Saturday, March 03, 2012

The March of Box Office

... with Illumination Entertainment's The Lorax well on top:

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax topped the Friday box office with a sizeable $17.3 million, putting it on course for a $60 million opening.

The 3D pic -- receiving a glowing A CinemaScore -- is playing in 3,729 theaters, including digital IMAX screens. The film's better-than-expected performance is welcome news for the animated business, which struggled last year as overall moviegoing slumped. ...

Further down the list (and out of the Top Ten), The Secret World of Arrietty has collected $15 million to date.

Add On: Whoa! Lorax beats the $50 million estimate, and the $60 million projection.

Lighting up the family marketplace, Universal and Illumination Entertainment's environmentally minded Dr. Seuss' The Lorax debuted to a staggering $70.7 million, marking the best opening ever for a non-sequel animated title if the number holds.

The 3D pic -- receiving a glowing A CinemaScore -- narrowly bested the $70.5 million earned by Pixar's The Incredibles in 2004, according to Universal estimates. ...

Animated features are back melting box office records.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The story and characterizations are weak, but the design, artistry and technical ability are outstanding, easily blowing away crap like rango.

Anonymous said...

But a big hooray for animation making money.

Anonymous said...

The story and characterizations are weak, but the design, artistry and technical ability are outstanding, easily blowing away crap like rango.

Hey, the guy that hates Rango's back! How's it going, buddy?

Dan Siciliano said...

Hey Mr. Guy Who Hates Rango, how do you feel about Rango winning the Best Animated Feature Oscar, EEEEHHHH?

Ghibli fan said...

"Further down the list (and out of the Top Ten), The Secret World of Arrietty has collected $15 million to date."

Steve, you really should make a point of noting that the worldwide box office for Arrietty (to date) is $143,121,108 (measured against a production budget of equivalent to $23 million U.S.).

Also, the U.S. total for Arrietty is actually at $16,753,024 , not $15 million as you mentioned in your comment. While $16.7 million is perhaps not that impressive at first glance measured against some of the big budget animated films , it is actually the best performance so far for one of the Disney-released Studio Ghibli films in North America. The fact that it was made for a relatively modest $23 million means that the 2D Arrietty has done spectacular business in the worldwide market.

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