Saturday, December 12, 2009

Early Yuletide Derby

Now with cinnamon-flaovred Add On.

Two Disney Animation titles hold down the 1st and 5th positions.

Princess and the Frog hops to first with $7 million on Friday, while Christmas Carol collects $1.7 million in fifth place, running its total to $119.3 million after 36 days of release ...

In the live-action department, Sandy Bullock's The Blind Side (#2) has now sewn up $139.5 million as it comes in 2nd, Clint Eastwood Invictus debuts at #3, and the vampire sage Twilight (#4) has now grossed $261.7 million and a whole lot more overseas ...

Add On: At the wire, The Princess and the Frog comes in first, with $25 million and $7,280 per screen. (By way of comparison, Ron and John's Aladdin opened wide on November 25, 1992 with a $19 million total take, but on a third as many screens with a $17,000/screen average.)

Kindly note that the maligned Christmas Carol had the smallest drop (-11.5%) of any Top Ten entry, so somebody must be liking the picture. It certainly keeps on performing. It's now grossed $124.5 million.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Insiders at Disney have slammed the film "Christmas Carol" for not doing well at the box office. Inside projections anticipated it crossing $200 million by now. Sadly, it's gonna be years before it's in the black.

Disney's tightening the reins on Zemeckis from here on out, it's said. Especially where budgets are concerned.

And in my opinion, good riddance. It's a stinking pile of crap.

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile, I'm a little disappointed so far with "Frog Princess"s performance. It's estimated for 27 mil for openning weekend, when it should've done better--somewhere closer to 35 mil.

I just got out of a 7pm showing of it in Burbank (Saturday evening), and the theater was only 1/4 full, if that. While some might say that 7pm is too late for a Disney animated film, I remember well the days of Aladdin and Beast when the evening showings were packed with young adults on a date. Not so on this movie--it just didn't connect with a broad audience.

The audience that was there certainly enjoyed it, as did I. Not Disney's best, obviously, but a very solid movie.

Anonymous said...

Sadly, the film really panders to small children in a way Disney's handled better before. But it's definitely a very juvenile film, with little for young adults or adults.

Anonymous said...

I saw TP&TF this afternoon and the audience was responsive. Thought it was a solid piece of work, far better than Disney's last few 2-D offerings.

Anonymous said...

Just saw it. Princess and the Frog was just okay. The animation was off model quite a bit and the characters volumes changed a lot (Tiana as a frog was always a different size and Louie couldnt stay on model to save his life). Story was okay, not as polished and buttoned up as, say, Aladdin (high bar) or Emperors New Groove (underrated). Music was great. Firefly was great.

Still good to see 2D back in theaters, and I hope its the first of lots and lots.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and to whoever animated the shots where Charlotte was all spastic and telling big daddy to tell the story and constantly talked over him and cut him off, you're a genius! That animation was brilliant.

Anonymous said...

^^Nik Ranieri

Anonymous said...

I saw a screening where adults were laughing harder than the kids.

Anonymous said...

1. This was supposed to appeal to the Disney Princess demo first, broader audiences second.

2. Disney is still squeaking "Oilcan!" and it will take a bit to get back into fighting form.

3. This was a solid film.

4. Will somebody bring some dedicated writers into the animation world already or are you all just going to keep wasting time storyboarding the living daylights out of everything? FLAME ON!

Anonymous said...

Once again we're treated to an anonymous Disney "insider" who just rips into Zemeckis. If he were a Disney employee, he's not doing his coworkers any favors. If he's a friend of an employee, he's not much of a friend. I would take this into consideration before believing a word of what he says.

Anonymous said...

Imagemovers Digital is NOT WDAS.

They arent my friends or my co-workers. Performance capture looks like garbage, costs too much money, and is a pathetic way for actors to pretend they're doing anything more than providing a voice.

Zemeckis is a washup

Anonymous said...

hmmm, you seem to have mistaken T.A.G for T.A.G.G. (The Axe Grinders Guild)

It's a common mistake.

Anonymous said...

"4. Will somebody bring some dedicated writers into the animation world already or are you all just going to keep wasting time storyboarding the living daylights out of everything? FLAME ON!"

If there were any "writers" who knew how to write VISUALLY, there wouldn't be a problem. But most of them just write a lot of "blah blah blah" and spend their time "writing" mechanical business racing to the the pre-concieved plot points, with worn out copies of syd field, bruce block, and robert mckee books stuffed down their pants.


Having a staff writer is always good. But it's secondary to a great story board artist with a solid idea of character and entertainment. In animation, Story Reels are more important than a screenplay. And no screenplay I've seen in animation has gotten to a better film faster than doing it that way. Screenplays in animation are outdated the moment the reels are up.

Anonymous said...

"Disney is still squeaking "Oilcan!" and it will take a bit to get back into fighting form."

What exactly do you see that "bit" consisting of?

I've seen this repeated more than a few times. Talk about scrambling for excuses.

This film was carefully prepared for. It had the great JL at its head-who chose/OK'd/had veto power over the story; was directed by the guys who've made probably the best comedic animated features of the last 30 years and had its pick of heavy hitting animators.

So what's up with the "they're kinda rusty" excuses? That's nonsense.

Frog became a mishmash of compromises and forced pandering to toy-buying kids hobbled by mommy focus groups. "Disney does princesses best"? Really?
Actually, NO one went to see Lion King, BatB, Mermaid or Aladdin because of any princess.

The blame lies far more with the men in the Team Disney building than the hat, but this is a disappointing result.

Anonymous said...

Slightly disappointing. Let's not put the nail in the coffin yet. PATF could easily make a ton of money the rest of the year, especially when kids get out of school.

Besides, while not spectacular, PATF was a solid movie.

Not as good as Bolt though, if you ask me, which is kind of surprising. Everything I hear is that Rapunzel is supposed to be really good.

... said...

Bolt sucked!

Anonymous said...

wow, what class.

I guess even trailer trash gets the internets.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it WAS pretty classless to put a two word response as tacky as Bolt Sucked.

I dont blame whoever it was for calling him out on it. Especially on a site where probably a third of the visitors worked on the movie, which, by the way, was very cute.

And Oscar nominated, I might add.

And one of the higher rated animated films in recent memory, especially for a non Pixar film.

So, I gotta wonder, who's more trashy, the person trolling and saying a film sucked, or the reply throwing it back in their face?

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