage]
Dropping 48% to sixth place was the
Tom Hanks
thriller
Angels &
Demons with an estimated $11.2M. The Sony release upped its domestic
cume to $104.8M and is running 39% behind the pace of 2006’s
The Da Vinci Code.
The Angels international total climbed to $251.7M this weekend and is now
also 39% behind Code overseas. The global take for Demons stands
at $356.5M.
Paramount’s spoof comedy
Dance Flick
stumbled 54% in its second weekend and ranked seventh with an estimated $4.9M.
With $19.2M in ten days, the Wayans venture should finish its run with roughly
$30M. The summer kickoff flick X-Men Origins: Wolverine followed with an
estimated $3.9M for Fox, down 52%, for a $170.9M sum. The mutant prequel is
currently the third biggest grosser of 2009 and may end up with $180M. The
Matthew
McConaughey comedy
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past grossed an estimated $1.9M for Warner Bros.,
off 51%, and has taken $50M to date.[rtimage]MapID=1205827&MapTypeID=2&photo=16&legacy=1[/rtimage]
The race for tenth place was too close to call with a pair of films reporting
estimates just $13,000 apart. Sony estimated its relationship thriller
Obsessed
would tumble 66% to $665,000 while Summit expanded its indie comedy
The Brothers Bloom
and saw its weekend take climb to an estimated $652,000. The
Beyonce
Knowles hit has taken in $67.5M thus far and the
Rachel Weisz–Adrien
Brody starrer, which averaged a decent $4,405 from 148 sites, raised it
total in limited release to $1.4M.
Regent bowed the Oscar-winning Japanese film
Departures in just
nine locations and grossed an estimated $73,000 for a respectable $8,111
average.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $161.8M which was off 1% from last year
when
Sex and the City opened in the top spot with $56.8M; but up 27% from
2007 when
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End remained at number one with
$44.2M.
