Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Horse Race Beyond Cars

Ms. Finke, like always, gets the stats out early.

1. Cars 2 3D (Pixar/Disney) NEW [4,115 Theaters] Friday $28M, Estimated Weekend $75M

2. Bad Teacher (Sony) NEW [3,049 Theaters] Friday $12M, Estimated Weekend $31M

3. Green Lantern 3D (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,816 Theaters] Friday $6M (-72%), Estimated Weekend $19.4M (-63%), Estimated Cume $91M

4. Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Fox) Week 2 [3,342 Theaters] Friday $4M (-37%), Estimated Weekend $13M, Estimated Cume $42.5M

5. Super 8 (Paramount) Week 3 [3,424 Theaters] Friday $3.9M (-34%), Estimated Weekend $12.1M, Estimated Cume $95.3M

6. X-Men: First Class (Fox) Week 4 [2,633 Theaters] Friday $2.2M, Estimated Weekend $7M, Estimated Cume $133.4M

7. The Hangover Part II (Legendary/Warner Bros) Week 5 [2,755 Theaters] Friday $1.9M, Estimated Weekend $6M, Estimated Cume $244.1M

8. Bridesmaids (Universal) Week 7 [2,031 Theaters] Friday $1.8M, Estimated Weekend $6M, Estimated Cume $147.3M

9. Kung Fu Panda 2 3D (DWA/Paramount) Week 5 [2,527 Theaters] Friday $1.3M, Estimated Weekend $4.5M, Estimated Cume $153.4M

10. Midnight In Paris (Sony Classics) Week 6 [1,038 Theaters] Friday $1.2M, Estimated Weekend $4.5M, Estimated Cume $28.6M ...

The Panda sequel takes a hit with the new Cars installment accelerating into the marketplace. Where Pixar's latest ends up is anyone's guess, but it's going to have a solid opening weekend.

Add On: The Reporter breaks down Cars Deux's big numbers:

... [T]he 3D toon did best in America’s heartland, a.k.a., the red states.

The turnout was so strong that the pic roared past expectations to gross an impressive $68 million in its domestic box office debut.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh the injustice of it all. Panda 2 was an infinitely better movie than Cars 2. Cars was garbage.

The irony is that John Lasseter has now directed Pixar's worst received movie - and yet he's still the one pulling the strings for both Disney and Pixar, and every director still has to follow his notes.

No wonder everybody's flocking to Dreamworks.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Mr. Lassiter and Pixar!

After stepping in to save Cars-2 (and making Disney a stronger company!) I hope that he can now spend some well deserved time resting up at his Sonoma vineyard.

Anonymous said...

The irony is that John Lasseter has now directed Pixar's worst received movie

Actually, he's directed or co-directed Pixar's three worst received films: A Bug's Life, Cars, and Cars 2. Of course, he's also directed a couple of their best received films, and had major input into all of them.

Anonymous said...

Pixar can put out a piece of crap and people will still race to see it. Maybe they'll make another couple billion in toy sales. Congrats!

Anonymous said...

Actually if you rebranded Cars 2 as a Dreamworks movie, John Lasseter would have directed the worst received Dreamworks film as well.

Good job, John!

Looks like Chris Sanders knew what he was doing when he refused to take notes from John "Mr. Worst Rotten Tomato Man" Lasseter on American Dog.

Anonymous said...

American Dog was horrible. Everyone knew it. Sanders has good ideas, but lacks any structure--hence the truly BRILLIANT Dean DuBlois. Remember, Sanders quite Disney in an ego driven fit because he didn't get his way.

Anonymous said...

-> John "Mr. Worst Rotten Tomato Man" Lasseter on American Dog.


Excuse me, it is John "The-New-Walt-Disney" Lasseter.

Of course, like whether AstroBoy was good or not, this will only draw an admonishment to not pull the scab off of old wounds...however...I thought that American Dog was very good.

Yes, here come the DisneyPolice to denounce it as a mess, and that Bolt was oh-so-much-better, but, American Dog had a uniqueness of vision that was apparently too much for the new regime. The pre-prod artwork on the third floor of the Hat Building was really really nice. The character quality was alive in the 2D artwork. The art direction was also unique and original, as was the intended CG production look and technique.

Lasseter is laughing at all of us on his way to the bank.

Whatever.

Anonymous said...

"...Remember, Sanders quite Disney in an ego driven fit because he didn't get his way."


That's not what one of the two of The New Regime told Feature Animation at the time.
He repeatedly told FA that Chris Sanders had been read the riot act about delivering a revised script by a certain date, and that CS failed to do so. Therefore, The New Regime had to act.

Old news. All of it unverifiable anyway.

Anonymous said...

It is a simple fact that Sanders chose to quit. He was not "fired."

And American Dog was awful. I watched the story reels again just a week ago, and laughed all the way through it. SO bad.

Anonymous said...

Side-stepping the AD/Bolt quality debate, what JL and EC did was a basic management tactic of "shock-and-awe."

Show the Board of Directors that the Board made the correct choice in choosing men of action, and simultaneously send a signal to those below in the trenches that they won't hesitate to eliminate someone well liked up at the top. So then, does anyone else want to say no? They didn't think so.

Think of that Sopranos episode where Tony comes back from the hospital very weakened. His subordinates question him on everything, so he asserts his Alpha Male status by taking out the youngest and strongest in front of everyone else.

Anonymous said...

Oh you people are funny, $75 million opening. Nobody is down, and you have no one to kick. Get a life.

As for this bit of genius: "No wonder everybody's flocking to Dreamworks."

BWAHAHA!!! Is that why we are getting so many DW reels?

Steve Hulett said...

Be fun to know who the commenters above actually are, wouldn't it?

No such luck.

Anonymous said...

so actually what everyone wants is - JOhn lassiter to fail and pixar to have some flops and cut lots of jobs ? I thought this was the union blog !
haters - stop the hating !

Mike Yamada said...

@Steve - As the blog is under your control, you can restrict comments to people with blogger/google accounts. People will still have the option to be anonymous, but then it might make the conversation easier to keep track of.

As for Cars 2, good for Pixar/Disney/JL for raking in the cash. Hopefully this will work out as the saying, "a rising tide lifts all boats."

Secret @ Women perfume said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

http://www.deadline.com/2011/06/first-box-office-cars-2-bad-teacher-look-to-be-overperforming-friday/

"...Wall Street expects those licensed retail sales to total $10 billion making it the biggest movie merchandising ever...

...It's a supremely cynical move -- lousy movie, great crap --...

...On the other hand, the Pixar brand may wind up hurt by its first bout of bad PR for a company..."

Steve Hulett said...

@Steve - As the blog is under your control, you can restrict comments to people with blogger/google accounts. People will still have the option to be anonymous, but then it might make the conversation easier to keep track of.

We'll think about it. On the other hand, anarchy can be invigorating.

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