And overseas, animated titles are doing a little bit of all right:
Robert Zemeckis' "Disney's A Christmas Carol" placed No. 3 for the frame, up 6% over the previous weekend in grossing $21.4 million from 5,328 playdates in 48 territories. Holiday title ended the frame with a foreign cume of $90.8 million and worldwide total of $195.7 million.
"Christmas Carol," toplining Jim Carrey, saw solid openings in France, Korea and Argentina. In France, the 3D opened to an estimated $3.2 million from 321 screens.
Continuing to be the driver was the U.K., where "Christmas Carol" declined a slim 10% in its fourth sesh to an estimated $3.3 million from 611 for a cume of $18.9 million.
In Japan, "Christmas Carol" moved up from third to second, grossing $1.8 million for a cume of $12.6 million.
Toon "Planet 51," produced by Spanish company Ilion Animation, came in a strong No. 4 for the weekend, grossing $9.5 million from 5,077 playdates in 11 territories for a foreign cume of $13.5 million and worldwide total of $42 million.
Weekend was led by Spain, where "Planet 51" launched at $4.3 million from 507 via DeAPlaneta. It took second after "New Moon," edging out "2012."
"It's an excellent opening, beyond expectations. Probably the best ever for a Spanish tooner," said one exhib ...
I'm guesstimating that Carol ends its theatrical run in the $270-$320 million range -- Bolt territory. And that it will come back for encores during Christmases future..
Posts
9 comments:
"I'm guesstimating that Carol ends its theatrical run in the $270-$320 million range"
Didn't it cost $200 million to make ? So what's the conventional wisdom now on how much it would have to gross to make a profit ?
CW says you need to make triple the gross, but remember that cash inflow includes DVDs, re-releases, tv runs, etc.
Since we (likely) don't know the actual cost of the film, and since studios play all kinds of games with accounting, outsiders can't say with certainty at what point CC is going into the black.
It is often about perception regardless of whether a film 'really' makes a profit or not. And a film that makes 270 million+ will be perceived as a hit - especially if it makes more than Zemekis' previous mo-cap films.
"And a film that makes 270 million+ will be perceived as a hit."
It's interesting how that standard of what is "perceived" as a "hit" seems to change all the time.
As Steve has chronicled on this blog with his updates on "The White Doggy" (Bolt) , many people were very quick to write-off "Bolt" as a flop, yet pic has gone on to gross over $300 million . Yet it still hasn't shaken off the perception that it flopped or at least "underperformed" .
Of course if Box-Office Mojo is to be believed the production budget on Bolt was $150 million which means according to the conventional wisdom it still hasn't turned a profit , but like most animated films I expect Bolt to have a long shelf life and eventually it will make back it's money.
If a Christmas Carol really did cost $200 million or more then it will need to sell a lot of dvd's to make up the theatrical loss.
Perception is also about expectations.
Bolt suffered from the high expectations (fair or not) because of the Disney name and Lasseter. It needed to be a bigger hit than CC does to have been perceived as a hit. The same will hold true for PatF. If PatF were released by anothe rstudioexpectations would be lower, but since this is the film started by Lasseter it had better do as well as the most recent Pixar films or it will be perceived to have underperformed (or Lasseter will be perceived to have underperformed)
Mostly agree with the last post. But I don't think it's unfair to have high expectations from Disney. After all, they have made a handfull of great films in the past. Sadly, their record is spoty at best. "Bolt" was nothing but a combination of Toy Story and Finding Nemo, and the character design was lazy. And the less said about "Meet the Robinsons" the better. It was a forgettable movie anyway.
I hope "PATF" does well, but "Avatar" opens soon after, and that will the movie to watch.
R.
Sadly "fair" or "unfair" have nothing to do with it.
What would be perceived as a hit for another studio won't be perceived as a hit for Disney/ Lasseter.
But Zemeckis's "A Christmas Carol" is being touted as a "hit" even though it cost more than "Bolt" (just to use Bolt as a reference point ; I have no particular love for Bolt . Didn't hate it either. It was ok.) And it looks like CC will probably earn less than Bolt , but Bolt is still tagged with being an "under-performer" or a "flop" depending on who you ask , but CC is a hit .... because ? expectations are "lower" for Bob Zemeckis ? This makes no sense.
I do fear that Princess and the Frog will be held to the same sort of double-standard. The long shadow of the Lion King will still be hovering over Princess and the Frog, all these years later. No matter how well it does , if it doesn't do Lion King-like box-office numbers it will be considered not quite good enough.
I repeat:
Sadly "fair" or "unfair" have nothing to do with it.
What would be perceived as a hit for another studio won't be perceived as a hit for Disney/ Lasseter
Because Zemekis hasn't had a hit in quite awhile and he's toiling outside of live-action expectations are low...very low for CC.
Stop worrying about it and accept the facts...you can't change them.
Just hope that PatF does well and isn't another in a line of Lasseter/Disney flops.
Post a Comment