Friday numbers: THG3 - 6.8, HB2 - 2.8, PoM - 2.6 (weekend actuals on p12)

[ecstasy]

Weekend Actuals (Domestic) Fri, Dec. 5 - Sun, Dec. 7← previous

Wide (1000+)

 

#	Title	weekend		Locations		Avg.	Total	Wks.	Dist.
1	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1	$22,026,762	-61%	4,054	-97	$5,433	$258,153,593	3	Lionsgate
2	Penguins of Madagascar	$10,907,030	-57%	3,775	11	$2,889	$49,397,566	2	Fox / DreamWorks Animation
3	Horrible Bosses 2	$8,421,307	-46%	3,400	25	$2,477	$35,896,073	2	Warner Bros. / New Line
4	Big Hero 6	$8,042,918	-57%	3,168	-197	$2,539	$177,461,157	5	Disney
5	Interstellar	$7,788,357	-51%	3,028	-38	$2,572	$158,445,319	5	Paramount
6	Dumb and Dumber To	$4,278,350	-49%	3,088	-42	$1,385	$78,190,085	4	Universal
7	Gone Girl	$1,473,516	-40%	1,205	31	$1,223	$162,834,542	10	Fox
8	Nightcrawler	$1,069,094	26%	1,269	699	$842	$30,014,481	6	Open Road
9	St. Vincent	$1,068,829	-37%	1,432	181	$746	$40,749,905	9	Weinstein Company

 

Limited (100 — 999)

 

#	Title	weekend		Locations		Avg.	Total	Wks.	Dist.
1	The Theory of Everything	$2,645,428	-47%	826	24	$3,203	$13,590,862	5	Focus
2	The Pyramid	$1,369,935	--	589	--	$2,326	$1,369,935	1	Fox
3	Birdman	$1,150,315	-39%	738	28	$1,559	$18,919,810	8	Fox Searchlight
4	Fury (2014)	$911,696	-41%	952	-107	$958	$83,275,969	8	Sony / Columbia

 

[ecstasy]

Platform (1 — 99)

 

#	Title	weekend		Locations		Avg.	Total	Wks.	Dist.
1	Wild (2014)	$606,810	--	21	--	$28,896	$654,058	1	Fox Searchlight
2	The Imitation Game	$389,260	-19%	8	4	$48,658	$1,000,459	2	Weinstein Company
3	Hector and the Search for Happiness	$158,736	28095%	57	52	$2,785	$1,100,991	12	Relativity Media
4	Force Majeure	$81,610	-16%	68	11	$1,200	$841,201	7	Magnolia Pictures
5	The Babadook	$78,102	160%	23	20	$3,396	$123,926	2	IFC Midnight

 

[Ball Lightning]

Back up with actuals! Fantastic weekend for mockingjay

[Aplandg]

Go Mockingjay!!!

[Olive]

 

	View Index: By Year | By Weekend
TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count /Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week # 1 1 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 LGF $22,026,762 -61.3% 4,054 -97 $5,433 $258,153,593 $125 3 2 2 Penguins of Madagascar Fox $10,907,030 -57.1% 3,775 +11 $2,889 $49,397,566 $132 2 3 5 Horrible Bosses 2 WB $8,421,307 -45.5% 3,400 +25 $2,477 $35,896,073 $42 2 4 3 Big Hero 6 BV $8,042,918 -57.3% 3,168 -197 $2,539 $177,461,157 $165 5 5 4 Interstellar Par. $7,788,357 -50.5% 3,028 -38 $2,572 $158,445,319 $165 5 6 6 Dumb and Dumber To Uni. $4,278,350 -48.8% 3,088 -42 $1,385 $78,190,085 $40 4 7 7 The Theory of Everything Focus $2,645,428 -47.2% 826 +24 $3,203 $13,590,862 $15 5 8 8 Gone Girl Fox $1,473,516 -40.2% 1,205 +31 $1,223 $162,834,542 $61 10 9 N The Pyramid Fox $1,369,935 - 589 - $2,326 $1,369,935 - 1 10 9 Birdman FoxS $1,150,315 -38.6% 738 +28 $1,559 $18,919,810 $18 8 11 14 Nightcrawler ORF $1,069,094 +26.5% 1,257 +687 $851 $30,014,481 $8.5 6 12 10 St. Vincent Wein. $1,068,829 -37.3% 1,432 +176 $746 $40,749,905 - 9 13 12 Fury (2014) Sony $911,696 -41.0% 896 -163 $1,018 $83,277,969 $68 8 14 11 Beyond the Lights Rela. $723,845 -53.9% 827 -360 $875 $13,815,382 $7 4 15 N Wild (2014) FoxS $606,810 - 21 - $28,896 $654,058 - 1 16 13 Foxcatcher SPC $575,000 -44.3% 75 +3 $7,667 $2,842,000 - 4 17 28 The Homesman Saban $481,938 +122.4% 154 +104 $3,129 $1,047,203 - 4 18 18 The Imitation Game Wein. $389,260 -18.8% 8 +4 $48,658 $1,000,459 - 2 19 16 Whiplash SPC $351,000 -29.2% 175 -4 $2,006 $4,415,000 $3.3 9 20 15 John Wick LG/S $315,128 -43.8% 407 -81 $774 $42,101,651 $20 7 21 17 The Equalizer Sony $307,143 -36.4% 357 -79 $860 $100,454,738 $55 11 - 19 Guardians of the Galaxy BV $266,761 -42.3% 276 -9 $967 $332,226,145 $170 19 - 20 The Judge WB $261,104 -40.6% 398 -17 $656 $46,473,113 $50 9 - 24 The Maze Runner Fox $233,342 -30.8% 275 - $849 $101,357,166 $34 12

 

[narniadis]

I called MJ being underestimated. Nice to see it rise.

[ecstasy]

I called MJ being underestimated. Nice to see it rise.

 

Ah that was you! I knew someone did but I didn't feel like going back to find the post.

 

Kudos!

[Sal]

Penguins is coming down pretty hard. 

[Accursed Arachnid!™]

MJ was tracking pretty consistent at 77% or so of CF. This weekend it jumped to 84%. It stays there and it will end with about 333m...which is where GOTG is headed.

 

[Rthmessiah]

Top thr Engagements
5-7/12
1-CC Angelika Film Centre 6, New york City NY  (IG)
2-AMC Lincoln Square 13, New York City NY       (IS) the power of Imax
3-CC Paris, New York City NY                   (IG)
4-Regal Union Square 14, New York City          (wild)
5-Regal Union Square 14, New York City         (MJ1)
6-AMC Metreon 16, San Francisco CA             (IS)
7-AMC Empire 25, New York City NY              (MJ1)
8-AMc 84th St 6, New York City NY              (MJ1)
9-CPLX Scotiabank Chinook, Calgary AB           (MJ1)
10-Pac Arclight Hollywood, Los Angeles CA  (Wild)
11-LM The Landmark Los Angeles, CA              (IG)
12-AMC Lincoln Square 13, New York City NY      (Wild)
--

13-Pac Arclight Sherman Oaks , Sherman Oaks CA  (IG)
14-CS Warren 14, Moore OK                       (MJ1)
15-CPLX Queensway 18, Etobicoke ON               (MJ1)
16-AMC Boston Common 19 Boston MA           (MJ1)
17-CPLX Vancouver 9, Vancouver BC            (MJ1)
18-Pac Arclight Hollywood, Los Angeles CA  (IG)
19-AMC Empire 25, New York City NY              (IS)
20-Regal Westpark 8, Irvine CA               (IG)
 

Edited December 9, 2014 by #hashtagRth

[kitik]

4 different movies in the top 5 theater engagements, that's unusual

[K1stpierre]

Are you.....Are you....coming to the tree?...

Heeeeeell no, people are going to the theaters to see Mockingjay baby!!!! JLaw, you stick out those sexy legs girl!

[ecstasy]

Imitation Game is in the mix.

[Jessie]

Yes.  All comic book movies are the same.  Just like all comic books are the same.  In our field we're contractually obligated to just write Batman over and over again.  That's why you could never see a comic book about.. say... Death doing his job (Sandman), a teenage girl time travelling to the American Revolution in her sleep (The Dreamer), sentient sex robots (Sky Doll), Kids getting sucked into a different world to save their mom (Amulet), or Fairy Tale characters trapped in modern society (Fable).  It's not like that's the tip of the iceberg and there's a ton of other comics that are nothing like Batman.  

 

It's not like some of the movies that came out over the past few years are based on comic books that are nothing like the standard superhero fare: Cowboys Vs Aliens, The Crow, Heavy Metal, Josie and the Pussycats, The Mask, Men in Black, Red, Richie Rich, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Tales from the Crypt, Weird Science.

 

Thanks for pointing out to me how all these listed films are exactly the same because they're comic book movies.  Somehow I was dense enough to think they were completely different.

MOS, TA, Thor, IM, SM, Batman, CA, GOTG, X-Men (the list could go on a while) all share similar formulas, more so than the YA movies we've been getting. Maybe I should have said Superhero movies to keep your panties from getting in a twist.

[Melvin Frohike]

Penguins is coming down pretty hard.

The drop itself isn't that bad for the weekend after Thanksgiving, and certainly could have been worse, although at the same time it doesn't indicate, so far, that Penguins of Madagascar opened lower than it should have. It has now fallen to only 1% ahead of Rise of the Guardians in total gross (day 12 for both), and the latter had very good legs that PoM is very unlikely to be able to match.

[forg]

Poor Penguins

[Sal]

MOS, TA, Thor, IM, SM, Batman, CA, GOTG, X-Men (the list could go on a while) all share similar formulas, more so than the YA movies we've been getting. Maybe I should have said Superhero movies to keep your panties from getting in a twist.

 

So your logic by your earlier statement... you stated that these movies share the fact that they involve good battling against evil.  This is a formula exclusively used in superhero films?  Right. 

 

That aside, they are also distinctly different in tone and setting. Not all of them even contain 'superheroes' in the sense that you seem to imply.

 

Superheroes in the comic book sense generally implies: Super Powers, Secret Identities (which may include having to hide said secret identities), Costumes and Saving People.  A lot of movies involve saving people without being superhero films, so that's not an absolute qualifier for being a superhero film though.

 

I would hesitate to call any of the GOTG characters superheroes and it's really more of a space opera than a Superhero film anyway.  They don't even have secret identities (Star Lord's so-called 'Code Name' is the closest they come) or costumes.  They're just a bunch of scuzzy criminals battling even worse people.

 

Batman and Superman are more like the classic superhero films, as is Spider Man, but Cap 1 mostly plays more like a vaguely superhero inspired War Film (no secret identiy, set in the military during a historical period)  yeah there's fantastic elements, but there were fantasy elements in a lot of things set in that period, partially because the Nazis were kind of crazy about occult stuff anyway.  Take away the Captain America title and the very end sequence and it's basically just a film about a particularly tough guy with a shield fighting crazy Nazis.

 

I've not watched the most recent X-Men but the original comic and a lot of the older stuff is a lot closer to some of the YA novels and films I've seen than to a straight superhero movie either.  I cannot give any sort of judgement or details on DOFP since I didn't bother watching it.

 

 

And while we're pointing fingers, what's this about YA being so different?  How many of the YA films in recent years have been Dystopian Future?  Yes these tend to differ from each other... but not to such a degree that they don't clearly share a common genre.  I would argue that The Giver, Maze Runner and Hunger Games are thematically and functionally more similar than Batman, GotG and X-men.

 

And then there's the other biggie: YA Romance.  Like most forms of Romance, most of these plots have been done to death.  That's not to say they can't be good, but seriously, they're not that different from each other.  Frankly, based on the current glut of supernatural romance/vampire romance/werewolf romance/any of those other X-fantasy-creature-romance themes plus a threesome plus first person female narrator picking between two guys, I'd say that they're not trying to be all that different because that's what sells.

 

I love both comic book films (superhero or otherwise) and YA fiction, but to say that one is inherently more or less diverse than the other is kind of ridiculous.  Frankly there's been a glut of both and they could probably both stand to diversify their offerings a bit more.

Edited December 9, 2014 by Sal

[Jessie]

So your logic by your earlier statement... you stated that these movies share the fact that they involve good battling against evil.  This is a formula exclusively used in superhero films?  Right. 

 

That aside, they are also distinctly different in tone and setting. Not all of them even contain 'superheroes' in the sense that you seem to imply.

 

Superheroes in the comic book sense generally implies: Super Powers, Secret Identities (which may include having to hide said secret identities), Costumes and Saving People.  A lot of movies involve saving people without being superhero films, so that's not an absolute qualifier for being a superhero film though.

 

I would hesitate to call any of the GOTG characters superheroes and it's really more of a space opera than a Superhero film anyway.  They don't even have secret identities (Star Lord's so-called 'Code Name' is the closest they come) or costumes.  They're just a bunch of scuzzy criminals battling even worse people.

 

Batman and Superman are more like the classic superhero films, as is Spider Man, but Cap 1 mostly plays more like a vaguely superhero inspired War Film (no secret identiy, set in the military during a historical period)  yeah there's fantastic elements, but there were fantasy elements in a lot of things set in that period, partially because the Nazis were kind of crazy about occult stuff anyway.  Take away the Captain America title and the very end sequence and it's basically just a film about a particularly tough guy with a shield fighting crazy Nazis.

 

I've not watched the most recent X-Men but the original comic and a lot of the older stuff is a lot closer to some of the YA novels and films I've seen than to a straight superhero movie either.  I cannot give any sort of judgement or details on DOFP since I didn't bother watching it.

 

 

And then there's the other biggie: YA Romance.  Like most forms of Romance, most of these plots have been done to death.  That's not to say they can't be good, but seriously, they're not that different from each other.  Frankly, based on the current glut of supernatural romance/vampire romance/werewolf romance/any of those other X-fantasy-creature-romance themes plus a threesome plus first person female narrator picking between two guys, I'd say that they're not trying to be all that different because that's what sells.

 

 

You seem to take this so personally. Superhero movies are a lot more similar than the YA movies ive seen. They all have romance? Most movies in general have romance, most movies in general don't tend to have people dressed in silly costumes cruising around fighting crime with a villain who never wins. The laddies man superhero, has to take responsibility of who they are etc. They tend to have similar story arcs.  Some YA movies have been based in the near future, so that means their stories are ever so similar but in reality Superhero movies share far more in common than from what ive seen with YA adaptations. Fault of our stars was completely different to Hunger Games which was completely different to Perks of being a wallflower which seemed completely different to Maze Runner. Divergent and THG are the most similar brands and even then, Iron Man and Batman share far more in common. Im not saying YA films are all completely different, im saying they are just more diverse than your average comic book movie. I could watch a trailer for a new marvel film and have a better chance at guessing the outcome of the movie than with a YA film.

 

Im not slating Superhero movies, I watch most of them but I just find it laughable when people on here complain there are far more YA adaptations than there needs to be when superhero movies are far more guilty of this, a lot similar and quite frankly there is more of them.

 

 

And while we're pointing fingers, what's this about YA being so different?  How many of the YA films in recent years have been Dystopian Future?  Yes these tend to differ from each other... but not to such a degree that they don't clearly share a common genre.  I would argue that The Giver, Maze Runner and Hunger Games are thematically and functionally more similar than Batman, GotG and X-men.

Really? how about X-men and Avengers? or Batman and iron Man? Superman and Thor? Even X-men and GOTG share similar traits. lead guy is loved by women, doesn't get on with rest of crew, has all the witty liners, Come together in the end for a big climatic finale. GOTG is one of the more different superhero movies and even then, shares a lot in common with the rest. Try finding the similarities between something like Perks and Hunger Games.

 

 

 

I love both comic book films (superhero or otherwise) and YA fiction, but to say that one is inherently more or less diverse than the other is kind of ridiculous.  Frankly there's been a glut of both and they could probably both stand to diversify their offerings a bit more.

 

 

But why? like you said you love comic book movies so why ruin a winning formula? Ive noticed a lot of that on here, people moan about the lack of diversity in CBM's but they end up being the most hyped films on this site. If something is successful then keep it as it is, people like the way these moves are brought to the screen and as of now it seems the CBM's are better than most original blockbusters that get released today. They've mastered that formula (well Marvel have anyways, DC are still trying)

Edited December 9, 2014 by jessie