PhilipJ2001

just to illustrate my point, here are the figures for the last five years for the weekends directly before and directly after christmas. 2008 and 2009 seem to have the figures missing for the weekend directly after christmas so i've taken the first one in january. in 2010 christmas fell on a saturday so i've got the week before as well.2006Before: £8,456,532After: £15,649,7872007Before: £11,145,716After: £21,799,5432008Before: £8,642,215After: £12,717,5602009 (Avatar Year)Before: £13,925,548After: £15,940,3772010Before: £6,829,114Before: £6,159,633After: £17,666,560All those numbers are the sum of the top 15 films nationwideThe weekend just gone totalled about £10.7mThere is an argument that the figures go up massively because there's always a big film released on boxing day, but there's a reason that the distributors choose that date - because the after christmas period is always very strong and the before-christmas period is nearly always weak.

we're closed boxing day but have MI4, Sherlock, NYE, Chipmunks, Puss In Boots, Happy Feet and Arthur Christmas from the 27th.although I expect Arthur Christmas to completely die after christmas eve.

it's always really quiet before christmas in the UK. expect things to pick up next week.although family films have been underperforming all year since easter here. the february holiday was very good but since then the family films have mostly disappointed. I think it's a mixture of too much competition, the economy affecting families more than most and poor quality films.

Sherlock Holmes did an estimated £3.7m and was number 1Alvin was number 2 with an estimated £2.5m including previews.both according to the hollywood reporter

Puss In Boots and Chipmunks were both up on last Saturday at my cinema. Happy Feet was awful. Arthur pretty good again.

Sherlock is pretty busy at my cinema tonight. Best Friday since Breaking Dawn by a long way

Arthur £1.4mAlvin & The Chipmunks £600k

it's always a bad weekend - too much else going on

thanks fmpro i did warn you guys!according to the hollywood reporter it did just under £2m. i'd expect arthur christmas to only be marginally behind.alvin previews were absolutely awful at my cinema. i'll try and get some figures for that tomorrow because they won't be in the list lukey posts i don't think.

could just be my cinema then.

pretty slow day at my cinema today. arthur christmas is still number 1, marginally ahead of puss in boots. happy feet is very poor and the previews of chipmunks (although we could only fit one show in at 12pm) was even worse.

Twilight has collapsed at my cinema. like down at least another 60%. We've not got Hugo

Arthur is good again at my cinema, just over double what Happy Feet has done (even though it had one less show..)

yeah it was nearly as good as the weekend at my cinema this afternoon!

i know. i've been in the business 7 years and i've never known a distributor insist on a children's film showing for 4 straight weeks outside of holidays. usually after 2 weeks or 3 at most they let them show just at the weekend if you want to

yes it is doing really badly midweek, but Sony won't let exhibitors just show it the weekend!

Breaking Dawn is still number 1 with £4.8mArthur Christmas up again to £2.5mMarilyn did about £900k

marilyn was poor at my cinema last night.arthur has gone up again this saturday on last saturday

"Arthur Christmas went up in UK on second weekend (£2.32m vs £2.11m), following pattern of past festive flicks that opened so early pre-Xmas"as I predicted.

wow, that is absolutely terrible for Happy Feet 2.I didn't even realise it was out this weekend in the US though. Why open it against twilight? ridiculous.

I'm not surprised it dropped. At my cinema Saturday was down about 40%, although if you take the midnight number off from ours it was up a little bit.Sunday is down about another 30%.It's up a tiny bit on Eclipse's first weekend + previews (so 5 day opening).Arthur Christmas is actually up 7% here, so expect a very small drop (or maybe even an increase) nationwide.

at my cinema we pretty much sold out the midnight show and the 7.30pm show tomorrow is pretty full already. the 5pm prebookings is also quite strong but the 2pm is looking poor at the moment.should have a great weekend

from what i've heard Rowan Atkinson is bored of acting. He basically just does a film when he's a bit short on cash