Following a very pricey marketing campaign, DreamWorks Animation’s 3D
animated film
Monsters vs. Aliens delivered on its promises and attracted the largest
opening weekend of any film this year leading the overall marketplace to its
best performance in over a month. Big muscles were also flexed by Lionsgate
which enjoyed one of its biggest horror openings ever with
The Haunting
in Connecticut which landed in second place with a powerful launch of
its own. The top ten films sold $135M worth of ticket stubs making it the best
non-holiday tally of 2009.
As the main event at the multiplexes this weekend,
Monsters vs.
Aliens captured an estimated $58.2M over the Friday-to-Sunday period to
lead a busy frame at the box office. Paramount released the PG-rated hit in an
ultrawide 4,104 locations averaging a stellar $14,181 per location. The numbers
were helped by higher-priced tickets from the 1,550 theaters that featured the
3D presentation with most charging an extra $3 or so per stub. Many exhibitors
allocated screens for both the 2D and more expensive 3D versions offering their
customers a choice although most moviegoers chose to pay more for the extra
dimension. Real D, the leading supplier of 3D equipment, reported that its
screens accounted for about $25M, or 43%, of the total weekend gross.
Produced for $165M, Monsters got off to a superb start with $16.8M on
Friday followed by a 45% surge on Saturday to $24.4M and an estimated 30% dip on
Sunday to $17M.
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It was the best opening of the year so far surpassing the $55.2M of
Watchmen from the
beginning of the month. For DreamWorks, it was the second largest opening for a
non-sequel toon trailing
Kung Fu Panda‘s
$60.2M from last June by a slim margin. And for the month of March, Monsters
delivered the third highest bow after 300 ($70.9M) and
Ice Age: The Meltdown
($68M). Looking at admissions however, Monsters attracted about as many
people as the first Ice Age and
Shark Tale reached
in their debut frames. Fox’s
Ice Age opened
to $46.3M in March 2002 which would amount to roughly $58M at today’s 2D ticket
prices. The DreamWorks hit Shark Tale bowed to $47.6M in October 2004, or
roughly $56M today.
But with schools taking breaks for Easter in the coming weeks, the long-term
outlook seems bright for Monsters vs. Aliens. Fox has routinely scheduled
family-friendly toons around the spring holiday with past March titles like
Horton Hears a Who,
Robots, and the
Ice Age pics finishing with at least three times their opening weekend
takes. That would put Monsters on course to reach the neighborhood of
$175M domestically. Overseas markets should also generate plenty of heat given
how strong toons do abroad. DreamWorks vaulted past the $400M mark overseas
twice last year with Panda and
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, although each had an internationally-set
story. A global box office gross north of $500M for Monsters would not be
surprising.
Young women looking for a scare powered the new supernatural thriller
The Haunting
in Connecticut to a stellar second place debut spending an estimated
$23M over the opening weekend. With a teen-friendly PG-13 rating, the Lionsgate
spookfest averaged a muscular $8,422 from 2,732 sites giving the distributor its
best horror movie opening ever outside of the Saw franchise. Studio
research indicated that 62% of the audience was female while 44% was between the
ages of 17 and 24. Friday got off to a solid start with $9.6M, Saturday dipped
9% to $8.7M, and Sunday is estimated to fall by 46% to $4.7M. A creepy marketing
campaign helped to excite the target audience which helped Haunting score
the second biggest debut of the year for a fright film after only Friday the
13th’s $40.6M from last month.
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Last weekend’s trio of new releases got bumped down two notches each but
remained in the same order. The Nicolas Cage hit
Knowing enjoyed a
solid second weekend hold dropping just 40%, a low decline for a
critically-panned sci-fi actioner, grossing an estimated $14.7M. After ten days,
Summit has banked a solid $46.2M and could be headed for a $75-80M finish.
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The smallest dip in the top ten was generated by the buddy comedy
I Love You, Man
which slid only 29% to an estimated $12.6M giving Paramount $37M after ten days
of play. Julia
Roberts and
Clive Owen witnessed a larger 46% fall for their spy pic
Duplicity
which followed with an estimated $7.6M for a cume of $25.6M. Final grosses
should reach around $70M and $45M, respectively. Starpower may help Universal’s
caper flick do better in international waters.
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With families getting their 3D kick this weekend, Disney’s
Race to Witch
Mountain took a big hit falling 56% to an estimated $5.6M. Total is
$53.3M in 17 days.
Opening poorly in seventh with an estimated $5.3M was the cop actioner
12 Rounds which
averaged a mere $2,274 from 2,331 locations. Starring wrestler/actor
John Cena, the
PG-13 film played to young males and came in below the $7.1M bow his film
The Marine from 2006.
Though drawing big numbers on television and even pay-per-view, producer World
Wrestling Entertainment has struggled to make the leap to the big screen with
its ventures. Fox handled distribution duties on 12 Rounds.
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Following in eighth with an estimated $2.8M was
Watchmen which
tumbled 60% lifting the sum to $103.3M. The Warner Bros. release has fallen by
at least 60% every weekend since debuting at the beginning of the month and now
looks to finish its domestic run with $105-110M meaning more than half of its
overall total will have been grossed during the opening weekend. Fox’s sleeper
hit Taken grossed an
estimated $2.7M, off 34% in its ninth frame, for a cume of $137.1M. Rounding out
the top ten with an estimated $2.6M was the horror flick
The
Last House on the Left which dropped 55% pushing the total to $28.5M for
Universal.
Continuing to show considerable strength in limited release was Overture’s indie
comedy Sunshine
Cleaning which expanded from 64 to 167 theaters in its third weekend and
grossed an estimated $1.3M jumping up to eleventh place. The R-rated hit
averaged a solid $8,048 which is an impressive figure given the theater count
and age of the film. Cume to date is $2.5M. Also doing well was the Mexican gang
drama Sin
Nombre with an estimated $68,512 from only six sites for a $11,419
average. The Focus title has taken in $184,000 in ten days.
With the first quarter of 2009 almost complete, the North American box office is
sizzling once again with total ticket sales at an estimated $2.4 billion, up a
terrific 11% from a year ago. Ten of the thirteen weekends have been up versus
2008 with eight of those enjoying double-digit jumps. But amazingly, this
improvement has occurred despite a decrease in actual films being released. The
first quarter has seen 36 films open in wide release, down 16% from the 43 over
the same period last year. Fifteen hits debuted north of $20M compared to only
ten from a year earlier. And four have topped the $100M mark in total grosses
versus just one from 2008 at this same point. This excludes films that reached
wide release in December and were still playing well into the new year like
Slumdog
Millionaire and Juno
last year. Studios have done a commendable job streamlining their marketing
efforts on a smaller slate of films and have walked away with more ticket sales
in the process.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $135.1M which was up a whopping 58% from
last year when 21
opened in the top spot with $24.1M; and up a healthy 20% from 2007 when
Blades of Glory
opened at number one with $33M.
