Early Friday Numbers (The Lorax - 17.5M; Project X - 8.2M)

[ecstasy]

Wow! Lorax came outta nowhere!

Actually it didn't. The latest tracking had it exploding a bit.

[iceroll]

Holy shit that's incredible for The Lorax!

[CJohn]

Lets make a year vs year comparasion

2011 | 2012

Season of the Witch | The Devil Inside - Not even a fair battle, TDI always looked scary and the teen audience loves this kind of movies.

The Green Hornet | Contraband - The winner here was 2011, but the weekend had no deep...

The Dilemma | Beauty and the Beast, Joyful Noise - and 2012 had it, with 2 other solid openers and a couple of good holdhovers

No Strings Attached | Underworld Awakening, Red Tails, Haywire - Both years were appealing, but one had 1 good (and only) opener, the other had 2 good (and 1 flop) openers

The Rite | The Grey - Really? Do I have to say anything here? Because The Rite looked like garbage with no scares to me. Hopkins vs Exorcisms or Neeson vs The Wolves?...

The Mechanic | One for the Money, Man on a Ledge - The number of openers makes the difference again

The Roommate | Woman in Black, Chronicle - Not even a fair battle

Just Go With It | The Vow - Romantic dramas pull teen girls going wild, but Just Go With It was also a solid hit on his own

Justin Bieber | Safe House - Teen girls also went wild last year, but adults wanted to see Washington being bad with style, the type of villian people love

Gnomeu and Juliet | Journey 2 - Both opened with pretty much the same

The Eagle | Star Wars 3D - Yeah, right... Star Wars FTW, Channing Tatum in a shitty drama not

Unknown | Ghost Rider 2 - The first time 2012 loses, but wins big at the same time because of the crazy holdhovers from the weekend before!

I Am Number Four | This Means War - Same

Big Mommas 3 | The Secret World of Arriety - Same

Hall Pass | Act of Valor - Not fair, Act of Valor looked way better, the SB Tv Spots were 5 stars

Drive Angry | Good Deeds, Wanderlust, Gone - All the others 2012 openers sold more tickets than Drive Angry last year, and they all deserve that, since I would rather see Gone or Wanderlust than DA, and Tyler Perry is Tyler Perry.

Edited March 3, 2012 by CJohn

[A Marvel Fanboy]

that's freaking awesome !!!

[RichWS]

Lets make a year vs year comparasion

2011 | 2012

Season of the Witch | The Devil Inside - Not even a fair battle, TDI always looked scary and the teen audience loves this kind of movies.

The Green Hornet | Contraband - The winner here was 2011, but the weekend had no deep...

The Dilemma | Beauty and the Beast, Joyful Noise - and 2012 had it, with 2 other solid openers a couple of good holdhovers

No Strings Attached | Underworld Awakening, Red Tails, Haywire - Both years were appealing, but one had 1 good (and only) opener, the other had 2 good (and 1 flop) openers

The Rite | The Grey - Really? Do I have to say anything here? Because The Rite looked like garbage with no scares to me. Hopkins vs Exorcisms or Neeson vs The Wolves?...

The Mechanic | One for the Money, Man on a Ledge - The number of openers makes the difference again

The Roommate | Woman in Black, Chronicle - Not even a fair battle

Just Go With It | The Vow - Romantic dramas pull teen girls going wild, but Just Go With It was also a solid hit on his own

Justin Bieber | Safe House - Teen girls also went wild last year, but adults wanted to see Washington being bad with style, the type of villian people love

Gnomeu and Juliet | Journey 2 - Both opened with pretty much the same

The Eagle | Star Wars 3D - Yeah, right... Star Wars FTW, Channing Tatum in a shitty drama not

Unknown | Ghost Rider 2 - The first time 2012 loses, but wins big at the same time because of the crazy holdhovers from the weekend before!

I Am Number Four | This Means War - Same

Big Mommas 3 | The Secret World of Arriety - Same

Hall Pass | Act of Valor - Not fair, Act of Valor looked way better, the SB Tv Spots were 5 stars

Drive Angry | Good Deeds, Wanderlust, Gone - All the others 2012 openers sold more tickets than Drive Angry last year, and they all deserve that, since I would rather see Gone or Wanderlust than DA, and Tyler Perry is Tyler Perry.

CJohn does the work the rest of us are too lazy to do! Good job, sir.

[kayumanggi]

Really? You only have to look at the movies to realize that this year has a much better schedule.

I don't deny the fact that 2012 schedule is better. But it doesn't mean 2011 films weren't appealing. There was really something wrong that year.

[The Dark Alfred]

Again, 2012 surprises us. Amazing numbers! TDKR is a good bet for 600m if 2012 keeps up the pace

[CJohn]

In January/February 2011 I would pay to see The Green Hornet, No Strings Attached, Just Go With It, Unknown and I Am Number Four.In January/February 2012 I would pay to see The Devil Inside, Contraband, Beauty and the Beast 3D, Underworld Awakening, Red Tails, The Grey, Woman in Black, Chronicle, The Vow, Safe House, Journey 2, Star Wars 3D and Act of Valor.That is a big difference IMO.

Edited March 3, 2012 by CJohn

[Biggestgeekever]

Via Variety:

Variety:

$16m LORAX

nearly $6m PROJECT X

ACT OF VALOR $13-14m weekend

ARTIST $4-5m weekend

SAFE HOUSE, GOOD DEEDS, JOURNEY 2 under $7m weekend

Project X looks to be pretty frontloaded.

[kayumanggi]

We now say they are appealing because we now know how they performed. I'm pretty sure this was not the sentiment when we started the year.

[CJohn]

Project X was frontloaded as HELL!

[kayumanggi]

In January/February 2011 I would pay to see The Green Hornet, No Strings Attached, Just Go With It, Unknown and I Am Number Four.In January/February 2012 I would pay to see The Devil Inside, Contraband, Beauty and the Beast 3D, Underworld Awakening, Red Tails, The Grey, Woman in Black, Chronicle, The Vow, Safe House, Journey 2, Star Wars 3D and Act of Valor.That is a big difference IMO.

Yes, you would. You are from Portugal. On the other hand...

[forg]

Go The Lorax! Too bad the movie is coming here not until March 14, can't wait to see it

[RichWS]

I don't deny the fact that 2012 schedule is better. But it doesn't mean 2011 films weren't appealing. There was really something wrong that year.

Why are you attempting to find a deeper problem? You have up and down periods. Sometimes the product is better.

[kayumanggi]

That sucks for THE ARTIST. It just can't have an "amazing" weekend.

[Hiccup]

Epic weekend! Huge for Lorax and Project X!!!!

[kayumanggi]

Why are you attempting to find a deeper problem? You have up and down periods. Sometimes the product is better.

Because there really was a bigger problem. The sudden turn around, 2012 winning 9 weeks straight with films, even the dumb ones opening in huge numbers, couldn't just be attributed to "appeal" or "better releases".

[John Marston]

I think the films are a bit more appealing but also i definitely think there are other reasons. Last year even some definite crowdpleasers like Real Steel did poor business

[mattmav45]

Let the good times roll!

Rollin face, IMO.

[Captain Craig]

I don't know where you live but gas is already at 4.50 a gallon.

Exactly. Three to four years ago $4.50 was about the ceiling for high prices and now it's at the low to mid range of where they are "when prices start going up" as they do. So the sliding scale for "cheap" gas is now around $3 and the projections by summer are at or over $6.The economy is not better, hence the head scratching for why people are spending more money on disposable non-essential entertainment such as movies. Even if we all agreed the quality of movies is better it still is a head scratcher in an era of more streaming, bit torrents and higher ticket prices wile the economy is still floundering.