A "Frozen" Box Office

2...1...2...3...2...1.  No we're not suffering from binary Tourettes-- that's the box office ranking trajectory of Disney's seemingly unstoppable Frozen, which in it's sixth week of national release tops the box office chart.  After a big opening in November, the animated film rebounded over the holidays, nearly stealing the thunder away from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  Surprising, especially in the blink-and-it's-gone normal track record for current films, Frozen rang supreme for the first weekend of the 2014.  The film, which is just a hop skip away from the $300 million mark, unseated the only new film in the marketplace-- Paranormal Activity: The Mark Ones-- and gave all the new and shiny Christmas toys a run for its money.

1. Frozen- $20.7 / -27% / $297.8 total
2. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones- $18.2 (NEW)
3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug- $16.2 / -44% / $229.6 total
4. The Wolf of Wall Street- $13.4 / -27% / $63.2 total
5. American Hustle- $13.2 / -29% / $88.7 total
6. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues- $11.1 / -43% / $109.1 total
7. Saving Mr. Banks- $9.0 / -32% / $59.3 total
8. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty- $8.2 / -35% / $45.6 total
9. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire- $7.4 / -26% / $407.4 total
10. Grudge Match- $5.4 / -23% / $24.9 total
11. 47 Ronin- $5.4 / -49% / $32.6 total
12. Walking with Dinosaurs- $3.7 / -48% / $31.3 total
13. Tyler Perry's A Medea Christmas- $3.1 / -54% / $50.4 total
14. Philomena- $1.5 / -12% / $19.6 total
15. Inside Llewyn Davis- $1.1 / -5% / $6.9 total
16. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom- $1.1 / -50% / $6.9 total
17. Her- $0.7 / +11% / $2.9 total
18. Nebraska- $0.6 / -9% / $7.0 total
19. Believe- $0.5 / -71% / $5.9 total
20. The Book Thief- $0.5 / -11% / $19.1 total
21. Gravity- $0.5 / -1% / $255.6 total
22. Thor: The Dark World- $0.4 / -23% / $203.4 total
23. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2- $0.4 / -6% / $117.6 total
24. 12 Years a Slave- $0.3 / -12% / $38.4 total

LIMITED RELEASES

• August: Osage County- $0.1 / -21% / $0.4 total
• Lone Survivor- $0.08 / -8% / $0.3 total
• The Past- $0.04 / +17% / 0.1 total
• The Invisible Woman- $0.03 / -5% / $0.1 total

In other news, Martin Scorsese's controversy-laden The Wolf of Wall Street appears to be not quite in as much trouble as first predicted after a troubling post-Christmas decrease and a reported "C" rating from CinemaScore.  The film, which Musings and Stuff has plenty to write about (even though the Internet has pretty much exhausted the entire subject) is coming together nicely, and may even be a hit when all is said and done-- that the film cost a reported $100 million is a hard pill to swallow however.  David O. Russell's American Hustle, by contrast, traded spots with Wolf from the previous week, but his ABSCAM con job cost a far more manage $40 million and thus is already in more sturdy shape.  Neither is Saving Mr. Banks nor The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in quite the trouble previously predicted either-- awards may not be in the cards per se (though Emma Thompson is assured a Best Actress nomination at this point), but those are in decent shape as well.  Banks even has a chance to clear $100 million, while Mitty will perform better abroad, as most Ben Stiller films do.

In just a click of a heel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will top Iron Man 3 as the top selling movie of 2013 as well as become the highest grossing film in the franchise.  This is interesting on a few levels, but mostly due to the fun (sad) fact as pointed out by The Film Experience, as it will become the first movie since The Sound of Music all the way back in 1965 to be a years top seller exclusively headlined by a member of the fairer sex.  Jennifer Lawrence, with an Oscar already and a third nomination just around the corner surely isn't lacking for prizes, but that's deserving of something-- perhaps a tea party with Julie Andrews at the very least.

What did you see this weekend?

2013: The Year in Coin

TOP 10 GROSSING FILMS OF 2013

1. Iron Man 3- $409.0
2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire- $393.4
3. Despicable Me 2- $367.8
4. Man of Steel- $291.0
5. Frozen- $271.8
6. Monsters University- $268.4
7. Gravity- $254.5
8. Fast & Furious 6- $238.6
9. Oz: The Great & Powerful- $234.9
10. Star Trek Into Darkness- $228.7

Superheroes, sequels, re-boots, Katniss and one true work of art consist of the top-ten moneymakers of the 2013.  Was it a good year?  Too soon to tell, but with the exception of Gravity, all that's old is new again on terms of the demigods of 2013's box office.  Marvel is king, again.  DC hopes to catch up, and animation (despite a depressing year) had three solid mega-bucks earning blockbusters.

TOP 10 OPENING AVERAGES

1. Frozen- $243,390 (1 theater)
2. American Hustle- $123,409 (6 theaters)
3. Blue Jasmine- $102,011 (6 theaters)
4. Inside Llewyn Davis- $101,353 (4 theaters)
5. Spring Breakers- $87,667 (3 theaters)
6. The Place Beyond the Pines- $69,864 (4 theaters)
7. Enough Said- $58,200 (4 theaters)
8. Fruitvale Station- $55,184 (7 theaters)
9. Before Midnight- $49,383 (5 theaters)
10. The Spectacular Now- $49,354 (4 theaters)

Okay, so the top two are essentially cheats-- big films with immediate wide releases just teased for a short limited run to garner a headline or two, but the rest is an eclectic mix of high-end art house films, auteur-driven works and one trashy freak show (guess which is which!)

Gravity 's Gravitational Pull

Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity accomplished the second weekend challenge times ten as grown up movies lead the pack of the weekend box office.  Gravity hovered ahead of everything else thanks largely to the price increases that IMAX and 3-D surcharges afford; word is out that this is indeed the one film that merits the most from large format screenings.  Easing a gentle 21% from its massive opening weekend (currently holding the record of the slightest second weekend drop for a film that opened to $55 million+; records themselves continue to be made up on the spot.)  Meanwhile Tom Hanks' awards hopeful Captain Phillips opened to strong number two, the best debut the 2-time Oscar winning actor has had since 2009's Angels & Demons (not counting Toy Story 3.)

1. Gravity- $43.1 million / -22% / $122 million total
2. Captain Phillips- $25.7 million / new
3. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2- $13.7 million / -34% / $77 million total
4. Machete Kills- $3.8 million / new
5. Runner Runner- $3.7 million / -51% / $14.1 million total
6. Prisoners- $3.6 million / -36% / $53 million total
7. Insidious Chapter 2- $2.7 million / -30% / $78.5 million total
8. Rush- $2.3 million / -46% / $22 million total
9. Don Jon- $2.3 million / -43% / $20 million total
10. Baggage Claim- $2 million / -50% / $18.2 million total
11. Enough Said- $1.9 million / -12% / $8.1 million total

FURTHER DOWN
Lee Daniels' The Butler- $0.6 / -49% / $113 million total
Romeo & Juliet- $0.5 / new
The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete- $0.2 / new
Blue Jasmine- $0.2 / -33% / $31 million total
Escape From Tomorrow- $63K / new
As I Lay Dying- $7K / new 

Auteur Power at the Box Office

Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity caused many a critic to foam at the mouth upon its premiere as the opening night presentation at the Venice Film Festival, further amping up the fuss at Telluride and Toronto.  There was much pressure all considering for distributor Warner Bros. to translate this risky (and expensive) auteurial experiment into a commercial success...for the good of not just industry dollars, but all cinematic kind.  My review will be up shortly, but lots went to theater this past weekend, prompting a new opening weekend record for the month of October.

1. Gravity- $55.0 million (first weekend)
2. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs- $21.5 million / $60.5 million total
3. Runner Runner- $7.6 million (first weekend)
4. Prisoners- $5.7 million / $47.8 million total
5. Rush- $4.4 million / $18.0 million total
6. Don Jon- $4.1 million / $16.0 million total
7. Baggage Claim- $4.1 million / $15.1 million total
8. Insidious Chapter 2- $3.8 million / $74.7 million total
9. Pulling Strings- $2.5 million (first weekend)
10. Enough Said- $2.1 million / $5.3 million total

FURTHER DOWN
Blue Jasmine- $0.4 / $31.3 million total
Parkland- $0.3 (first weekend)
Wadjda- $0.1 / $0.3
A.C.O.D.- $20K (first weekend)
Concussion- $8K (first weekend)

Weekend Box Office

Wolverine came, and easily took the top place at the weekend box office, but it was more of a whimper than a boom-- the X-Men franchise still has some rehabilitation to stabilize the creative drudge that came from X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009.)  It was hardly the news story of the weekend however.

1. The Wolverine- $55 million (new)
2. The Conjuring- $22.1 million / $83.8 million total (-47%)
3. Despicable Me 2- $16 millin / $306.4 million total (-35%)-- now the second highest grossing domestic title of 2013, behind Iron Man 3.
4. Turbo- $13.3 million / $55.7 million total (-37%)
5. Grown Ups 2- $11.5 million / $101.6 million total (-42%)- this marks Adam Sandler's 13th title to gross north of $100 million domestically-- how do we feel about that?
6. Red 2- $9.4 million / $35 million total (-47%)
7. Pacific Rim- $7.5 million / $84 million total (-52%)
8. The Heat- $6.8 million / $141.2 million total (-26%)
9. R.I.P.D.- $5.8 million / $24.3 million total (-53%)
10. Fruitvale Station- $4.6 million / $6.3 million total (+529%)

BELOW THE TOP TEN

The big news story was the astounding opening weekend gross for Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, which earned $613,000 on 6 screens this weekend for a per-screen average of $102,167.  That's the biggest per-screen average of the year so far, the biggest of Woody Allen's career (slightly above the $99,834 Midnight in Paris posted just years ago) unadjusted for inflation, the biggest per-screen victory ever accounted in Sony Pictures Classics' history (again, unadjusted) and enough to encourage the possibility that the critically accepted, already award-buzzed about film will expand well in the coming weeks.

Here's the Per-Screen Average Breakdown of 2013 So Far:

1. Blue Jasmine- $101,167 (6 screens)
2. Spring Breakers- $87,667 (3 screens)
3. The Place Beyond the Pines- $69,864 (4 screens)
4. Fruitvale Station- $55,184 (7 screens)
5. Before Midnight- $49,483 (5 screens)
6. The Bling Ring- $42,879 (5 screens)
7. Iron Man 3- $40,946 (4,253 screens)

Wolverine and Woody

Hugh Jackman returns as the clawed superhero on which he is most familiar with The Wolverine, the only major release to debut this weekend.  Director James Margold (Walk the Line, Knight & Day) hopes to undue the damage brought on the spin-off franchise by the dwindling returns of the Wolverine's first solo entry which in 2009 earned awful reviews and despite a strong open, experienced a drastic fall.  The first days results proved a sigh of relief for the studio executives at 20th Century Fox, as it collected $21 million on its first day of release (including a sold $4 million from Thursday late shows-- an uptick of recent films like Pacific Rim and World War Z.)  While it will fall short of the $85 million opening of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the long end may appear brighter for the better reviewed flick which received an A- CinemaScore.  Here's how the X-Men series stands cash flow wise:

X-Men (2000)- $54 million opening ---> $157.2 million total
X2: X-Men United (2003)- $85 million opening ---> $214.9 million total
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)- $102 million opening ---> $234.3 million total
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)- $85 million opening ---> $179.8 million total
X-Men: First Class (2011)- $55 million opening ---> $146.4 million total

On the limited side of the openings, Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine is hoping to achieve one of the strongest per-screen averages of the year.  Allen's highest per-screen average so far was Midnight in Paris, which debuted on 6 screens for an average of $93,000.

UPDATE: Blue Jasmine will indeed have one of the more notable limited openings of the year as its first day gross was an estimated $176,000 for a stellar per-screen of $29,000.  It's positioned to open on par (or even perhaps slightly better) than Midnight in Paris.  Fruitvale Station (review), meanwhile, expanded into wide release for a Friday gross of $1.4 million, good enough for the tenth slot.

Box Office Fireworks

The minions outlawed The Lone Ranger over the grandly profitable Fourth of July week/end extravaganza.  The story isn't so much that it was surprising that Despicable Me 2, the sequel to 3-D animated 2010 hit, led the box office with such robust numbers, it's that Disney's overly expensive $215+ Ranger utterly failed.  Badgered by bad buzz that stems from while the film was still in production, deadly reviews, Armie Hammer's lack of movie star charisma and Johnny Depp ennui, the Gore Verbinski directed western based on the radio and television classic that nobody under forty has the faintest clue of, has taken the summer movie season's preeminent punchline prize from past bombs After Earth and White House Down.  That sounds harsh, but there's a valuable comeuppance that needs to be bridged from time to time when studios shell out hundreds of millions of dollars on wannabe franchises that nobody wanted to begin with.

1. Despicable Me 2- $82.5 / $142.0 total (new)
2. The Lone Ranger- $29.4 / $48.9 total (new)
3. The Heat- $25.0 / $86.3 total
4. Monsters University- $19.5 / 216.7 total
5. World War Z- $18.2 / $158.7 total
6. White House Down- $13.5 / $50.4 total
7. Man of Steel- $11.4 / $271.2 total
8. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain- $10.1 / $174 total (new)
9. This Is the End- $5.8 / $85.5 total
10. Now You See Me- $2.7 / $110.4 total
11. Star Trek Into Darkness- $1.3 / $223.0 total
12. Fast & Furious 6- $1.0 / $235.4 total

LIMITED RELEASES

Fox Searchlight's Sundance success story led the limited engagements this holiday weekend with The Way, Way Back netting a $30,000 per screen average in its first weekend of play.  The dramedy stars Steve Carell (whose had a pretty stellar week), Toni Collette, Sam Rockwell and newcomer Liam James and was written and directed by Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, Oscar-winning screenwriters of The Descendants.  In other news, 20 Feet From Stardom, a documentary centered on back-up singers, expanded nicely in its second week and will be one of the highest grossing docs of the year, surely, and a potential Oscar candidate thanks to its glowing reviews, while Before Midnight officially became the top-grossing film in the series, topping the $5.8 million that Before Sunset earned in 2004.

The Way, Way Back- $0.5 (new)
Before Midnight- $0.5 / $6.6 total
20 Feet From Stardom- $0.5 / $1.1 total
Much Ado About Nothing- $0.4 / $2.9 total
The Bling Ring- $0.3 / $5.0 total
Mud- $0.1 / $20.7 total
I'm So Excited- $0.1 / $0.3 total
Frances Ha- $0.1 / $3.6 total
The Kings of Summer- $0.09 / $1.0 total
Stories We Tell- $0.04 / $1.4 total

Weekend Box Office

Horror entry The Purge surprised many with its top placement of the box office charts this weekend.  The micro-budgeted scarer revolving around a lawless period where all crime is legalized starred Ethan Hawke (who may be having a banner year with this little bit of nonsense as well as Before Midnight, in selected theaters) and Lena Headey (Game of Thrones.)  Produced by Michael Bay and Jason Blum, who notably shepherded the Paranormal Activity saga, the film cost approximately $3 million to make and was put under a tightly managed and thrifty promotional budget that apparently worked wonders.  In other news, this was just an appetizer of cinema weekend before S comes and makes everything all glittery again.

1. The Purge- $36.3 million ($14,000 per screen) new
2. Fast & Furious 6- $19.7 million (-43%) ---> $202.9 million total
3. Now You See Me- $19.5 million (-33%) ---> $61.3 million total
4. The Internship- $18.1 million ($5,000 per screen) new
5. Epic- $12.1 million (-27%) ---> $84.1 million total
6. Star Trek Into Darkness- $11.7 million (-30%) ---> $200.1 million total
7. After Earth- $11.2 million (-59%) ---> $46.5 million total
8. The Hangover Part III- $7.3 million (-55%) ---> $102.3 million total
9. Iron Man 3- $5.7 million (-31%) ---> $394.3 million total
10. The Great Gatsby- $4.2 million (-35%) ---> $136.1 million total
11. Mud (the little engine)- $1.2 million (-0.7%) ---> $18.6 million total

Notables further down:
Frances Ha- $0.5 (+11%) ---> $2.3 million total
Before Midnight- $0.5 (+44%) ---> $1.5 million total
The Kings of Summer- $0.2 (+273%) ---> $0.3 total
Much Ado About Nothing- $0.18 ($36,000 per screen / 5 screens) new
Stories We Tell- $0.1 (+37%) ---> $1.1 million total

What did you see this weekend?  

Man of Steel and the Billion Dollar Dream

Back in the Jurassic Era of blockbuster filmmaking, the benchmark for success was when a film hit the $100 million mark at the box office.  It feels like a million years ago, but truly, it really wasn't that long ago.  An even stranger occurrence in the not-too-distant past was the word of mouth quotient to a films playability, one of which, if deemed by the masses, could extend months and months in theaters, as opposed to the new (but not completely improved) idea of a three month window between opening night and its DVD/Blu-Ray release.  Of course, those days are gone-- now in the age where social media works as a defacto say so on public opinion and bad omens portend to films that fail to break records opening night, much less opening weekend-- welcome to 21st Century Hollywood. 

Now the benchmark for success is (imagined said with Dr. Evil-like impishness) ONE BILLION DOLLARS!  Worse yet, the biggest, most tentpoliest offerings from major studios almost need to make a billion dollars to become profitable.  Next weeks hopeful addition to the fray of only sixteen feature films that have crossed this international barrier is Warner Bros.' hotly anticipated Man of Steel.  Consider, however-- the film, a reboot of the Superman mythology, produced with careful care under the mighty eyes of Christopher Nolan (and the stand alone trilogy might of Batman behind him), directed by Zack Synder (Watchmen, 300, Sucker Punch) has a production budget north of $200 million.  This, not including promotional costs (which may well be another $100 million when all is said and done), back-end deals (sure to be considerable for talent, crew, executives, etc.), exhibitor costs (theater chains themselves earn a piece of the box office, usually considered half what a film earns, but perhaps negotiable slightly more in the favor of the studios for a film like Man of Steel) and, wow, yes, it will nearly need to earn a billion dollars in the international box office for it to truly be a hit.  Craziness...

Of course, Man of Steel is an important film to be successful for Warner Bros. and the future of the DC Comics cinema scope.  After all the botched attempts at trying to trigger a Justice League franchise (Nolan's Dark Knights didn't quite help out there) by way of terrible films (The Green Lantern?) and unwise backstage decisions (like tossing aside Joss Whedon's take on Wonder Woman?!@#$), Man of Steel is the first step in trying to build a DC universe to rival the oh-so-successful and billion dollar-able Marvel films-- point of reference, the last film to cross the billion dollar mark was Iron Man 3, thusly the only member of the 2013 class of films to do so as of now.  On this end, it's a sensible idea to go for the start from scratch approach, completely doing over the Richard Donner original and the Bryan Singer 2006 film Superman Returns, which read like a strangely built rebooted homage.  It's still risky and startling when it comes to the business model of current big budget films.  And a bit nonsensical considering only sixteen films have netted over a billion dollars in box office sales...ever.

Before Midnight Scores in Limited Debut

This Memorial Day Weekend, the big story will clearly be how Fast & Furious Whatever Number cleaned up shop at the box office.  The bigger story if you read deep enough is the impressive limited debut of Richard Linklater's third entry to his improbable but joyous Before-trilogy.  Starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke reprising their roles as lovelorn articulates Celine and Jesse, Before Midnight opened to rapturous reviews (the best in the series) and to splendid early numbers on five screens in Los Angeles, New York and Austin this holiday weekend.  It resulted in the best opening per-screen average for the series.  Before Midnight opened to be a tuneful $274,000 over the three day weekend, netting a per-screen average of $54,800-- the third best opening per-screen average of 2012 (just behind Spring Breakers, which opened in less screens, and The Place Beyond the Pines, which had the Ryan Gosling cool effect going on.)  To put this in perspective, Before Sunset, the last film opened nine years ago to $219,425 on 20 screens for a per-screen average of $10,971 on its way to an eventual box office take of $5.8 million.  Before Sunrise, the first chapter opened in January of 1995 to little fanfare with $1.4 million on its first weekend (on 363 screens) on its way to a $5.5 domestic take.  This may well be the lowest grossing franchise in American film history, but ironically it's also one of the best.  The early numbers for Midnight indicate what over the past eighteen years that the fanbase has thankfully grown.  Now it's time for awards bodies to sternly take notice...

Fast Cars and Hangovers

Which long in the tooth franchise thrill ride are you handing your hard-earned dollars this weekend?  And which is gunning for the title of Queen of the Memorial Day Weekend box office race-- boohoo, I'm being catty over billion-dollar franchises.  The contestants for this year are particular muscular and the race is itching with more competitive, testosterone-y drive than ever before.  In one corner, there's Fast & Furious 6, which is inexplicably gaining bigger returns and higher critical acclaim as it ages forward; we can all relax- Fast & Furious 7  has already been set for a go.  Comparison here isn't quite as simple as the previous installment, Fast Five-- released two years ago-- came out in the lower pressure month of April and set a new high for the series.  The combatant is The Hangover Part III, which is overcoming odds on the fact that the last film-- released two years ago in the same weekend-- was felt a poor man's rendering of the first R-rated raunch attack that inexplicably engrossed audiences four summers ago.  Comparison here isn't quite as simple because early midnight showing are opening earlier and earlier these days.  This has been advertised as the final Hangover.  Here's how it stands right now with preliminary Friday numbers coming in:

1. Fast & Furious 6- $36.0 million
2. The Hangover Part III- $15.5 million + $11.7 made from Thursday gross
3. Star Trek Into Darkness- $15.5 million
4. Epic- $10.0 million
5. Iron Man 3- $5.2 million
6. The Great Gatsby- $4.0 million

Here's to the now middle aged men who preside over this holiday weekend!  Many considered it rather silly to have two huge (and expensive) franchise films competing against one another considering they shared the same audience.  However, it's not really even close anymore. In other news, The Great Gatsby broke the $100 million barrier at the North American box office, the first ever Baz Luhrmann film to do so.

Weekend Box Office

Baseball is still our national pastime as evident by the over-performing success of the Jackie Robinson story with Brian Helgeland's 42.  It was also a bad weekend for long in the tooth franchises as Dimension Films' Scary Movie 5 debuted with less than half of the opening weekend total of the previous installment which came out back in the stone age of 2006.  Regardless, 2013 is still fairly meh.  G.I. Joe: Retaliation meanwhile became the fourth film of 2013 to break $100 million, while Ryan Gosling's The Place Beyond the Pines proved a successful expansion showing up in the top ten in less than 500 screens.

1. 42- $27.2 million
2. Scary Movie 5- $15.1 million
3. The Croods- $13.2 million / $142.5 million
4. G.I. Joe: Retaliation- $10.8 million / $102.4 million
5. Evil Dead- $9.5 million / $41.5 million
6. Jurassic Park 3-D- $8.8 million / $31.9 million
7. Olympus Has Fallen- $7.2 million / $81.8 million
8. Oz: The Great & Powerful- $4.9 million / $219.4 million
9. Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor- $4.5 million / 45.4 million
10. The Place Beyond the Pines- $4.0 million / $5.4 million

Lower down the roster:

• Trance- Danny Boyle's mindbender expanding to nearly the same level as The Place Beyond the Pines in its second week of limited release but with only a fraction of the success.  More to come on my thoughts soon.  It's earned $1.1 million in two weeks.
• The Company You Keep- Robert Redford's film starring every actor of a certain age may well be a low key success story as it earned a $7,000+ per-screen average in its second week of limited release, and so far has earned $400,000.
• The Sapphires-The film that Weinstein famously snatched up at last years Cannes Film Festival only to dump in the spring with little fanfare has earned $700,000 in four weeks of very limited release.
• No- The spectacular Chilean film which was nominated for the Foreign Language Academy Award has earned $1.1 million in nine weeks of limited release-- a solid number for a foreign entry.  YAY!  A must see.
• Disconnect- The technology-dependent ensemble drama starring Jason Bateman and Hope Davis was the limited winner of the weekend earning $8,000 on fifteen screens for an okay take of $130,000+.
• To the Wonder- Terrence Malick's latest earned $7,000 on seventeen screens with a take of $130,000.  A far cry from the wall set by The Tree of Life's $93,000 per-screen average two years ago, but that film had a major push from distributor Fox Searchlight, a Palme D'Or and Brad Pitt.  To the Wonder has mixed reviews and a lesser than push from Magnolia Pictures.  The film was, however, the top independent download on iTunes.

What did you see this weekend?

'Skyfall' Soars

Money matter naught!  However, the latest Bond. James Bond epic Skyfall, the third starring Daniel Craig, has made a boatload.  Yielding the biggest opening weekend gross for a Bond film ever, special for the 23rd film in the franchise, and the in the 50th Anniversary of Bond.  Netting $87 million in its opening frame in North America, and $90 million counting midnight shows and a premium Thursday times presented in IMAX and large format screens, this is pretty huge.  Along with its record breaking worldwide run (which started before its stateside debut), the Sam Mendes-directed 007 tale is now worth upwards of half a billion dollars.  Not too shabby for a man in his fifties.  That the film marks one of the best reviewed titles ever for the franchise is the cherry on top, or the shaken martini.

1. SKYFALL- $87.8 million \ $90.0 total
2. WRECK-IT-RALPH- $33 million \ $93.6 total (-32%)
3. FLIGHT- $15.1 million \ $47.7 total (-39%)
4. ARGO- $6.7 million \ $85.7 total (-33%)
5. TAKEN 2- $4 million \ $131 total (-32%)
6. HERE COMES THE BOOM- $2.5 million \ $39 total (-27%)
7. CLOUD ATLAS- $2.5 million \ $22 total (-53%)
8. PITCH PERFECT- $2.5 million \ $59 total (-18%)
9. THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS- $2.4 million \ $12.7 total (-68%)
10. HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA- $2.3 million \ $140.9 total (-46%) 

Aside from the power of Skyfall, Wreck-It-Ralph continued to play strong with a great second weekend, while Flight and Argo continue to hold strong with adults and eventual awards momentum.  A big surprise may be that Pitch Perfect, the affable acapella musical is continuing to hold really well, even as it reaches the two-month mark in its run.

A look at how Skyfall holds up on 2012 opening weekends:

1. MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS- $207.4 million
2. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES- $160.8 million
3. THE HUNGER GAMES- $152.5 million
4. SKYFALL- $87.5 million
5. BRAVE- $66.3 million
6. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN- $62 million
7. MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE'S MOST WANTED- $60.3 million
8. MIB3- $54.47 million
9. TED- $54.4 million
10. PROMETHEUS- $51 million

 Fourth overall for the year, and thirty-first on record-- not adjusted for inflation.

The other big story was the impressive limited debut of Lincoln, Steven Spielberg's Oscar hopeful, which opened to $900,000 on 11 screens, averaging $81,000 per screen.  The well reviewed biopic starring Daniel Day-Lewis will find its real test as it opens wide next weekend, but wowza, that's a huge start, especially considering the two-hour-plus run time likely impacted the amount of show times each theater could run.

Here's the top per screen averages of 2012 so far:

1. THE MASTER- $147,262 (5 screens)
2. MOONRISE KINGDOM- $130,749 (4 screens)
3. LINCOLN- $81,818 (11 screens)
4. TO ROME WITH LOVE- $72,272 (5 screens)
5. SLEEPWALK WITH ME- $68,801 (1 screen)
6. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER- $57,090 (4 screens)
7. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD- $42,426 (4 screens)
8. SAMSARA- $38,111 (2 screens)
9. THE HUNGER GAMES- $36,871 (4,137 screens)
10. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES- $35,532 (4,404 screens)

The Avengers Assemble

The kick-off to the bombastic summer movie season is off a fighting start with the stellar $18.7 million The Avengers earned solely from Thursday midnight sales.  The question of the weekend is how high will it go-- or better yet, do it off a shot at besting the three-day opening weekend set by last summers Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (which earned $168 million in July of last year.)  The midnight performance was the eighth biggest midnight seller of all time (falling short of the Harry Potter and Twilight films) but ahead of The Dark Knight (just barely, which earned $18.5 in July of 2008) and the biggest superhero midnight earner ever.  Whatever happens, the Joss Whedon-helmed tale, that which took five films (highly expensive ads) to kick start it, earns the top summer crown...for now.

It's all gravy...The Avengers has already amassed over $300 million overseas.

Weekend Box Office

1.  THINK LIKE A MAN- $33 million/ first weekend
2. THE LUCKY ONE- $22 million/first weekend
3. THE HUNGER GAMES- $14.5 million/$356 million total
4. CHIMPANZEE- $10.2 million/first weekend
5. THE THREE STOOGES- $9.2 million/$29.3 million total
6. THE CABIN IN THE WOOD- $7.7 million/$26.9 million total
7. AMERICAN REUNION- $5.2 million/$48.3 million total
8. TITANIC (3D)- $5 million/$52 million total
9. 21 JUMP STREET- $4.6 million/$127 million total
10. MIRROR MIRROR- $4.1 million/$55.2 million total

After four weeks on top (the longest run since Avatar, The Hunger Games runs third for the weekend.  Think Like a Man, based on Steve Harvey's best-selling self help book surprisingly topped the weekend box office with an astounding per-screen average of $16,000 plus, while The Lucky One (aka- the latest attempt to make Zac Efron a leading man) debuted nicely in the bridesmaid position with just over $20 million in its first weekend.  In other news, The Hunger Games crossed the extremely rare $350 million mark, further adding fanfare and anticipation as to what kind of numbers it will attract with book number two, newly in the hands of filmmaker Francis Lawrence (Water for Elephants.)

BEYOND THE TOP TEN

• Bully- with its newly instated PG-13 rating, The Weinstein Company went ahead with its most aggressive expansion earning $500,000 on 263 screens for a per-screen average of a paltry $1,325 and a total cum of $1.5 million.  Great and truly affecting film, one that if not every kid, than every parent and school teacher and administrator see.
• The Raid: Redemption- The Sony Pictures Classics actioner has earned $3.5 million in five weeks of play.
• Marley- documentary about Bob Marley debuted on 42 screens to $260,000 for a per-screen average just above $6,000.
• Darling Campanion- Lawrence Kasden's return to filmmaking (with a cast that includes Diane Keaton and Kevin Kline) made $46,000 on 4 screens for a decent per-screen average of $11,000.  I like so many parts of the movie (cast and crew), but oy vey does it sound middling.

2012 AT A GLANCE
The Top Grosses of the Year So Far:

• The Hunger Games- $356 million
• Dr. Suess' The Lorax- $206 million
• 21 Jump Street- $127 million
• Safe House- $125 million
• The Vow- $124 million
• Journey 2: The Mysterious Island- $100 million

The Top Per-Screen Averages So Far:

• The Hunger Games- $36,971
• Footnote- $23,764 (limited)
• Bully- $23,294 (limited)
• Jiro Dreams of Sushi- $21,018 (limited)
• An Inconsistent Truth- $20,733 (limited)
• Chico & Rita- $20,654 (limited)
• Dr. Suess' The Lorax- $18,830
• Think Like a Man- $16,377
• The Raid: Redemption- $15,270 (limited)
• The Kid With the Bike- $15,311 (limited)

The Odds Were In Its Favor...

It's an after-thought at this point to say that The Hunger Games was triumphant over the weekend.  The young adult phenom created by Suzanne Collins earned $155 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend.

The records it set, or how Hollywood marks a film a success:

• 3rd largest opening weekend in history (behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and The Dark Knight.)
• Biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel.
• Biggest opening weekend in the first 4 months of the calendar year (Eclipsing Alice in Wonderland, which minted $110 million in 2010.)
• 5th largest opening day gross ($68 million)
• 2nd fastest film to earn over $100 million (behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.)
• Highest grossing film in distributor Lions Gate Film history (slaughtering previous champ Fahrenheit 9/11 in two days.)
• Highest grossing film for director Gary Ross, and any member of its principle cast.
• Largest opening weekend for a film centered around a female protagonist-- no one's mentioning that record...

I'm sure I'm missing a few-- box office land is full of vague, seemingly just invented records to boast-- best non-holiday\non-sequel opening for a film about a dog, etc.  The point is it was huge, now I question its legacy...

"The Vow" breaks Valentine's Day Record

Either a notch that the Mayans may have been correct about about 2012, or lazy Hollywood's choice to open just one romantic-themed motion picture of the Valentine's Day week.  Either way, The Vow, from franchise to himself author Nicholas Sparks broke the week-day Valentine's Day record yesterday, netting $11.6 million on Tuesday alone.  Springboarding off it's top place weekend finish of just over $40 million, the romantic weepie starring Rachel MacAdams and Channing Tatum (both on their second Sparks' adaptations) has already trumped it's $30 million production budget and will likely see more of this kind of sub-Love Story dreck in the near future.  The previous week-day record holdover was in 2005: Hitch made $7.5 million.  The all-time record holder is, naturally, Valentine's Day (2010), which earned $23 million on the love day, but had the advantage as it was also a Sunday that year.

The best film still in theaters, The Artist, despite it's 10 Academy Award nominations, and being truly romantic in it's own way, has made just $25 million since opening last November...

Weekend Box Office

Twas the weekend before Valentine's Day, and the romantic weepie from the Nicholas Sparks canon ruled the day, but wait...there's more.  Of the four movie that opened in the wide release over the weekend, all of them (even though all of whom had questionable critical backing) won as well, with openings above $20 million.  Already the marketplace seems to rebounding from last years doldrums.

1. THE VOW- Obnoxiously tagged as "based on a true story," the latest Sparks adaptation starred Rachel The Notebook McAdams and Channing Dear John Tatum and vaulted to the top of the charts with an estimated $41.7 million over the weekend.  The only clear pre-Valentine's Day choice, this one will likely sizzle on Tuesday and be all but forgotten come next weekend.  No worries though, this melodrama cost only $30 million to produce.

2. SAFE HOUSE- Never count out Denzel Washington, even in middling, beginning of the year endeavors, his latest (co-starring Ryan Reynolds) took in $39 million in its first weekend, as a nifty sense of counter-programming to love-in weekend.  Safe House cost $85 million to produce.

3. JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND- The 3-D sequel to the surprise Brendan Fraser family flick Journey to the Center of the Universe (2008) did pretty swell as well, reeling in families (and taking advantage of the inflation only cheap glasses can afford) with $27 million.  I suppose the real trick in tackling a potential franchise is dropping its leading man and replacing him with The Rock.

4. STAR WARS: EPISODE 1- THE PHANTOM MENACE- George Lucas continues his streak of crapping on his fan boy base with the 3-D re-issue of one of the most misguided choices in the franchise movie making history.  It still cashed in with $23 million.

5. CHRONICLE- Last week's champ dropped a reasonable 44% in week two for a total so far of $40 million.  Icing on the bratty superheros cake: the $12 million production budget-- perhaps the biggest prank of all.  Also the hopeful creative future for director Josh Trank.

6. THE WOMAN IN BLACK- Daniel Radcliffe's Harry Potter-follow is performing adequately, if not at the numbers he's known for-- in its second weekend, the period horror flick dropped 50% for a $35 million total so far.  It will shortly however become distributor CBS Films highest grossing film to date surpassing 2010's The Back-Up Plan, which made $37 million.

7. THE GREY- In it's third week, the Liam Neeson survival tale has made $42 million.  However, like The Woman in Black, upstart distributor Open Road Films should be pleased-- it's their highest grossing title of all time.

8. BIG MIRACLE- Drew Barrymore's save-the-whales true story dropped 49% in its second weekend for a sad total of $13 million.

9. THE DESCENDANTS- The only title in the top ten also nominated for Best Picture-- the Alexander Payne dramedy has made $70 million so far, and will become the writer\director highest grossing film ever in a few short days-- Sideways made $71 million in 2004.  It dropped 23% in its thirteenth week of release.

10. UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING- Does anyone really watch these movies?  Just curious, because I don't, and yet they keep coming.  The last chapter has made $52 million in four weeks, offset by a production budget of $70 million, perhaps will this be the last one...


FURTHER DOWN:

• The Artist- While secured at least of not being the lowest grossing Best Picture winner of all time (should it win), it's grosses aren't terribly impressive as the film has gone wider either.  It also seems that on 800 screens, The Weinstein Company is appearing sheepish to fully release the charming, if reasonably hard sell, French black and white silent film.  Ranking 13th place this weekend, down 12% for a total so far of $22 million.  C'mon people-- this is majestic filmmaking.
• Hugo- Martin Scorsese's heavily Academy Award nominated film has made $64 million so far, a decent gross for a ridiculously expensive art film\homage to begins of the medium.  It won't make its money back sadly.
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close ranked 15th over the weekend, the surprise Best Picture nominee has earned $29 million in eight weeks of release.
• We Need to Talk About Kevin is chugging along in quiet limited release.  On 16 screens, the Tilda Swinton shocker has made nearly $500,000 for a decent $5,000 screen average after four weeks of release.
• Rampart, the Woody Harrelson corrupt cop morality play opened this past weekend after a one-week Oscar-qualifying run last November (I saw it then, it has some problems despite strong acting from Harrelson) earned $65,000 on 5 screens for an OK-screen average of $13,000.  More on this one later.

Paranormal's Activity

I usually try to avoid tackling the business aspect of filmmaking, because it should matter very little, but in these days, where cinemas are hurting, it's important to note a hit.  In the hope that it continues to cultivate the richness of watching a movie (of whatever quality) in a dark room full of strangers.  And as recent weeks have been sluggish in movie-land, it's even more of note.  The third installment of the Paranormal Activity (this one a prequel from the pranksters behind the similarly marketed as truth whatchamacallit Catfish) franchise achieved a wondrous opening gross of $26.2 million, including $8 million from midnight screenings held the night before.  It marks the highest single day gross of the franchise, as well as forty-eighth single day gross of all time, third of the 2011, behind only Harry Potter and Transformers.  Not too shabby to the horror series that dethroned the endlessly sadistic Saw franchise, and even more icing to the cheap gift to Paramount this picture keeps on giving; production cost is reportedly only $5 million.  And while, I personally have little interest here (horror only garners excitement from me under particular circumstances), it's nice for movie screens to be busy again after weeks of blahness, despite decent grosses for smart, more adult-driven fare like Moneyball, 50/50 and The Ides of March (all three have held well with drops of less than 30% in there successive weeks; however all lack that crowd-pleasing element that will make them sleeper hits; ode to racial servitude-- lame The Help reference, aside.)  Paranormal Activity 3 will also have the biggest opening since, gasp-- Rise of the Planet of the Apes which opened to $54 million all the way back in the first weekend of the August.  Of course, it will drop like crazy, horror films always do (front-loaded opening days, followed by precipitous drops thereafter); franchise films tend to as well.

My cinematic pretension gets the better of me sometimes, so here's hoping that the meditative character study thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene at the very least accrues the highest screen average of the weekend.

Weekend Box Office

With fall legitimately almost a month in, the box office has been fairly blah so far, especially considering the strongest title to emerge from the last month was a 3-D release of a film 17 years old.  That being said while overall the picture looks bleak, a few notable holdovers (and a few of them are rather smart ones as well) have been earning their respective keeps for the past few weeks, despite nothing verging into blockbuster or sleeper success territory.

1. Real Steel- The rock 'em, sock 'em, robots fighting\father-son tale bested the rest for the second week in a row, earning $16.3 million over the weekend, for total of $51 million in two weeks.  The 40% dip is a fairly strong showcase, as was its impressive uptick from Friday to Saturday (it trailed Footloose on Friday), but this one (from Disney and DreamWorks) was a pricey, $100+ movie to make...
2. Footloose- A ho hum $16 million take for the remake of the 80s dance flick that made Kevin Bacon and Kenny Loggins popular; one has to assume that it really wasn't going to do much better than this, despite excessive marketing.
3. The Thing- The other remake debut of the weekend was even more of a non-starter, earning $8.7 million.
4. The Ides of March- The political yarn dropped a super-sweet 28% in weekend number two, earning $7.5 million for a total so far of $22 million; the film was cheap to make, so that's a good sign, and the low percentage drop is good will for future weeks.
5. Dolphin Tale- The family pic dropped 30% in it's fourth week, raising its cum to $58 million, on a production budget of $37 million; sea life + Morgan Freeman = success.
6. Moneyball- The baseball film not at all about baseball dropped a wonderful 26% in its fourth weekend; the Brad Pitt-starer (for which he will and should likely receive an Oscar nomination for) has earned $57 million so far.
7. 50/50- The Joseph Gordon Levitt cancer comedy got off to fairly slow start, but word of month seems to be genuinely positive, as the film had the slightest dip in top ten (off only 23% from last weekend) and has made $24 million so far in three weeks, on a production budget of only $8 million.  It's a good one, people!
8. Courageous- $3.4 million over the weekend \ $21 million to date.
9. The Big Year- The Steve Martin-Jack Black bird watching comedy bombed hard in its first weekend, earning just a little over $3 million; expect this one to be on DVD shortly.
10. The Lion King- Yes, it was only supposed to be in theaters for two weeks, and yes, the film is already available on Blue-Ray, but the lion is still kind of roaring, earning an extra $2.7 million this weekend.

Other notables:

*Contagion dropped out of the top ten in its sixth week of release, earning $1.8 million for a total so far of $72 million.
 
*The Skin I Live In, Pedro Almodovar's latest starring Antonio Banderas opened on six screens to a per-screen average of $38,500 and total cum of $231,000.  Highly respectable, and the loyal Almodovar cult should keep this one alive for further expansion, but it is one of the lower debuts for an Almodovar outing in quite some time.
 
*Trespass, the latest from director Joel Schmacher starring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman (inexplicably), crashed and fumbled on ten screens (obviously a nod to hid the film), earning a pathetic $18,000.  The real question is why this one came about anyway, and where (if anywhere) is this film actually playing.  I live in a major city and have yet to find a theater displaying this, advertising this...nothing.  The movie will however be on DVD in about three weeks for the curious.