Box Office: Family Fare Wins Again
Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 6:31PM Given the ease with which family fare always tops the charts whether animated or live action -- this time the story of a dolphin with a prosthetic tale (?) flipper (?) fin (?) I don't know these terms -- you'd think taking the family to the movies didn't cost as much as people always claim it costs when they complain about how much it costs (whew): parking, food, multiple tickets.
Also: Dolphins are cute and all but I'm only seeing Dolphin Tale if you can promise me that it contains a musical sequence in which Olivia Newton-John reprises her treacly "Promise (The Dolphin Song)" from the 80s.
With Morgan Freeman on back-up.
Anyway, don't mind me. I'm just bitter because I'd prefer it if adults went to movies for adults in droves. That way TV wouldn't be able to hog all the entertainment intended for adults. (Moneyball is doing well but people really should be queuing up in droves, you know?)
Box Office (U.S.) Baker's Dozen -estimates
01 DOLPHIN TALE $14.2 (cum $37.5)
02 MONEYBALL [review] $12.5 (cum $38.4)
03 THE LION KING 3D [review] re-release $11 (cum $408.1)
04 50/50 [review] new $8.8
05 COURAGEOUS new $8.8
06 DREAMHOUSE new $8.2
07 ABDUCTION [review] $5.6 (cum $19.1)
08 WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER? new $5.6
09 CONTAGION $5 (cum $64.7)
10 KILLER ELITE $4.8 (cum $17.4)
11 DRIVE [review] $3.3 (cum $27)
12 THE HELP [review] $3.0 (cum $159.3)
Michael Shannon Sees Storms ComingTalking Points
• In limited release land the apocalyptic visions of Michael Shannon in TAKE SHELTER had the best opening weekend at just 3 theaters but with a sturdy $18,000 per screen (in other words the houses were four times as full as those of the top films in wide release). The extremely well reviewed gay romance WEEKEND did a tiny expansion from 1 theater to 6. It also became available On Demand so one suspects it'll make a hefty percentage of its revenue there.
• The Help finally left the gold-lined interior of the top ten list in its 8th week, falling just short of Bridesmaids staying power (which fell the same distance in its 9th week). The sole advantage of The Help (#12 of the year right now) if it hopes to topple Bridesmaids (#10 of the year) for bragging rights of "Highest Grossing Non-Franchise Film of 2011" is that it's in more theaters than Bridesmaids was at this point. The Help is still $10 million behind. It might be a squeaker or it might be all over if Real Steel and The Ides of March rip most of its screens away next Friday.
•Somehow Dream House opened to $8.2 million even though you can see the whole movie from start to finish in the trailer. If people keep buying tickets to movies whose trailers reveal every detail, Hollywood will keep making trailers filled with more egregious spoilers than even the laziest and most bitter critics would dare type. Sigh. At least Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz found each other in the process.
•I don't want to make too much of a point about what could merely be a coincidence but Contagion's numbers week to week are very similar to Crazy, Stupid, Love.'s numbers (to the point where they both hit $64 million on the 4th weekend!) Will their twin performance be the new standard for what happens when you just cram your movie full of multiple well-liked stars who aren't always bankable on their own?
What did you see over the weekend?
If it wasn't Dolphin Tale, what could convince you to see that movie?
If it wasn't Moneyball what are you waiting for?
Bridesmaids, Contagion, Olivia, Take Shelter, The Help, box office, zoology
Reader Comments (13)
I saw Pina. My first 3D experience (yes, I know). What a beautiful movie! A MUST SEE
where did u see it? a festival?
Barcelona!
I think you're gonna love it. It's so physical and the music is great... every single shot is a visual fest!
PS 3D is f... expensive.
NOTHING could convince me to see a Dolphin's Tale!
I saw Moneyball last weekend.
This weekend, I saw:
(1) Restless, which was OK. Mia Wasikowska is REALLY beautiful; Mr. Hopper is amazing, himself; the script was OK.
(2) 50/50, which was OK, but brought down from REALLY GOOD by Seth Rogen's lousy character.
(3) CONTAGION, which I'm only catching up on because it's finally available in a non-IMAX theatre that's convenient for me. I liked it, despite its tendency to throw away characters (e.g. Kate Winslet, whose fate we never discover). Soderberg did well with this one.
Bill, do you mean we never discover the fate of Marion Cotillard's character? I'm pretty sure it was clear as day what happened to Winslet's character.
Nat,
Do you happen to know anything about how OnDemand revenue is recorded? I guess there are no charts or anything?
Zach -- i don't. i'm so curious about it and its weird given how transparent revenues are for theatrical you'd think that we'd hear more.
i would advise everyone who thinks they'll get WEEKEND in their city to wait though. For such a low budget movie it's shot quite beautifully.
50/50 - good, but could have scaled higher. Hated the standard vilification of the girlfriend, loved the self-absorption of the main character when he gets caught up in his own sickness and grief and forgets about the pain others are going through. Strong work from all the actors with MVP going to Huston, Hall and Kendrick.
Margaret - most painful movie-going experience I've had in a long time. Genuinely hurt. Fucking masterpiece.
Weekend - best gay romance I've had the pleasure of seeing. Truthful, kind, universal.
I'm waiting for Moneyball to be released in my country (in fact, I'm waiting for most of these films to be released in my country). I live in Mexico, and release dates really suck down here for films that are not mega-blockbusters (for example, Real Steel is coming out next week at the same time as the U.S., imagine that, though I am curious to see it). Anyway, Moneyball will be released here October 14th, so I won't be waiting that long, and Contagion is coming October 28th (also not that long), but then, October 21st we're getting The Tree of Life (yes, we're just getting that, and that's not the worst we've had, we'll have to wait until February for The Help), and I fear we won't be getting Weekend here at all unless it gets some awards traction. Anyway, I hope you're all enjoying the films that are being released.
Regarding Dream House, there's another twist which is not hinted at in the trailer.
Liz N. - Yeah, Cotillard's character, too. I agree that we can safely guess what happened to Winslet, but you'd have thought that at least Fishburn would have mentioned it, e.g. in a snarky remark to that Homeland Security guy he hated.
I thought that Fishburn's fiancée was going to turn into one of those "missing" charcters, too, but she did turn up again near the end.
I saw What's Your Number last night and I didn't mind it actually. Predictable? Of course! I love Anna Faris so I enjoyed her in this movie.
finally saw Drive and loved it.
just saw "Women in Trouble" and loved the post-credit cameo by that 3rd rock kid.