The Nikkster informs us that three animated features reside in the Top Seven.
1. Twilight Saga’s Breaking Dawn Part 1 (Summit) Week 2 [4,066 Theaters] Wednesday $12.5M, Estimated 5-Day Holiday $58M
2. The Muppets (Disney) NEW [3,440 Theaters] Wednesday $7.3M, Estimated 5-Day Holiday $50M
3. Happy Feet Two 3D (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,606 Theaters] Wednesday $3M, Estimated 5-Day Holiday $23M
4. Arthur Christmas 3D (Sony Pictures) NEW [3,376 Theaters] Wednesday $2.8M, Estimated 5-Day Holiday $22M
5. Immortals 3D (Relativity) Week 3 [3,120 Theaters] Wednesday $2.2M, Estimated 5-Day Holiday $15M
6. Jack & Jill (Sony) Week 3 [3,438 Theaters] Wednesday $2.1M, Estimated 5-Day Holiday $15M
7. Puss In Boots 3D (DreamWorks Animation/Par) Week 5 [3,005 Theaters] Wednesday $2M, Estimated 5-Day Holiday $15M
8. Hugo 3D (Paramount) NEW [1,277 Theaters] Wednesday $1.6M, Estimated 5-Day Holiday $11M
9. Tower Heist (Universal) Week 4 [2,474 Theaters] Wednesday $1.4M, Estimated 5-Day Holiday $10M
10. The Descendants (Fox Searchlight) Week 2 [390 Theaters] Wednesday $1MK, Estimated 5-Day Holiday $8M
If the figures hold, the kitty in the hat will be head-bumping $140-142 million when the weekend comes to an end. And the new contestants HappyFeet 2 and Arthur Christmas will be performing okay, but certainly no blowing anybody's socks off.
Add On: The Times reports that the puppets and doing well, but the big, Christmasy animated feature, not so much:
... The weekend's biggest disappointment so far is "Arthur Christmas." Sony Pictures' animated film, made in collaboration with Britain's Aardman Animations, took in only $4.3 million its first two days in theaters. The well-reviewed film, which cost approximately $100 million to produce, will gross about $15 million by Sunday. ...
Sony just can't catch any updrafts with its bull-bore, animated offerings.
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11 comments:
Actually the Nickster is way off on some of the films. Box Office Mojo and other sources have the Muppets at 6.6 mil on Wednesday, with a possible take of 40 million over the 5-day. Arthur Christmas got a 2.4 with maybe 20 million take. Here's a link to the info: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?view=1day&sortdate=2011-11-23&p=.htm
I hope Arthur picks up steam. It's a really charming entertaining movie. Muppets, on the other hand, was a feast for nostalgia fans, but as a film, a bit of a mess.
According to Finke, the way HF2 is tanking is leading to 600 layoffs at Dr. D Studios (I can't believe that a lot of these layoffs started happening as production finished, and were scheduled regardless of how HF2 performed, but it still sounds horrible).
The fact that Arthur Christmas in its first weekend can't even top HF2 in its second is pretty dire. I wish you were right, Steve, that these two films are doing 'okay,' but they are both looking like they'll be massive bombs, at least relative to their production and marketing costs.
Aardman box office track record is usually disappointing. Sony track record too. Both companies combined equals double box office disappointment.
Lesson: Two negatives doesn't make one positive.
The good news about Arthur Christmas failing is that it probably means Sarah Smith won't get the chance to abuse another animation crew. Now she can go back to mucking about in second-rate Brit TV, where her pathological personality and overblown ego is a good fit.
It's interesting to read the interviews with Sarah Smith and the Peter Baynham (the guy who came up with the original idea for the film).
Baynham told Smith he had perhaps the best idea he would ever have for a clean family film—how exactly did Santa pull off the delivery of at least 2 billion gifts to children around the world in only 12 hours?
SARAH: [Peter] had the idea of really sitting down and seeing what it would take to deliver two billion presents to six hundred and fifty million people in a modern world complete with air traffic control, radar and complex modern cities in ten hours. He had the idea of this covert military style operation with an giant army of highly trained crack elves and a great big base.
It's strikes me that this isn't a very novel idea (there is hardly a child anywhere who celebrates Christmas who hasn't though of the improbability of millions of home visits in a single night by Santa), but it's also a magic-killing idea, and one that kids quickly put out of their minds. The moment you consciously consider it is the moment the magic drains out of the whole Santa/present giving story.
Most stories that involve Santa smartly gloss over the logistics issue, because it's not interesting to people who want to get excited about Christmas. Why pull the magical/mysterious/joyous aspects of Santa into a glorified version of a gigantic military operation?
Let's face it, Aardman gets short films. They don't seem to get features.
And SPA can't decide what they want to do, so they flail around and change directions with every film they make.
--> "And SPA can't decide what they want to do, so they flail around and change directions with every film they make."
If only all of their films were made from properties that are owned by Amy Pascal, like Cloudy/Meatballs was. It makes the decision-making so much easier when you are directly lining the pockets of your boss with cash! It's good to be Queen....
I think lining the pockets of your boss with cash is the reason most of us get to work as animators! You think the Pixar animators aren't lining the pockets of Lasseter, Catmull, and (before he died) Jobs? You think the animators at DreamWorks aren't making Katzenberg rich? It's good to be the king or the queen wherever you are.
Funny thing is, that Amy Pascal property you're snarking about is the closest SPA has gotten to a real success.
Cloudy was a great film, and sonys best by far....looking forward to the sequel.
-- I think lining the pockets of your boss with cash is the reason most of us get to work as animators!
I believe that the point regarding Amy Pascal was that she independently owned the film rights to Cloudy, and that she then "double-dipped" by having a company that she is in charge of (SPA) put that film into production.
This is different in kind than Pixar or DWA purchasing film rights from an independent entity for something to be made within their respective studios.
When John Lasseter greenlights a movie he conceived of and he wrote and he will direct, what's that? Triple dipping? When Katzenberg decides to make a film that he conceived of Spirit), what is that?
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