1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 - $17.4M - $254.6M
2. Skyfall - $17M - $246M
3. Lincoln - $13.5M - $83.6M
4. Rise of the Guardians - $13.5M - $48.9M
5. Life of Pi -$12M - $48.4M
6. Wreck-It Ralph - $7M - $158.2M
7. Killing Them Softly - $7M - $7M
8. Red Dawn - $6.5M - $31.3M
9. Flight - $4.5M - $81.5M
10. The Collection - $3.4M - $3.4M
A relatively light box office report this weekend with just two new wide
releases. Killing Them Softly and horror sequel, The Collection would
do battle with a very strong top three that had already managed to see
off the big flicks over Thanksgiving. Breaking Dawn 2 and Skyfall would
be looking to build upon their success, while Rise of the Guardians
hoped for a recovery after last weekend's disappointing debut. Ahead we
have comedy Playing For Keeps, followed by The Hobbit a week later.
With Breaking Dawn Part 2 tracking eerily similar to both its
predecessor and New Moon, analysts weren't expecting any surprises in
its performance in its third weekend on general release. By day 14, the
second Twilight feature was on $239.9M while BD 1 had just hit $230M -
in comparison, this final film had a gross of $237.1M. On Friday, the
finale to the Twilight series added $5.6M, down 68% on the same day last
weekend (The previous entry made $5.4M on its third Friday). Through
Saturday and into Sunday, it made another $11.8M, bringing its three day
total to $17.4M ($256M overall). Once again, BD2 was treading a
familiar path (New Moon made $15.4M during its third frame, BD1 saw
$16.5M), which is no bad thing really given how successful they ended up
being. We're still a long way off from knowing if this final part is
going to be the most successful one (It took Eclipse more than three
months to become the series' biggest) but even if it ends up falling
short, Breaking Dawn Part 2 will still be an incredibly profitable
release for Summit. Outside of North America, the film is up to $447.8M
and is now the best performing of the series internationally, surpassing
BD1's $430M finish in the last few days.
Domestically, Skyfall is now the biggest ever spy movie in history,
surpassing the final tally of any of the Mission: Impossible series and
every single film in the Bourne series (it overtook biggest grosser, The
Bourne Ultimatum on Thursday), not to mention being more successful
than any other James Bond film. After a slightly higher than expected
second frame drop, the picture recovered last weekend, making $35.5M and
dipping a tiny 14%. Skyfall continued to give Breaking Dawn 2 something
to worry about throughout this last week, with less than $500K
separating their Tuesday takings (there was even a chance it would
re-take the no.1 spot this frame). As we rolled upon the weekend,
Skyfall was sitting on a stunning $229M, with an outside chance of
hitting $250M by the end of play on Sunday. A decent Friday (Killing
Them Softly having almost no impact) saw the flick make $4.87M, as it
motored towards a fourth weekend total of $17M (a fall of 52% on its
last frame). That gives the 23rd Bond film an overall total of $246M and
puts it as sixth biggest earner of 2012. Overseas Skyfall is
approaching $600M, giving it a global total some way north of $800M.
Acclaimed drama Lincoln continues to impress, even with no further
expansion this frame. Last weekend it actually increased its takings on
the previous one by a staggering 22% and managed to recoup it $65M
production budget on Tuesday, day 19 of its release. Word of mouth
remains incredibly strong and that in turn is attracting a wider
audience. On Friday, Lincoln held firm in third place, managing $4M, on
its way to a strong weekend finish of $13.5M. The film has now grossed
$83.6M, making it Spielberg's biggest domestic release since Kingdom of
the Crystal Skull. At this point, $100M is a certainty even with the
glut of new releases due from mid-December.
It was hard for anyway to deny that Rise of the Guardian's opening
wasn't anything but a disappointment. Making less in five days than Puss
in Boots and Megamind made in three, Guardians stumbled to a $32.3M
total ($23.7M for just the weekend). That put it amongst the lowest
opening Dreamworks releases, little better than Flushed Away (which
finished domestically below $65M). The fantasy, about Santa, The Tooth
Fairy and others protecting the world from The Nightmare King, dropped
further down the chart during the week, not clearing $1M on any week day
except for Friday. While family films generally do take a hit during
the week, it's not usually to this kind of degree - Wreck-It Ralph
averaged $2.8M during its first Monday to Thursday on release. With no
fresh competition, Guardians should have had the family market all to
itself (the aforementioned Ralph aside, which was now in its fifth
frame) but could only manage a weak $2.9M on its second Friday, down an
incredibly high 68% on the same day last week. While it saw a boost on
Saturday, it still finished its second weekend with a disappointing
$13.5M. That brings Rise of the Guardians' overall total to a somewhat
worrying $48.5M, and leaves it with an incredible amount of work to do
over the festive period, not to mention a heavy reliance on its overseas
performance.
Last weekend's new releases were something of a mixed bag. While Rise of
the Guardians was the ultimate winner, it was Life of Pi that impressed
the most. Not an easy sell, Pi got off to a bumpy start on the
Wednesday but by Sunday had performed some way beyond expectations,
finishing up with a five day total of $30.5M. By Monday it had already
pushed ahead of the Dreamworks animated release and saw it's best day on
Tuesday, when it made $1.78M. By its second Thursday, Life of Pi was
sitting on $36.3M but with another drama (Killing Them Softly) entering
the fray, things looked to be getting tougher. On its second Friday, Pi
managed $3.6M (a high fall of 63%) and discovered it was Lincoln and not
the the Brad Pitt starrer that caused it more trouble. It recovered
well to finish with a second weekend figure of $12M (an overall drop of
46%, excluding the Thanksgiving figures), which is probably higher than
the studio would have liked but still not bad. After 12 days, Life of Pi
has made $48.3M, and should play well over the holiday period,
providing it isn't pushed out of theatres by the likes of The Hobbit and
Jack Reacher.
Wreck-It Ralph is still going strong even with having to share the
market with Rise of the Guardians. This frame it made $7M, bringing its
overall total to $158.2M. A finish of around $175M is on the cards, but
could rise higher if Ralph remains in a substantial number of theatres
over the Christmas period.
Our first new release this weekend is Killing Them Softly, which stars
Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta and Richard Jenkins. The plot
sees a couple of low-rung criminals deciding to rob a mob-controlled
card game, figuring no one will suspect them given that the guy in
charge of the game (Liotta) had already robbed one previously. But the
mob aren't going to take it lying down and hire ruthless enforcer Jackie
Cogan (Pitt) to get to the bottom of the situation and bring about
swift retribution. Set against a background of economic turmoil in
America, Cogan soon discovers not even he (or the mob) is immune to the
cost cutting affecting the country, but that a job still has to be done
regardless. The film is based on the 1974 novel, Cogan's Trade by George
V. Higgins and was adapted for the screen by writer/director Andrew
Dominik. Dominik shot to fame thanks to his violent black comedy debut,
Chopper (which starred Eric Bana) before teaming up with Pitt and Casey
Affleck for the acclaimed Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward
Robert Ford. Work began on what was originally called Cogan's Trade back
in 2010, and by November of that year, the film was announced as a
go-project, with early rumours suggesting Pitt would re-team with
Dominik to take on the lead role. Those stories were confirmed a month
later when the actor officially joined the picture (the director stated
that Pitt agreed to star during a text message exchange which took just
30 minutes). Further casting was announced in early 2011 with the movie
set to commence shooting in March, primarily in Louisiana.
Having had running time issues with the studio over Jesse James, it
looked as though history was set to repeat when the original cut of this
new picture clocked in at over two and half hours. However Dominik
continued to work on the project, eventually resulting in a very tight
97 minute cut. Cogan's Trade became Killing Them Softly just prior to
receiving its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. The
Weinstein Company originally had a September release date in place but
pushed the flick back to avoid Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master
(Killing Them Softly has already seen release in Australia, Russia and a
number of other territories, including the UK, where it made $4M).
Early reviews were very positive and while it continued to collect
strong notices over the last week (it is currently 79% fresh at Rotten
Tomatoes) its marketing campaign was distinctly low key. On Friday, it
could manage only a sixth place showing, making a poor $2.5M. Critics
may have liked it but the public detested Killing Them Softly, awarding
it the near-unheard of 'F' Cinemascore (previous 'F' rated movies
include The Devil Inside and Silent House). That meant word of mouth
going forward into Saturday was as bad as it could possibly be and
combined with competition from the still popular Skyfall and Lincoln,
saw the flick earn just $5.5M more, giving it a lowly three day total of
$7M. Thankfully, this wasn't an expensive film to bring to screens,
with its budget rumoured to be around $15M, but it is no less a
disappointment. The only (minor) saving grace for Killing Them Softly is
the single release next weekend, which means it should see at least one
more frame in the top ten, though how much good that will do the
picture, is negligible. [According to Box Office Guru, aside from
animation and limited releases, this is Pitt's worst live action opening
for 14 years]
Having sat on the shelf for two years, Red Dawn finally opened over
Thanksgiving to a half decent $21.6M. Both reviews and subsequent word
of mouth had been very poor and takings dipped to just $667K on
Thursday. With competition from Skyfall and Killing Them Softly (plus
The Collection to a lesser degree), the Chris Hemsworth flick dropped
66% on its second Friday on release, making $2M. By Sunday evening,
there was little to write home about, with Red Dawn seeing a second
frame total of $6.5M (an overall fall of 54%, which wasn't as bad as it
could have been). A domestic finish of around $45M is on the cards,
leaving the studio to hope that Chris Hemsworth's appeal abroad will
shore up any domestic shortcomings.
Flight manages another weekend in the top ten. The Denzel Washington
drama added another $4.5M over the last three days, bringing its
cumulative gross to $81.5M. There's still an outside chance it will
clear $100M, a task it may have found easier had it been at more
locations initially (at its peak, Flight was 2,638 theatres but opened
at 1,800) but even if it falls short, this is still a resounding success
for all concerned, and a great return to live action for Robert
Zemeckis.
The only other major release this weekend was horror sequel, The
Collection, a follow up to the July 2009 cult hit The Collector. In the
original film, a thief breaks into a house only to discover The
Collector, a vicious serial killer, is already there and has set up a
number of horrific traps, some of which have already been sprung on the
unfortunate residents. The thief faced a race against time to get the
family's young daughter to safety without falling foul of the deadly
devices and The Collector himself. The picture actually began life as
The Midnight Man, and at one point was proposed as a prequel to the Saw
series, but that idea was quickly abandoned. Opening in 2009 at 1,325
theatres, the $4M budgeted horror went on to make just under $8M
domestically with another million or so dollars coming from its DVD
release. With only minor success, writer Patrick Melton (who co-scripted
the final four Saw movies) was taken aback when producers approached
him to write a follow up. Deals were hammered out and a sequel, The
Collection, began shooting in October 2010. Melton and co-writer Marcus
Dunstan would return, with the later once again acting as director. The
story this time around would see the daughter of a wealthy businessman
kidnapped by the Collector and kept in his maze-like hotel full of
brutal traps and devices. The father decides to hire a group of
mercenaries to rescue her, and blackmails the only man to escape The
Collector's deadly grasp to lead them. Curiously for a horror flick, The
Collection was screened for critics, with 44% of them finding something
they liked about it. On Friday, at 1,403 theatres, the picture managed
to just about crack the top ten with $1.1M, about $200K weaker than its
predecessor. Over the remainder of the frame The Collection added a
further $2.3M, to give it a 3-day total of $3.4M. It's unlikely we'll
see the film in the top ten again even with just the one new release
next weekend, but there's every chance it will enjoy a decent return on
the home market.
Finally this weekend, Argo managed to cross the $100M barrier, becoming
the first Affleck-directed feature to achieve such a feat.
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