Poseidon

Foreign markets, especially the fast growing ones like China, Russia and other asian markets really turn out to be a safety net for big budget blockbusters. 10 years ago "John Carter" would probably have been a financial disaster, now we're looking at a worldwide total of something between 300 and 400 Mio in cinemas alone. That's without merchandise an Blu Ray/DVD sales. It's surely not what Disney hoped for when they greenlit it, but it's far from being another "Mars needs Moms". Let's see, if it can manage to top $100 Mio domestic now."The Lorax" did a great job dropping just under 45%. It had a massive opening, so the 2nd weekend really mens great news for Universal. Who would have thought of "The Lorax" as a 200Mio picture after all those 3D-family-movie-fails last year? Just great."Project X" really surprises with its second weekend hold. Started being very frontloaded and now has a pretty good drop and should top the 50Mio Dollar mark easily."Journey 2" really has a strange run. One weekend it's getting massive jumps, the other week it's doing very strong week-numbers. It should top 100Mio now, but after this weekend it's looking far more difficult, than after thursdays numbers.All those february holdovers, there are so many hits. "Safe House", "The Vow", "Act of Valor", "Chronicle", "Woman in black",even "A thousand words" somehow managed to top Eddie Murphys recent family movie fails, allthough being on far less screens. Following Box Office means so much fun this year. Usually now would be the time to get very excited for summer season, but there's so much more to come the next few weeks, "21 Jump Street", "Hunger Games", "Titanic", "Wrath of the Titans", "American Pie 4" and even "Mirror, Mirror" and "The Five-Year Engagement" could end up as 100Mio grossers.And after that there's probably the biggest summer season ever and that without a Transformers or Potter Movie. 2012 rocks!

That number for "A Thousand Words" would be like the biggest shocker of the year so far...

"The Lorax" didn't hold that well throughout the week, i don't see it doing a weekend in the 40s, more like a high 30s weekend.But what happened to "Journey 2"? Anything special yesterday? It's up from last week. It was hit hard last weekend by "The Lorax" and is now back to smaller drops very fast. Should manage to cross 100m easily now.

Read again, that's not what i wrote.

The japanese Trailer advertises virtually a completely different movie, than the US/International trailer. The japanese trailer feels like a mix of classic Disney and a Miyazaki-movie, in a very positive way. Its mystical touch makes the movie so much more interesting than that best-of-gag-trailer we got. I think it started with "Tangled". After "The Princess and the Frog" failed to become the success everybody hoped for, they went away from the princess-thing and focused more on fun than on adventure. And it worked as we all know today and they are probably doing it again with "Frozen" if it works for "Brave" It's okay with me, as long as the final movie is indeed the classic Pixar-Adventure the japanese trailer hints at, if it's the gag-driven movie the US-trailer shows, it's time to get concerned regarding creativity and quality of future Pixar-movies.

Journey 2 has an incredible run. Look at its thursday. It's actually up from last week.

Wow, looks like Journey 2 could win the holiday weekend. Amazing. But that's what happens, when studios ignore families the first two month of the year. I mean, seriously, a 3D re-release of a Disney-Classic and that's all?

Well, kids should be at school, shouldn't they?I would believe, that the best movies for friday matinees are movies appealing to older people and Safe House looks like such a movie to me.

Those numbers are very early. "Safe House" should be the most matinee friendly of the 4 new releases, so i'm waiting some more hours, before getting really excited.

I may remember wrong, but isn't that midnight number for "Star Wars" pretty much in the range of "Scream 4"?Just sayin', it may very well follow that movies performance over the weekend.I'm actually most impressed with the numbers of "Safe House". "The Vow" isn't that surprising anymore, as everything pointed to a very big opening.

Actually it didn't make it yet, it's just an estimate after a, as it seems, much better than expected Christmas Day, so there's a good chance that Monday will end up much softer that estimates suggest.

It feels so good to be right.Go War Horse. Go!

So it's up to a horse to save Christmas.I still believe.

Anyone remembers 2008, when "The day the earth stood still", "Seven Pounds" and "Yes Man" all openend very soft and we got some great openings over Christmas with "Marley & Me", "Bedtime Stories", "Benjamin Button" and "Valkyrie"? I have the feeling something similar will happen this year. We have "MI4", which could do up to 200Mio, we have some big feelgood-wildcards with "War Horse" and "We bought a Zoo" (and i expect at least one of them to break out to over 150Mio, maybe both), we've got "The Girl with the Daragon Tattoo" which should manage to reach 125Mio and then there's still "TinTin", which may surprise.I'm far from writing off Christmas season yet, cause there's so much more to come."Sherlock Holmes" and "Alvin 2" openend one week after "Avatar" in 2009, and i still believe, that "Avatar" managed to create a general cinema-hype and both movies benefited from that.Well, and i believe 3D-Cinema hurt family movies in general. After the big 3D-Hype was over, less and less people were willing to pay those prices. I mean, there are cities and cinemas you spend 100 Dollars and more including soft drinks and snacks, you just cant afford that once a week with your family. The extra surcharge may even out the loss of visitors in the beginning, but then we get to the point i will never understand the strategies of cinemas and studios. For me it's so much more worth to have earned $1000 with 100 people in the audience, than earning $1000 with 50 visitors. People watch trailers, people get that special cinema experience with a big crowd you'll never get at home, people may spread word of mouth etc.It's just important to get people back to watch movies in theater. Special Filmfestival-Weeks with discount prices, no more 3d surcharge, parents paying children prices and so on.Where did i start? Right, Friday Numbers. Yeah, sorry for that off-topic part.

Seems like "Arthur" and "Hugo" could survive until after the holidays. Both should have a sub 20% drop the coming weekend and there's no additional 3D competition until Sherlock Holmes hits theaters.

It's a surprisingly good hold for "Breaking Dawn" compared to "New Moon" back in 2009, but keep in mind, that the latter had stronger competition with "Blind Side". Let's see, if "Breaking Dawn" is able to top "New Moon"s holds next weekend, when it'll face direct competiton with "New Year's Eve".Poor for "The Muppets", okay for the other family movies. There's hope for some big jumps tomorrow. Go Arthur, just 3 weeks left until christmas, fight for some screens over the holidays."Immortals" is showing some decent late legs.

That seems like the fastest word of mouth ever for "Hugo". Incredibly good.

So you spoof movies like "Paranormal Activity", "Hangover 2" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", if you promote a kids movie?

I wouldn't count "The Muppets" as a kids movie. It's more of a cult movie for an older crowd, that grew up with the TV-Show.And it may be an odd schedule, but you can't just blame the schedule for the numbers. If you look back, what "Rapunzel" and "Harry Potter" did combined last year, you can imagine, what might be possible for family movies over Thanksgiving weekend, if they actually want to see that movie.

Those multipliers Nikki is using... snow way!It's a disappointing TG for now. But as "Breaking Dawn" got an unusually low growth yesterday, there's still hope, that wednesday was deflated for some reason.

I don't like that number for "The Muppets" at all, as it may be much more frontloaded than last years "Rapunzel" and i'm really not that sure, that it'll behave like a typical family-movie.

I don't think it would be disappointing, as €uro was much stronger back in 2009 when New Moon opened.

Wouldn't a waek dollar mean more money for BD?And actually it isn't that weak. It's weaker than back in july 2010 when Eclipse opened, but was miles weaker back in November 2009. Thats compared to €uro.

The numbers for Eclipse's fourth day in theaters were deflates, as it was the 3rd of july falling on a saturday. So you should probably add some millions in that calculation.As for it's international opening: it better topped the last films, as it has just Germany's opening left for next weekend.

Nothing to be concerned about with that number. ;)Sould translate to an OW inthe high 130s. Very good.