Saturday 17 May 2014

15th May 2014 - Godzilla roars on opening....


Godzilla has easily topped the box office on it's opening day in Australia taking over 67% of the business for the day.  Godzilla managed to open with a 1.3m USD opening day which is the 3rd biggest of 2014 behind The Amazing Spider-man 2 (1.44m USD) and Captain America 2 (~ 1.4m USD).    This should put Godzilla on track for a opening well above 5m.  Especially given TASM 2's 2014 high opening days was during holidays and directly before Easter while, Godzilla has opened while school is on.  For comparison, the 1998 Roland Emerich debacle opened to 2,473,606  AUD.  It appears the new Godzilla should more than double that films opening which went on to make 13.5m AUD.  Of course the 1998 Godzilla opened over the Queens Birthday weekend and was helped by the holiday weekend.  Of note, the 1998 version adjusts to 4.1m which is a good sign for the new version.

The good result for Godzilla 2014 can be attributed to a great marketing campaign which marketed the film as more of a disaster film (like Emerich's other blockbuster films which is kinda funny) than a monster film.

Monday 12 May 2014

Weekend Results 7th to 11th May : Bad Neighbours explodes onto the big screen..... Chef dishes up a miss

After previewing last weekend with a very strong 2.6m, Bad Neighbours pulled in an impressive 4.7m on 393 screens.  Neighbours also pulled in a nice 51m stateside.

Weekend Results 1st to 4th May : May the 4th be with you all....

Time to update things.

May the 4th weekend saw 5 new releases enter the top 20 alongside 2 films in preview.  The only truly wide new release this weekend belonged to Bad Neighbours  which previewed on a very wide 296 screens.  Neighbours as it is called stateside pulled in 2.6m and top spot for the weekend.

Thursday 24 April 2014

Easter Results: 17th to 20th April 2014 - Spider-man spins his web while the other woman proves to be a formidable opponent

The Amazing Spider-man 2 opened to a strong 5.3m over the East weekend.  TASM 2 as it is sometimes called failed to out open the original film from 2 years ago which managed 5.5m.

Monday 14 April 2014

Weekend Results: 10th to 13th April 2014 - Lego Movie builds a lead over Captain America while Divergent can only manage bronze......

This weekend saw 3 films open wide, but none of them were able to tip the top 2 films from their perch.  Last weekends runner up, The Lego Movie managed to hold an impressive 10% on it's way for a further 5.2m and 14.5m running total.

Monday 7 April 2014

Weekend Results 3rd to 6th April 2014: The Lego Movie builds a strong start but The Winter Soldier takes the weekend...

As expected, Captain America: The Winter Soldier opened to very strong numbers over the weekend.  CA2 took in over 6m which is some 32% higher opening over the original film from 2011. Of course, captain this time around, had the much hyped "Avengers" effect, which clearly helped to a much improved result.

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Blog updated and tided up.  Added sections to right for Charts and Showdowns.  (Removing the need to have all links across the top now - much cleaner).

Also have now compiled the all time chart (top 100) and added a link to it.  :)

Monday 31 March 2014

Easter Releases - Upcoming

Well it's now only 3 weeks away from the Easter weekend and most state are taking their school holidays prior to Easter.

Weekend Results: 27th to 30th March 2014 - Noah sets sail while Mr Peabody is in the doghouse

After a weak number of a weeks at the box office, theatre owners finally had something to crow about. Noah, the controversial version of the story based upon the old testament, managed to open at 4.5m.

Saturday 29 March 2014

Weekend Results 20th to 23rd March 2014: Monuments holds onto the top, after the openers fail to arrive

This weekend saw the wide opening of 4 films (with 3 over 100 screen counts), but you would not have known it. The Monuments Men stood proud over a very weak weekend as the only film to make more than 1m this weekend.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Weekend Results 13th to 16th March 2014: Most find the monuments while Need for Speed misses the accelerator....

This week saw the opening of 2 films with The Monuments Men surprisingly leading the weekend with a strong 2.3m.  Monuments opened to 22m back in early February in the US.  The result was middling at best.  Something that i didn't see being replicated here.  Need for Speed on the other hand couldn't even touch the sides of the openings that the similar Fast and Furious series has pulled here.  NFS managed to open to only 1.5m.  This was well below the expected results and I am sure like the US the studio wanted more.  Given it's much lower cost than the before mention Fast serious, NFS can't be considered a flop, but a serious dissappointment it is.  Lets hope Divergent can fill the gap that this has left.

Last weekends leader 300: rise of an empire dipped a high 50% for a running total just short of 6m.  It now already lies some 4m short at the same point from the original film. In fact at this rate, it will be lucky if it even gets close to 10m which would have been a total this film was gunning for before it opened.  Non-Stop dipped a further 40% for a 4.5m total.  Vampire Academy dropped 45% for a not surprisingly weak 1.3m.

Top 20:

TW LW Movie Rating Distributor Weekend Gross % Change Screen Count / Change Average Total Gross Week #
1 N The Monuments Men M Fox  $ 2,319,102 323 $7,180  $ 2,520,352 1
2 1 300: Rise of Empire MA15+ Warner Bros  $ 1,586,801 -50.0% 467 0 $3,398  $ 5,960,525 2
3 N Need for Speed M Dreamworks  $ 1,513,581 457 $3,312  $ 1,528,726 1
4 2 Non-Stop M Studiocanal  $ 648,511 -39.3% 235 -18 $2,760  $ 4,520,352 3
5 3 Vampire Academy M Studiocanal  $ 400,736 -44.5% 164 2 $2,444  $ 1,329,858 2
6 4 12 Years a Slave MA15+ Icon  $ 381,851 -38.1% 209 -15 $1,827  $ 6,719,439 7
7 5 The Wolf of Wall Street R18+ Roadshow  $ 329,088 -43.4% 112 -55 $2,938  $ 22,570,968 8
8 6 Tracks M Paramount  $ 313,527 -43.6% 203 2 $1,544  $ 1,458,250 2
9 7 Wolf Creek 2 MA15+ Roadshow  $ 248,316 -51.2% 177 -31 $1,403  $ 4,460,540 4
10 9 The Dallas Buyers Club MA15+ Pinnacle  $ 232,700 -32.7% 78 -7 $2,983  $ 2,208,972 5
11 8 Lone Survivor MA15+ Disney  $ 139,092 -66.5% 125 -96 $1,113  $ 3,905,738 4
12 10 Last Vegas M Universal  $ 119,800 -59.0% 113 -65 $1,060  $ 6,627,158 6
13 11 Robocop M Sony  $ 71,293 -63.9% 60 -72 $1,188  $ 6,985,937 5
14 14 Le Week-End M Paramount  $ 68,900 -33.8% 55 1 $1,253  $ 854,004 4
15 13 Are we officially dating? MA15+ Studiocanal  $ 60,577 -50.6% 38 -36 $1,594  $ 2,551,721 5
16 18 The Wind Rises PG Madman  $ 51,767 -33.8% 10 0 $5,177  $ 364,164 3
17 N Generation Iron M Madman  $ 51,482 14 $3,677  $ 57,682 1
18 N The Armstrong Lie M Sony  $ 47,787 8 $5,973  $ 53,754 1
19 19 Nebraska M Roadshow  $ 41,883 -42.0% 36 -5 $1,163  $ 548,708 4
20 17 The Book Thief PG Fox  $ 39,098 -59.2% 30 -32 $1,303  $ 13,911,070 10

Monday 10 March 2014

Weekend Results 6th to 10th March: 300 Rises but falls well short of par....

300: Rise of the Empire opened over the weekend managing a reasonable 3.2m.  However to put this opening in context, the original film "300" opened to a then impressive 5.3m (6.4m 5 day) opening over the easter weekend.  Given that film was some 7 years ago now, this opening is not completely surprising.  Rise did have 3D as a addition this time around, but it did not help the film at all.  Still it's not a complete wash with over a 3m opening weekend.  I did expect more with the film making it past 4m at least on opening weekend.  To make matters worse, 300 Rise of the empire cornered 467 screens, the widest release so far this year (excluding 2013 carryover films) which left it with a disappointing 7k average running at less than half the average the original film saw in 2007.  (I admit that 300 was only on 337 screens, but this is a substantial drop off).

If the film wasn't oscar driven they took a big hit this weekend.  Last weekends number 1 film, Non-Stop dipped a standard 43% for a running total of nearly 3.5m.  Wolf Creek 2 bled 50% and passed a 4m total.  Wolf Creek 2 continues to run at the same pace as the original and should wind up close to or just past the 6m mark. The wolf of wall street also slipped 35% and is now just shy of 22m.  bucking the trend was the best film winner 12 years a slave, increasing by 25%.  12 Years has now managed to make 6m in it's short in cinemas.  Also in the 5, opening in 3rd place, Vampire Academy, did a lot better than expected and while no doubt this film is a bomb, it somehow found an audience here garnering over 700k.

No film in the top 10 made an average over 10k this week, but down in 15th spot saw the opening of the Philopino hit "Starting over again" on only 7 screens.  Thanks to it's strong average of 15k (something that 300 Rise so wanted), it made over 100k for the weekend.

The coming weekend sees a day and date release with the US of the latest video game movie.  Need for Speed is finally hitting cinemas in what should be an interesting run.  NFS is very similar to the fast & furious franchise in that both films are about fast cars.  NFS however over the years has built a large fanbase of gamers.  How that will translate at the box office is anyone's guess.  Not only that, but this film also has the fact that it shares so much in common with the Fast & Furious films. This could also be a curse.  But given the Fast franchise is essentially on hold at the moment, this film could capatilise.  Currently I am forecasting a 3m opening weekend, but would not be shocked if it went much higher but i'm not seeing that here as such.

EDIT - 
Frozen is missing from the chart below.  I'm not going to edit the chart at this point but i think it made around 200k for the weekend.

The top 20 looks like:

TW LW Movie Rating Distributor Weekend Gross % Change Screen Count / Change Average Total Gross Week #
1 N 300: Rise of Empire MA15+ Warner Bros  $ 3,170,506 467 $6,789  $ 3,201,823 1
2 1 Non-Stop M Studiocanal  $ 1,068,406 -42.8% 253 7 $4,223  $ 3,478,014 2
3 N Vampire Academy M Studiocanal  $ 721,976 162 $4,457  $ 721,976 1
4 7 12 Years a Slave MA15+ Icon  $ 617,273 24.6% 224 64 $2,756  $ 6,047,058 6
5 3 The Wolf of Wall Street R18+ Roadshow  $ 581,624 -35.2% 167 -61 $3,483  $ 21,998,538 7
6 N Tracks M Paramount  $ 555,600 201 $2,764  $ 855,286 1
7 2 Wolf Creek 2 MA15+ Roadshow  $ 508,839 -49.6% 208 -10 $2,446  $ 4,025,247 3
8 4 Lone Survivor MA15+ Disney  $ 415,163 -53.7% 221 -9 $1,879  $ 3,610,044 3
9 10 The Dallas Buyers Club MA15+ Pinnacle  $ 345,934 23.8% 85 9 $4,070  $ 1,834,261 4
10 5 Last Vegas M Universal  $ 291,970 -51.1% 178 -55 $1,640  $ 6,379,407 5
11 6 Robocop M Sony  $ 197,584 -60.7% 132 -62 $1,497  $ 6,842,306 4
12 8 3 Days to Kill M Roadshow  $ 194,261 -59.8% 163 0 $1,192  $ 841,431 2
13 9 Are we officially dating? MA15+ Studiocanal  $ 122,731 -58.6% 74 -87 $1,659  $ 2,442,615 4
14 11 Le Week-End M Paramount  $ 104,064 -47.4% 54 -5 $1,927  $ 732,277 3
15 N Starting over again M ABS-CBN  $ 101,909 7 $14,558  $ 101,909 1
16 N National Theatre Live: War Horse EX Sharmill  $ 96,816 34 $2,848  $ 96,816 1
17 13 The Book Thief PG Fox  $ 95,774 -46.8% 62 -30 $1,545  $ 13,809,204 9
18 18 The Wind Rises PG Madman  $ 78,186 -32.8% 10 1 $7,819  $ 270,606 2
19 17 Nebraska M Roadshow  $ 72,269 -40.8% 41 -4 $1,763  $ 468,822 3
20 16 Philomena M Hopscotch  $ 62,795 -49.3% 65 -50 $966  $ 11,211,688 11

Thursday 6 March 2014

Weekend Results 27th Feb to 2nd March 2014 - Non-Stop takes the lead over the oscar weekend

The new Liam Neeson film Non-Stop has easily taken the top spot from Wolf Creek 2 with a total of 1.9m.  The Australian horror franchise film Wolf Creek 2 managed a 40% dip from it's average opening weekend.  It now has 3.2m in the kitty.  The total is slightly ahead of it's predecessor thanks to it's larger opening weekend. Still it has a small way to go before it can pass the first film.  The oscar weekend helped a number of films in the top 20 with The wolf of wall street managing a 15% dip this weekend.  The wolf now has over 21m which is easily the biggest R18+ rated film in australian history.  WOWs should go on to pass 25m at this rate and if it continues holds in this vicinity a total approaching 30m is possible.  Lone Survivor dipped 40% for a total just shy of 3m.  Last Vegas rounded out the 5 with a total of 6m.

Also opening over the weekend was 3 Days to Kill which could only manage 483k on 163 screens.  The generic Taken lookalike without the hook just didn't click with audiences here like in the US only a week earlier.  Of bigger interest to Hayao Miyazaki fans, his latest effort opened on 9 screens to an impressive 116k.

Other films that benefited from the oscars were 12 Years a slave (+20%), Dallas buyers club (+1%), and Gravity (-12%) and still in the top 20 after 22 weeks.  I expect that 12 years a slave and Gravity to benefit the most from the oscars with both films picking up the most gongs (Gravity the most including best director with 12 years a slave in 2nd including best picture).    Gravity's increase may be muted however due the fact the Blueray has been released in the past week.

This weekend coming is the release of the 300 sequel which we are getting 1 day earlier than stateside.  The original film made a strong 5.3m (6.4m long weekend) over the easter weekend in 2007.  This time, 300 does not have the support of holiday weekend and opens in the middle of school / uni time.  The original film had a strong run winding up with over 14m.  An opening above 5m and we are ship shape.  Anything under 4m and things aren't so rosie.  I'm expecting an opening around 4.5m. with enough legs to pass 12m.

Here is last weekends top 20:

TW LW Movie Rating Distributor Weekend Gross % Change Screen Count / Change Average Total Gross Week #
1 N Non-Stop M Studiocanal  $ 1,869,355 246 $7,599  $ 1,869,355 1
2 1 Wolf Creek 2 MA15+ Roadshow  $ 1,009,865 -39.9% 218 2 $4,632  $ 3,242,765 2
3 3 The Wolf of Wall Street R18+ Roadshow  $ 898,128 -15.4% 228 -79 $3,939  $ 21,101,674 6
4 2 Lone Survivor MA15+ Disney  $ 897,446 -39.6% 230 -29 $3,902  $ 2,925,509 2
5 4 Last Vegas M Universal  $ 596,913 -26.4% 233 -14 $2,562  $ 5,929,187 4
6 5 Robocop M Sony  $ 503,117 -37.0% 194 -30 $2,593  $ 6,510,591 4
7 7 12 Years a Slave MA15+ Icon  $ 495,218 19.7% 160 2 $3,095  $ 5,100,811 5
8 N 3 Days to Kill M Roadshow  $ 483,428 163 $2,966  $ 483,428 1
9 6 Are we officially dating? MA15+ Studiocanal  $ 296,247 -34.8% 161 -13 $1,840  $ 2,228,903 3
10 9 The Dallas Buyers Club MA15+ Pinnacle  $ 279,384 1.7% 76 6 $3,676  $ 1,329,733 3
11 11 Le Week-End M Paramount  $ 198,008 -13.3% 59 0 $3,356  $ 560,056 2
12 8 Endless Love M Universal  $ 189,842 -52.7% 174 -32 $1,091  $ 1,990,562 3
13 10 The Book Thief PG Fox  $ 180,039 -34.0% 92 -49 $1,957  $ 13,647,507 8
14 12 Frozen PG Disney  $ 156,542 -27.8% 134 -27 $1,168  $ 34,769,871 10
15 N Shaadi Ke Side Effects M Eros  $ 145,487 23 $6,326  $ 145,487 1
16 13 Philomena M Hopscotch  $ 123,755 -31.4% 115 -30 $1,076  $ 11,078,221 10
17 15 Nebraska M Roadshow  $ 122,082 -13.3% 45 2 $2,713  $ 339,277 2
18 N The Wind Rises PG Madman  $ 116,392 9 $12,932  $ 144,648 1
19 N Met Opera: Rusalka EX Sharmill  $ 88,604 31 $2,858  $ 88,604 1
20 20 Gravity M Warner Bros  $ 74,839 -12.0% 43 -3 $1,740  $ 21,920,676 22

Tuesday 25 February 2014

Weekend Results: 20th to 23rd February 2014 - Mick Taylor brings on another Gorefest...

As expected, Wolf Creek 2 opened on top of the charts over the weekend, handily eclipsing the the first film by 37% on it's first full weekend with a total of 1.7m. The original film of course went onto make 6m.  Wolf Creek 2 does have a slightly advantage given that it's only MA15+ rated against the original films rating of R18+.  Right behind Wolf Creek 2, was american war film, Lone Survivor with 1.5m.  Last weekends leader The Wolf of Wall Street, fell to 3rd with a further 1.1m and a total of nearly 20m.  The wolf has had an amazing run and looks to finish in the mid 20m's at this point.  4th was Last Vegas down 46% with Robocop rounding out the top 5 now with with a running total of 5.8m.

As expected, most films took a dive after the bump that most films received from Valentines Day.  Of note, Gravity just doesn't seem to want to go away, with it re-entering the top 20 this week (it's 21st week in the chart) and now with a running total of 21.8m.  Lastly, Moshi Monsters The Movie, attempted to bring the world of moshi monsters to life but only succeeded in scaring audiences away instead. Moshi somehow scored 119 screens but barely managed to scrape into the top 20 with a woeful average of only 717.  Still it's not a complete wash given it only cost 1.5m pounds and no doubt will already have made it's money make in the UK.

Top 20:

TW LW Movie Rating Distributor Weekend Gross % Change Screen Count / Change Average Total Gross Week #
1 N Wolf Creek 2 MA15+ Roadshow  $ 1,681,636 216 $7,785  $ 1,702,073 1
2 N Lone Survivor MA15+ Disney  $ 1,485,667 259 $5,736  $ 1,534,293 1
3 1 The Wolf of Wall Street R18+ Roadshow  $ 1,061,828 -46.8% 307 -23 $3,459  $ 19,857,330 5
4 3 Last Vegas M Universal  $ 810,959 -45.9% 247 -12 $3,283  $ 5,058,199 3
5 2 Robocop M Sony  $ 799,147 -52.5% 224 -3 $3,568  $ 5,795,834 3
6 5 Are we officially dating? MA15+ Studiocanal  $ 454,360 -52.7% 174 3 $2,611  $ 1,773,963 2
7 6 12 Years a Slave MA15+ Icon  $ 413,758 -30.9% 158 17 $2,619  $ 4,433,619 4
8 4 Endless Love M Universal  $ 401,027 -62.8% 206 -11 $1,947  $ 1,688,288 2
9 9 The Dallas Buyers Club MA15+ Pinnacle  $ 274,669 -31.9% 70 11 $3,924  $ 941,162 2
10 8 The Book Thief PG Fox  $ 272,632 -37.9% 141 -40 $1,934  $ 13,362,268 7
11 N Le Week-End M Paramount  $ 228,339 59 $3,870  $ 254,415 1
12 10 Frozen PG Disney  $ 216,870 -39.6% 161 -25 $1,347  $ 34,576,657 9
13 12 Philomena M Hopscotch  $ 180,446 -40.0% 145 -21 $1,244  $ 10,859,563 9
14 7 Winter's Tale M Warner Bros  $ 166,244 -69.9% 155 -2 $1,073  $ 861,545 2
15 N Nebraska M Roadshow  $ 140,863 43 $3,276  $ 143,170 1
16 14 Saving Mr. Banks PG Disney  $ 107,450 -28.3% 36 -54 $2,985  $ 10,005,246 6
17 11 Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom M Roadshow  $ 93,459 -73.6% 132 -93 $708  $ 1,489,757 3
18 N National Theatre Live: Coriolanus EX Sharmill  $ 87,643 19 $4,613  $ 87,643 1
19 N Moshi Monsters: The Movie G Universal  $ 85,333 119 $717  $ 85,333 1
20 - Gravity M Warner Bros  $ 85,046 46 $1,849  $ 21,813,344 21