James

Over 20M in Germany. Ah, I love that country!

Wow! That's way up from 117.6!

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE An ok-ish weekend. 'Dumb and Dumber To' opened strong and 'Exodus' debuted on top despite opening in limited release, as the market prepares for a massive debut from 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' next weekend. - Last week I predicted a debut in the 45.000 adm area for Exodus: Gods and Kings, but that was before I knew the main theatre chain will pull it out of the schedule to make room for 'The Hobbit'. So, since that chain owns 70-75% of the market, 'Exodus' opened with only 30.629 admissions (and $186K) from 33 screens. That is a VERY GOOD number for it. If Cinema City, the main theatre company, would've released it this weekend, Exodus would've topped Noah's 60.651 tickets opening for sure. But things are how they are and right now I don't know whether 'Exodus' was eliminated from the schedule for good or if it will be released at a certain point next year. Either way, with holidays coming, it should hold well, that is if it doesn't lose the screens it has to 'The Hobbit', that gets showtimes like crazy. - In second place, Dumb and Dumber To had strong walk-ins throughout the weekend and ended up with a very good 36.035 adm and $185K. I think that's the smallest gap in USD between no. 1 and no. 2 since I follow the local box office. The only reason the comedy came in second is the pricier 3D tickets for Exodus. The debut is above the one of 'Horrible Bosses 2', two weeks ago. With holidays coming it should have decent legs, despite the seemingly bad WOM. Either way, over 100.000 adm is a given. - The Penguins of Madagascar enjoyed a solid weekend, after sliding 34%, better than 'Puss in Boots' 41%. Actually, their third weekend is almost identical, which is very good for 'Penguins'. It now stands at $680K and 1M is still in play. - Paddington also had a nice hold (-38%). Total is $178K. - Interstellar had the best drop in Top 10, easing just 28%. At 281.749 admissions and $1.48M is now the second most attended for 2014 (behind only 'The Wolf of Wall Street', that will have no trouble beating in the end) and third is USD. It's holds will decide whether it will end up in Top 3 highest grossing movies of the year or not. The drop next weekend should be bigger, since it will lose all it's IMAX screens to 'The Hobbit'. - Horrible Bosses 2 slides 43% this weekend. It's still running well ahead of it's predecessor.Cume stands at a good $428K. - The Judge took a 49% hit. That's a better drop than 'Prisoners' had last year. Total is a weak $155K. - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 finally managed a decent drop (-40%). By next weekend it should pass 'Catching Fire' in admissions, but the gross still seems like a stretch. - Nightcrawler and St. Vincent both had bad second outings. Top 10: Next week's openers: - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - Happy New Year - The Search So it begins. The great event of our time Seriously though, the final installment in the most popular franchise around will open to massive numbers next week. 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected journey' opened with 88.636 admissions on it's way to 409.993. A year later, 'The Desolation of Smaug' debuted with 100.008 tickets and ended up with 388.107. The first two films are the highest grossing ever after 'Avatar', and they are also the most attended of the 21st century (again, after Avatar). All these figures should be exceeded by the final entry in 'The Hobbit' series. I closely followed Romania's box office for less than half a year now, but I don't think any movie received this kind of treatement. 'The Battle of the Five Armies' is locked to have the widest release ever. I tried to follow the biggest theatre chains and for the 3 day weekend only, 'The Hobbit' has over 400 shows of which around 110 are already sold out, with many more being 90% full. Also, the movie still gets showtimes like crazy and I wouldn't be surprised if the number exceeded 500 when all is said and done. It's hard to count the presales since there's no central database, but 3 days in advance (the movie opens on 19th), their number passes 50.000. Also, there are 12 marathons all across the country (4 just in Bucharest), that were added recently. 2 are already sold out and by tomorrow most of the others should sell all tickets as well. Now, a prediction is hard to make. 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2' owns the OW record when it comes to admissions (123.163). The OW record in USD belongs to '300: Rise of an Empire' ($691K). Setting a new OW record in USD should happen easily, despite the current exchange rate and I predict 125.000 admissions so the attendance record will fall too. Of course, things could be different, but I think with all the anticipation there's no way to go but up. As for the other 2 releases, I'd be surprised if any of them broke the 10.000 adm border.

Wow, that is a impressive jump in presales for TH. 26.000 in just one day. It could open on Wednesday with over 150.000 presales. That's pretty good right?

Awesoooooooome! Thanks!

Question for those who have seen it. Just rewatched ROTK and I caught myself looking at the whole credit sequence. Is it similar in TBotFA, with those awesome drawings like here, or is it just a black screen:

Damn, that drop for Interstellar! I think there might be a chance afterr all for it to catch Frozen.

Look at the bright side. With all these movies doing bad, there's more room for TH to surprise

Just re-watched ROTK. How the was was it possibe for them to make that without at least a 300M budget?! It's so heavy on big scale effects it's mind blowing. The battle at The Fields of Pelennor is such a huge accomplishments in film making.

You mean 5M?

That's a great OD in RUB. The admissions had a huge jump from the first two movie How is it in USD compared to the first 2.

Because I don't compare them. If I did compare any movie with LOTR, no other film would get above B+, let alone an A+. But since LOTR, TH movies are among the most entertaining to me. Certainly the best since HP ended.

The main theatre chain here now completely pulled out Exodus from the schedule to make room for TH. It's a scheduling nightmare, because Exodus opened on the other smaller chains, but considering the main one owns about 75% of the market, the movie will likely suffer a slow death.

It's probably annoying already hearing this question, but is that good for TH at this point before it's release?

Looks like Fox still cares about the DOM gross.

This was by no means a masterpiece, but it was enjoyable. The main character is so cartoony but I like that about him. Also liked the effects, idk why everyone is complaining. And the action. Mindless. A-

Two hours after the tickets went on sale, I got the ones for me and my friends at IMAX at 14:20, Friday. I missed the 19:00 show I usually go to and I also missed my favourite row (8). Got to settle with 6.

Well, the IMAX in Bucharest has 400 seats and that's the biggest audithorium I've ever seen. But there are so many theatres here it's very hard to see that many sellouts (IMAX aside.)

Yeah, it's annoying. I have to wait another week to see it when most European countries got it on 10/11

Timisoara need more theatres, IMAX or not. Same with Iasi. It's insane how fast TH sold out everything. You basically can't see the movie there till Tuesday. And by tomorrow, even Tuesday will be gone.

Weekly update: It's all about The Hobbit! Now seriously, there's really nothing else selling. The Exodus and Dumb and Dumber To open tomorrow but Dumb and Dumber To looks dead (mostly because of the complete lack of marketing this past week) and Exodus is still blocked on the site of the main theatre chain (that owns about 75% of the theatres in the country). Basically, you can't buy tickets for it online. Also, theres not even a single ad for it on the main page of the site which is absolutely ridiculous. And now The Hobbit. Even though it opens on Dec. 19th, it's presales alone would be enough to beat Exodus this weekend. It's not about sold out theatres anymore, it's about sold out cities. Timisoara, the country's 3rd biggest city has sould out all the shows for the weekend, Iasi, the 4th biggest city also sold out everything. Monday/Tuesday for those cities are also close to selling out completely. Craiova, the 5th biggest town also sold out every available show (not just for the weekend but for the first 7 days of release!) through the main theatre chain there. Constanta, the 4th biggest city has a lot of 70%+ full shows, same for the rest of the country. In the capital, Bucharest, IMAX theatres are selling out at a rapid pace, even for the morning shows. Also because of the high demand, the biggest theatre chain will have a Hobbit marathon. The tickets for the two shows scheduled sold so good, the chain decided to have marathons in other cities too (in a day or two those should also be sold out). Basically, the only thing that will limitate The Hobbit's OW will be the number of screens available. It will be the widest release ever, but that seems not enough.

1. Lord of the Rings 2. Deathly Hollows Part 1 + 2 3. POTC: At World's End 4. Prince of Persia 5. Order of the Phoenix 6. Goblet of Fire 7. The Hobbit (1 + 2 and soon 3) 8. Dorian Gray (2009) 8. Chronicles of Narnia 2: Prince Caspian 9. Prisoner of Azkaban 10. Inkheart

So 70M is locked. How hight can Interstellar go? 75M? Also, is that presales number good for TH?

Olive, I like your new avatar Supernatural, right?

No. Not even a chance. Actually, because of the out of this world gross of Avatar compared to the size market, most analysts don't even mention it in they articles. Avatar made 6.35M. That alone represented 1/4 of the yearly box office back in 2010 (it would represent about 1/9 of 2014's market). Each of the Hobbits made 2.5M. That's why I said that TH is what Avatar is for US, because 2.5M is huge. Actually, aside from TH, there are only two movies (one Ice Age and one POTC) that ever made more than 2M. Now just think about what Avatar did. It would mean 2.5B at the US box office. It was more than abnormal. Nothing will touch it in the next 10 years, even with the continuous increase of the market. As for what BotFA can do, I'm sure it will do more than 2.5M. With good WOM and bigger ticket prices there's a chance it makes 3M (and maybe around 450.000-500.000 admissions).