If Beowulf is animated (and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences believes that it is), then two of the top three box office films on Friday were animated.
Who says non live-action features are in a slump?
Robert Zemeckis's latest collected $9.7 million on Friday, while American Gangster wrestled its way past Bee Movie to remain in second place.
Jerry Seinfeld's feature dropped to third during its third weekend...
Meanwhile, the brand new Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium -- live action but chock full of computer generated effects -- landed at #5 with a $2,650,000 Friday gross.
And The Ten Commandments? Don't ask.
Update: The weekend numbers are in:
1. Beowulf $9.9M Fri, $10.5M Sat, [wkd $28.1M], (cume $28.1M)
2. Bee Movie $3.4M Fri, $6.5M Sat, [$14.3M], ($93.8M)
3. American Gangster $3.8M Fri, $5.8M Sat, [$13.2M], ($100.9M)
4. Fred Claus $3.2M Fri, $5.7M Sat, [$12.5M], ($36.2M)
5. Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium$2.6M Fri, $4.3M Sat, [$10M], ($10M)
6. Dan In Real Life $1.4M Fri, $1.9M Sat, [$4.4M], ($37M)
7. No Country For Old Men $892K Fri, $1.2M Sat, [$3M] ($4.8M)
8. Lions For Lambs $825K Fri, $1.2M Sat, [$2.9M], ($11.5M)
9. Saw IV $715K Fri, $995K Sat, [$2.2M], ($61.8M)
10. Love In The Time Of Cholera $630K Fri, $770K Sat, [$1.8M], ($1.8M)
So Beowulf does okay but doesn't blow the doors off any multiplexes, and Bee Movie looks set to crack $100 million in the next few days. (We could be looking at a bump over the long Thanksgiving weekend, but of course Enchanted will be coming into the marketplace, and the newer family-oriented flick will no doubt displace the older family-oriented flick.)
The estimable Nikki Finke has her own box office analysis over yonder:
... a hoped-for Saturday matinee surge which worked for family friendly Polar Express ... never materialized for the PG-13 Beowulf.
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11 comments:
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is wrong! Motion Capture is closer in effect to those actors dressed in rubber monster suits one used to see in movies from the 50's, than it is to stop motion animation like that of Ray Harryhausen.
I'm curios, Steve...where does "Bee Movie" rank against other big animated releases, "Ratatouille", "Over The Hedge", etc., in their third week? Seems like it's holding up better than many thought. Thanks, a writer.
Here's something along the lines you're looking for from BoxOfficeMojo, comparing Bee Movie, Over the Hedge, Robots, and Chicken Little.
To cut to the chase, after 3 weekends it's Hedge ($112 million), Chicken Little ($99), Bee Movie ($94), and Robots ($87).
Ratatouille was at $143 million after three weekends.
Kevin
I'm guessing that Bee Movie will end up close to Chicken Little's numbers, which was $135 million and change.
Just use Kevin Koch's Magic Movie Multiplier:
opening weekend X 3.4 = final gross
(It usually works out somewhere between three and four times the opening weekend. Mileage often varies.)
Interesting...thanks.
To clarify, multiply the opening weekend by around 3.2 for a stinker, and around 4.2 for a big hit. Since I think Bee Movie is right around the middle of all that, and since it's a holiday release and not a summer release, I'd say Steve's right with a $135-140 final domestic tally.
Kevin
ouch!
With a budget of well over $150 mil!?! Most of it going to the voice cast...
dvd sales to the rescue...
R.
Annon said..."ouch! With a budget of well over $150 mil!?! Most of it going to the voice cast...dvd sales to the rescue..."
What ouch? Isn't this the place where everybody spends a fair amount of time talking-up foreign box office for "Ratatouille"? Steve keeps us informed on a regular basis on the "under performing 'Rat' film"...and how the domestic numbers really aren't the "big picture".
So, I'm not sure why a $140 million dollar animated film, will have to be saved by DVD sales, just because some actors got large salaries...(BTW, I'm pretty sure Hanks and Allen, will see much larger pay days for TS3, than Seinfeld did for "Bee"). Does that fact lesson the films bottom line...no. Budget is budget, no matter where the money comes from and goes to...Pixar, Dreamworks, or otherwise.
And thanks for the update Kevin, it really is an interesting formula:)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is not wrong . . . yet. Beowulf has been "submitted for consideration" for best animated feature film. The Academy hasn't officially declared it (or anything else) eligible for the award yet AFAIK.
From what I understand,in order to break even, a movie has to take in at least double it's cost at the BO. So, if Bee Movie had a reported cost of $150 M (according to box office Mojo), that means it should have taken $300 M.
That's the ouch I was talking about!!
R.
Uh, sorry, not the way it works...if it did, "Ratatouille" would still be "under-performing, because it didn't "double" its costs ( short by about a hundred million).
The theory you're speaking of refers to overall Box Office...pretty much. Kevin could explain it better, but you get the idea...$140,000,000 for "The Bee Movie", along with projected 3 or 4 hundred million foreign, would be a tidy little profit...sorry to disappoint.
Ratatouille
Budget - $150,000,000
Domestic - $206,114,243 Foreign - $602,114,243
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