Wednesday 9 February 2011

U.S Box Office Report - 7th - 9th July 2006

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - $132M - $132M
2. Superman Returns - $21.9M - $142M
3. The Devil Wears Prada - $15.6M - $63.7M
4. Click - $12M - $106M
5. Cars - $10.3M - $206M
6. Nacho Libre - $3.34M - $73.8M
7. The Lake House - $2.85M - $45.6M
8. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - $2.5M - $57.4M
9. Waist Deep - $1.86M - $19.2M
10. The Break-Up - $1.6M - $114M


Pirates of the Caribbean 2 sails straight to the top of the chart and breaks a number of records doing so. Once Friday estimates where in on Saturday evening we knew that it had taken Revenge of The Sith's single day record of $50M, set May 2005 (P2 cleared $55m+). But the big question was whether it would take Spiderman's three day record - it has, and with room to spare.

Pirates 2 has bested the long standing Spiderman record by over $18M. It's also become the fastest ever movie to take more than $100M, which it did in just 2 days. Finally breaking the summer 2006 curse, Pirates seems to be only one of a handful of big movie to have performed better than estimates. I'd hazard a guess that these records will stay in place until Spiderman 3 next May.

The next record in its sights is the $200M one - this time set by Spiderman 2, which hit the mark in just 8 days. With next to no major competition next weekend, expect Pirates to keep on packing in audiences. It might suffer a bigger than expected drop next weekend with so many people seeing the movie this week, but it's success is pretty much assured. Expect to see the movie all but cover the costs of Pirates 2 & 3 by the end of its domestic run. It's also a shoe-in that the third movie next summer will perform equally well. As an aside, the Saturday total ranks as the 5th single biggest day of any movie!

Second place is another story. Having been open 2 weeks by this coming Tuesday night, Superman Returns has only taken $8M more than Pirates of the Caribbean 2 has achieved in the three days. The movie faced a huge drop off from an unspectacular total last weekend and it's all that Warner's can do now to hope the movie stands up stronger in foreign territories. At the present rate the movie is going to struggle to even make sight of $200M. A disappointment for all concerned, but more so in the case of Superman, given the strong reviews and word of the mouth the movie has been receiving.

Losing a respectable 43% from last week, The Devil Wears Prada continues to work well as alternative programming, suffering a little this week from the added appeal of Johnny Depp & Orlando Bloom. The movie has already recouped its production budget and given that it's original opening weekend estimate turned out to be closer to what the movie took in its second weekend, no one will be disappointed.

Click holds steady and crosses the $100M mark this weekend. While it may not finish as high as last year's "The Longest Yard" it is certainly digging in for the long haul. Expect the movie to finish up with around $130M in the coffers. The movie is yet to open in a number of foreign markets and could easily see another $100M.

After a lower than expected opening, Cars has refused to go down without a fight and crosses the $200M mark this weekend, becoming only the third movie this year to do so. It will end its domestic run as Pixar's 5th most successful movie in the US.

Nacho Libre clears $70M and in its fourth week begins to shed screens in large numbers (down 820 from last weekend). The movie should finish around $80M and find strong DVD sales waiting for it.

The Lake House & Tokyo Drift are separated by just $400,000. Like Nacho, Tokyo Drift lost a large number of screens this weekend, but the Lake House shed just 225. This could be studios feeling that Tokyo & Nacho's fans would all be seeing Pirates 2 this weekend while the Lake House could still pick up some of the older female demographic who felt Pirates wasn't for them.

The top ten is rounded out by the limited released Waist Deep, closing in on $20M, and comedy The Break Up, both movies seeing their last weekend on the charts. The films have been very successful in their own way, with The Break Up being something of a major summer sleeper.

Finally, opening in a limited release this weekend, the rotoscoped, Philip K Dick adaptation, A Scanner Darkly, saw a very strong return per screen, 2nd highest of any movie in the top 30. The movie was released on just 17 screens and saw an average taking over $20,000 per location. Expect it to open on further screens in the coming weeks.

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