China Box Office Thread | Deadpool & Wolverine- July 26

[alee7915]

It looks like Paramount inflates North American Box Office numbers and lowers China Box Office numbers.

http://www.deadline.com/2014/06/transformers-late-night-estimate-8-75m-on-path-to-mid-90m-opening/

 

.10Th UPDATE, MONDAY, 9:43 AM: The first big controversy of box office in the sixth months since I’ve been reporting erupted this AM as Paramount Pictures put the final three-day domestic cume of Transformers: Age of Extinction at $100.038M as its opening weekend for the fourth installment. “They’re lying,” said one distribution head at a major studio. Said another, “I don’t get get it.  Is it just arrogance? What is the point of inflating your box office numbers? So they can claim the first $100M movie opening of the year? Oh please, who cares? It’s a great opening anyway.”

One distribution executive put it this way, “Looking at Rentrak, at this time the average for the three-days is $22.964M, representing a total gross for three days of $97.76M. Rentrak collected 97% of the grosses for the three days.  In my humble opinion, it would be impossible for $100M to be reported.”

However, despite all other industry estimates that had the opening ofTransformers anywhere from $97.5M to $98M+, Paramount is defying the general reporting and stated that they have reached $100.038M. The last time I saw this happen was many years ago and the studio that did it was also called out by others in the industry for fudging numbers — that was Fox with Minority Reportand was called on the carpet by others in the industry.

Another distribution head at a major studio, asked, “What are they doing?” and just laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

“I don’t care what they report, if they want to lie go ahead. I’d like to lie and say we did better than numbers than we did, but I can’t,” said another distribution head. “What they’ll probably do is shave a couple of million off the mid-week number and then pad it out. I do think it’s a little crazy that they are stretching like this.”

“I don’t know what they are doing. There is no way they could reach that number looking at the numbers I have sitting in front of me,” said another distribution head at a public company. And there in lies the rub. These are public companies and under SEC guidelines regulating disclosure requirements for  publicly-held companies, Paramount must put forth true and accurate numbers to the public.

What does Paramount Pictures say to all this conundrum? “We reported our number based on the estimates we received from the theaters this morning. This is our final number,” said a Paramount spokeswoman. $100.038M? “Yes.”

Edited June 30, 2014 by A K A

[alee7915]

It looks like Paramount didn't want China open higher than North America despite Entgroup and an officer from China Film Special Funds said it now is revised to 616m YUAN/$99.35m ow in China!

 

 

Paramount inflates North American Box Office numbers and lowers China Box Office numbers!   (Simply by doing that, Paramount can put few million dollars back to the North America Box Office numbers from China Box Office numbers so the North America can open @ $100M!)  

Edited June 30, 2014 by A K A

[Tower]

It looks like Paramount didn't want China open higher than North America despite Entgroup and an officer from China Film Special Funds said it now is revised to 616m YUAN/$99.35m ow in China!

 

 

Paramount inflates North American Box Office numbers and lowers China Box Office numbers!   (Simply by doing that, Paramount can put few million dollars back to the North America Box Office numbers from China Box Office numbers so the North America can open @ $100M!)  

 

Inflating the NA numbers had nothing to do with China, it was just so they can say that it made 100M OW.

[Quigley]

Inflating the NA numbers had nothing to do with China, it was just so they can say that it made 100M OW.

 

I agree. Saying that they subtracted from China gross to add to NA is ridiculous.

[Fake]

Strong Monday number. TF4 should hit 1B mark on Thursday.

[Fake]

And now China has pulled ahead of NA.

[alee7915]

I agree. Saying that they subtracted from China gross to add to NA is ridiculous.

 

Don't forget this film co-producing with Chinese company.  So if Paramount inflate the domestic gross they have to find the money from somewhere else to cover it as the profits(worldwide gross) will be shared between Paramount and Chinese company?  5 company co producing together, 3 from the USA which including Paramount and 2 Chinese company. 

 

Why Paramount's China opening weekend numbers is about $10M lower than Ent group?  Where is the money gone?  If it is like few million dollars difference, I will accept it but now it is about $10M lower than Ent group?

It is impossible Ent group will make this kind of big mistake(almost $10M) since Warner Bross and Disney's China opening weekend numbers always come very close or close to the Ent group's data.

 

It is very important for Paramount to provide an accurate opening weekend numbers especially in China especially for this film! These moviegoers in China have to go early morning show like 7 am, queue nearly 1 hour during the afternoon weekend show for the ticket and even they got the ticket some of them have to sit first row or at the corner to watch the film!  It just shows how the Chinese moviegoers support Paramount's Transformers 4!  It's all about principle!   Since the moviegoers in China have to do more works to watch this film and Paramount just inflated NA's numbers so it looks good in NA!  It's just not nice from my point of view!

Edited June 30, 2014 by A K A

[Fake]

My projections

Monday should go up a bit with actuals 110M 726m

Tue 104M 830M

Wed 95M 925M

Thur 90M 1015M

Fri 115M 1130m

Sat 160M 1270M

Sun 140M 1410M/$225M

Seems quite optimistic, but can't see it below 1.3B by Sunday.

If it follows that, then it will finish with 2B!

I am, however, a bit conservative in my expectations. I think Friday gross would be around 100m.

[Noctis]

So what are we expecting? 300m?

[Ajbg]

Really strange. For Paramount, tF4 got 92 million in China and You say 99,35 million.

[Tower]

Don't forget this film co-producing with Chinese company.  So if Paramount inflate the domestic gross they have to find the money from somewhere else to cover it as the profits(worldwide gross) will be shared between Paramount and Chinese company?  5 company co producing together, 3 from the USA which including Paramount and 2 Chinese company. 

 

Why Paramount's China opening weekend numbers is about $10M lower than Ent group?  Where is the money gone?  If it is like few million dollars difference, I will accept it but now it is about $10M lower than Ent group?

It is impossible Ent group will make this kind of big mistake(almost $10M) since Warner Bross and Disney's China opening weekend numbers always come very close or close to the Ent group's data.

 

It is very important for Paramount to provide an accurate opening weekend numbers especially in China.  These moviegoers in China have to go early morning show like 7 am, queue nearly 1 hour during the afternoon weekend show for the ticket and even they got the ticket some of them have to sit first row or at the corner to watch the film!  It just shows how the Chinese moviegoers support Paramount's Transformers 4!  It's all about principle!   Since the moviegoers in China have to do more works to watch this film and Paramount just inflated NA's numbers so it looks good in NA!  It's just not nice from my point of view!

 

It is normal for the studio reported Chinese number to be off and get adjusted later its been happening for years. This is not where the Chinese gross went, the extra NA numbers will come from the NA dailies later on.

[JCS]

BOM updated to $92M China OW but still way behind actuals...

[alee7915]

BOM updated to $92M China OW but still way behind actuals...

BOM got all their numbers from studios as every Sunday morning(US times), all studios will email such as BOM, BO, the Hollywood reporter and etc about their est weekend numbers and studios will update with BOM etc again on Monday morning.

Edited June 30, 2014 by A K A

[Fake]

So what are we expecting? 300m?

Something around that should happen.

[JCS]

BOM got all their numbers from studios as every Sunday morning(US times), all studios will email such as BOM, BO, the Hollywood reporter and etc about their est weekend numbers and studios will update with BOM etc again on Monday morning.

 

Yes, so the updated studio number is just $92M!

[alee7915]

Yes, so the updated studio number is just $92M!

This is my main point!  Take Disney and Warner bros as example, when they update their China ow numbers on Monday, it always come very close even sometimes match to Ent group's numbers. Not sure why this time it is almost about $10M difference!  

Edited June 30, 2014 by A K A

[#ED]

Guys, the actual is 99.35.No fudging in China numbers as I doubt Paramount has any access over it.

[Ajbg]

Why Paramount will Want a smaller number?

[Fake]

What is the competition in following weeks like?Also, could someone provide the dailes for TF3 till its 2nd weekend?

Edited June 30, 2014 by Fake

[alee7915]

Why Paramount will Want a smaller number?

 

Edited

Edited June 30, 2014 by A K A