James

The first Hobbit made 7.3M and the second one made 5.1. Is there any chance BotFA makes close to 8M?

No, that never happens. That's the thing. The first two Hobbit were enormous sellers here (no. 2 and 3 all time, after Avatar) and now the theatres seem to introduce a lot of things like premiers, special booking, select theatre rooms, crazy night hours - shows like these are very expensive. And even the ordinary shows are more expensive. Also, the biggest theatre chain is heavily marketing the movie and, above all, it suspended the booking for Exodus, that opens this week, and gave an insane number of shows to TH. I'm guessing the widest release ever easily.

The pace at which the tickets are selling here for IMAX and ordinary 3D (the 3D/IMAX 3D version is the only one you can see) shows is just insane. It's already the biggest advance ticket seller ever and that's almost 2 weeks before it's release (opens on 19th here ). Also, it's crazy how the prices exploded for this. You have tickets selling at $10-20 when the ordinary 3D ticket price is $6.

Hmm... I hope the finale factor brings it closer to 11m.

I saw that movie and it was hilarious

MARKET UPDATE The yearly box office after this weekend reached $51M. That is the first time Romania's BO crosses the 50M border in a year. The previous high was 2013's $48.5M. 2014 runs 15.8% ahead of 2013 through the same point. Also, an update on the Top 20 for 2014 (the bolded titles are still in theatres): 'Mockingjay' and 'The Penguins of Madagascr' should make their entrance to the top by next week.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE After a few great weeks, the BO finally slowed down a little, mostly because the lack of big openers. - The Penguins of Madagascar ruled the box office in it's second frame. It's 56% drop is way bigger than 'Madagascar 3's 45% one, but the comparison should be 'Puss in Boots'. That was also a spin-off that opened in the same period, had a similar OW and an identical second weekend drop (56%). Here's a chart of the highest grossing animations in Romania: It's unlikely 'Penguins' matches 'Puss in Boots' $1.34M, but a gross in the 1.1M area should happen. Expect it to land on no. 5 or 6 on this chart. - Paddington started it's run with an ok 20.648 admissions (and $98K). While that's nothing to write home about, with the holidays coming and being a family movie, it should get around 100.000 adm in the end. - In third place, Horrible Bosses slided 53%. That's pretty much in line with the first movie's 50% drop. It is already at $347K and with Christmas legs, $600K+ should be no problem. - The Judge had a 14.793 adm start. That is behind 'Gone Girl's 17.000 tickets opening and it's also a bit weaker than 'Prisoners' last year. The latter made less than 50.000 adm. With holiday legs, 'The Judge' should do more though. - Interstellar had it's steepest drop yet: 43%. That is mainly due to the 3 adult oriented movies arriving this week. Still, it now stands at a mighty 266.532 adm and $1.4M. By today or tomorrow, it should get ahead of 'Noah' and become No. 3 for the year. Also, getting to 300.000 adm (and taking second place for 2014) looks possible. - Nightcrawler opened to 11.517 adm (and $63K). That's decent, considering the marketing was pretty much non-existent. - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 continues it's downward spiral. It fell another 61% this weekend and collected a bit over 10.000 tickets. That is a much steeper drop than 'Catching Fire's 51% and so, MJ's third weekend was actually smaller than CF's. 'Mockingjay' will finish a bit ahead of the second installment in admissions (and that because it's opening was way stronger; the legs, on the other hand, are horrendous), but it won't touch 'Catching Fire's $855K gross. - St. Vincent debuted with an expected (and weak) 5.313 tickets sold. - Jessabelle and The Rewrite both had ugly drops. Top 10: Next week's openers: - Exodus: Gods and Kings - Dumb and Dumber To - Ana (local movie) 'Noah' debuted earlier this year with over 60.000 adm. But here's the issue: the tickets for Exodus are not on sale yet, which is absolutely mind boggling, since the ones for 'Dumb and Dumber To' are; you can buy tickets for 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Arrmies' that opens in 2 weeks for Pete's sake. Also, the marketing wasn't so strong as 'Noah's. So I expect an opening in the 45.000 adm area. 'Dumb and Dumber' never got released here, but it gained popularity from TV reruns. An opening in the same range as 'Horrible Bosses 2' for the sequel (30.000+) seems likely. Local movie = bomb.

The best

A few days ago I saw one of my colleagues reading the book in our International Law class and another class mate asked her if it was 50 Shades since she recognized the cover . And they started talking about it. Honestly, it's hard to find any female friend of mine that hasn't at least read some parts of it, and I'm 20 so the appeal is big among teenagers.

1.05B 50 Shades of Grey?

Star Trek, Skyfall, DH2, MI: Ghost Protocol, Rise of the Planet of the Apes among others. And it's not like it would even matter if they are nominated since this type of movies never win. Just look at Inception, or Gravity or, the most mind blowing example, Avatar losing to The Hurt Locker. It's absolutely stunning that you have a movie which produces a revolution in filmmaking and it doesn't get recognition.

Exactly because they shoud be an indicative of a movie's quality but they can't be that when they automatically reject some genres. There is no way that every freakin movie in a genre is bad so they can exclude it.

Yeah, that's exactly my point. And since they are recruiting people with the same taste as them there will always be the same kind of movies that win. That's exactly why they are indicative of a movie's quality about the same as RT - not at all.

Yeah, RT means nothing but when a movies gets 60-70% there we already know there's no chance for it to be nominated. And you talked about the movie connecting with audiences lol 12 years barely made 55M even with all the Oscar promotion so no, people don't care about it. But let's leave it at that.

DH2 also got an 8.3/10 rating so that is very positive.

Not really. There are a lot critically well received blockbusters that are completely left out because the Academy never even nominated their genre. Example: DH2 got 96% on RT, higer than King's Speech, that won BP in 2011. Truth be told, the only thing the Academy nominates are adult dramas. Like, from all the movies last year they gave BP to 12 Years A Slave. It was laughable.

Actually, exactly because blockbusters make so much money it means they connect with the audience. And considering the way you can become an Academy member it's pretty clear it's a vicious circle going around. Old snobs will only pick others like them to judge.

Of course they are biased. The same kind of movies wins almost every time. The dramas about slavery are a joke already.

I agree and don't agree. I agree because there are many blockbusters that are much better than the bullshit movies winingn Oscars and I disagree because ROTK was the only major blockbuster to win BP and that makes it in the eyes of the critics the best blockbuster ever, thing that I believe also. So I don't want other big movies ever taking the same prize.

How's TH looking?

TH opens in 3 days. How does it look?

Yeah, I was just going to ask that. Considering the date change and all, do you think this will top TH1's 21M? Can we expect more than that? 30M maybe?

Any word on Hobbit's presales? TH1 made 30M there, TH2 made 23. Is there any chance TBOTFA makes the same or more than TH1?

It made 40M this past week OS. It has much more than 20M left in the tank, even with Exodus opening. 650M is absolutely locked.

Maze Runner had great legs, both DOM (3.1x multi and still going) and OS, especially for such a genre.