The remarkably popular Harry Potter franchise kept the cauldrons churning with the release of its sixth installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which drew $77.8 million on approximately 9,600 screens at 4,325 locations over the weekend. Compared to last year, though, when The Dark Knight blazed into the record books, overall weekend business was down a sharp 38 percent, and attendance was a bit soft versus the more normal weekends of years past, due in part to Harry Potter being the sole new nationwide release. In its first five days, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince pulled in $158 million, surpassing predecessor Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix's $139.7 million as the franchise's highest-grossing five-day start and ranking sixth among all movies. The bulk of Half-Blood Prince's lead over Order of the Phoenix came from its $58.2 million opening day, while Thursday through Saturday were slightly ahead and Sunday was a bit behind Order of the Phoenix. Order of the Phoenix's first weekend wasn't far behind at $77.1 million, and it ended its run at $292 million. While one might yawn at another Harry Potter becoming a blockbuster, it is exceptional for a series that was a phenomenon from the start to be this consistently popular. This time out, audiences had the longest wait yet, two years, and still showed up in droves for what was essentially a continued build-up to a finale that author J.K. Rowling revealed two years ago. Distributor Warner Bros.' exit polling indicated that 60 percent of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's audience was 18 years of age and older and 57 percent was female. Unlike Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's opening did not include a significant IMAX release, because Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen still occupies those screens. Half-Blood Prince played at only three IMAX venues in Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago, which accounted for an estimated $338,000 of the five-day opening. The picture is scheduled for around 165 IMAX venues on July 29. On the foreign front, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince delivered the highest-grossing foreign opening ever with $236 million from 54 territories. The previous benchmark was Spider-Man 3 with $230.5 million, while Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix began with $193 million from 44 territories. Add in the domestic gross, and Half-Blood Prince's five-day worldwide opening was $394 million, again topping Spider-Man 3, which came in at $381.7 million. Another worldwide juggernaut, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, ranked second, both domestically and internationally. Domestically, the animated comedy-adventure unearthed $17.6 million and had the smallest third weekend drop of its franchise (36 percent). Its $151.9 million tally in 19 days nearly matched predecessor Ice Age: The Meltdown's gross through the same point. Overseas, Dawn of the Dinosaurs is on track to handily surpass The Meltdown's $456.6 million total. Its foreign weekend was $61.9 million, and it eclipsed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to become the top picture overseas of the year with a mammoth $430.9 million Back to the domestic weekend, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen dug up $13.7 million, and its total climbed to $363.8 million in 26 days, ranking 13th on the all time top grossing movies chart (and 88th adjusted for ticket price inflation). The action sequel's tally is running nearly 30 percent ahead of the first Transformers, and its fourth weekend percentage drop-off was about the same as its predecessor (43 percent). Last weekend's No. 1 movie, Bruno, flamed out in its second weekend. After being sold as the outrageous follow-up to Borat, the comedy collapsed by 73 percent to $8.3 million, increasing its total to $49.5 million in ten days. In its second weekend, Borat expanded to nearly as many theaters as Bruno and made $28.3 million, and it had generated $67.1 million in ten days. However, perhaps portending a follow-up's potential, Borat itself didn't hang around that long after its first two weekends, winding up with $128.5 million. While Bruno got bounced, the comedy break-out of the summer, The Hangover, was still in the mix with the slightest decline among nationwide releases, off 18 percent to $8.2 million. With $235.7 million in 45 days, it effectively matched the final tally of Wedding Crashers adjusted for ticket price inflation.
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had an opening day fit for a king. On Wednesday, the sixth entry in the blockbuster franchise conjured $58.2 million on nearly 10,000 screens at 4,275 sites. That ranked as the second-biggest Wednesday ever behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's $62 million, and fourth-biggest among all opening days.
More importantly, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince captured the largest first day of the Harry Potter series by a wide margin. Predecessor Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was the previous high. Back in 2007, it also debuted on a Wednesday in mid-July and grossed $44.2 million out of the gate on around 9,000 screens at 4,181 sites. It tumbled 58 percent to $18.4 million the next day and went on to have a $77.1 million opening weekend. By the end of its run, it had made $292 million.
Included in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's opening day was a record gross for midnight shows. On Wednesday at 12:01 a.m., the picture played at 3,003 sites and generated $22.2 million. The previous benchmark was The Dark Knight's $18.5 million midnight start.
At the foreign box office, Harry Potter raked in $45.85 million from 33 territories on Wednesday, which means that the worldwide opening day tally was a record-breaking $104 million. The United Kingdom was the top foreign territory with $7.6 million on 1,305 screens, which was the biggest Wednesday ever there, and was 35 percent higher than the previous movie.
Bruno strutted to the top of the box office but wasn't quite in vogue, leading to a relatively slow July session. Overall, the weekend was the least attended for the timeframe in 17 years and down five percent from last year.
Striking approximately 3,400 screens at 2,756 venues, Bruno donned a solid $30.6 million, which was less than I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, another "gay panic" comedy from July 2007. Despite a higher-grossing debut, Bruno didn't make a statement like Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen's previous mockumentary. That picture opened to $26.5 million at only 837 theaters, and then made $28.3 million in its second weekend, when it expanded to 2,566 theaters, culminating in a $128.5 million final tally.
Breaking the weekend gross down, Bruno had one of the steepest Friday-to-Saturday drops on record, slipping 39 percent from $14.4 million on Friday to $8.8 million on Saturday. For the most part, movies with such Saturday slides do not hold up well in the long run, rendering Bruno's chances at reaching $100 million remote. Universal Pictures, which stressed that it paid Bruno producer Media Rights Capital $42.5 million for the distribution rights, reported an audience composition of 56 percent male and 54 percent 25 years and older, based on exit polling. In their research, the main reasons people checked off for seeing the movie were the "Humor" (74 percent), Sacha Baron Cohen (57 percent), Borat (52 percent) and the "Outrageousness" (50 percent).
Bruno's marketing campaign boiled down to "here's more outrageous humor from the Borat guy," making the movie look like a sequel with Cohen sporting a similarly kooky voice in pseudo-documentary settings. But as Bruno's tagline stated, Borat was so 2006. Borat was a unique phenomenon and the frenzy faded in the nearly three years since its release. It's hard for comedy follow-ups to even match their predecessors once people already get the joke, and Bruno's ads lacked the purpose and clarity of Borat's, which were driven by perennially popular culture clash comedy. What's more, Cohen's Bruno caricature lacked Borat's connection to reality, and its fashionista theme was less accessible to the moviegoers that patronize this type of stunt humor.
Hot on Bruno's heels, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs eased 34 percent to $27.6 million, propelling its total to $119.7 million in 12 days, or nearly as much as predecessor Ice Age: The Meltdown in the same amount of time. The percentage drop was less than the first Ice Age and The Meltdown.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen leveled off somewhat, down 43 percent to $24.2 million for a better third weekend than the first Transformers. In a mere 19 days, the action sequel has generated $339.2 million, surpassing the final hauls of Transformers and Spider-Man 3 among others to rank 16th on the all time top grosser list.
Public Enemies took a standard hit in its second weekend, retreating 45 percent to $13.8 million. That was less than the second weekends of Road to Perdition and Collateral, but the picture's $66.2 million 12-day take was higher.
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Giant robots narrowly socked it to anachronistic dinosaurs over Independence Day weekend. With actual grosses reporting, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen weighed in with $42.3 million, while Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs came in at $41.7 million. Distributors Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox had estimated $42.5 million for each movie, which was the first time two studios had the same weekend estimate since 1998, when Titanic and The Man in the Iron Mask were in a photo finish. Paramount ended up having the more accurate Sunday projection, and that was the difference as both pictures were neck-and-neck on Friday and Saturday. With Public Enemies debuting solidly in third, business as a whole was up a tick from the same weekend last year, when Hancock was in charge.
Overall, Revenge of the Fallen has had a far more winning run than Dawn of the Dinosaurs. It will pass its predecessor's final gross in a matter of days, while the Ice Age sequel's five-day start was less than that of its predecessor, Ice Age: The Meltdown. Playing on approximately 7,100 screens at 4,099 sites, Dawn of the Dinosaurs gathered $66.7 million in five days (55 percent of which from 1,606 3D venues), while The Meltdown's five-day was $75.6 million. Dawn's five-day attendance was effectively on par with the first Ice Age, and distributor 20th Century Fox's research suggested that 55 percent of the audience were families.
Scrat in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
While the Ice Age franchise's migration from spring to a more competitive summer might be bandied about as a reason for Dawn of the Dinosaurs relatively more glacial reception, the picture suffered from looking like more of the same in its marketing campaign. No compelling reason was presented to make it as big a theatrical event as The Meltdown, and the proceedings may have been confounded by the addition of dinosaurs, which were seemingly intended as a shortcut to audience expansion.
Revenge of the Fallen retreated 61 percent, compared to the first Transformers' 47 percent second weekend drop, but it has raked in a gargantuan $293.4 million in 12 days, while the first movie had $212.3 million through the same point. IMAX accounted for an estimated $4.6 million of Revenge of the Fallen's weekend. While the picture broke the IMAX opening record last weekend, it ranked third among second weekends, behind Star Trek and The Dark Knight. The IMAX run has accumulated $23.9 million at 169 sites, or eight percent of the overall total.
Public Enemies racked up $25.3 million on around 4,900 screens at 3,334 sites over the weekend, banking $40.1 million since its Wednesday debut. It was one of the biggest openings on record for a gangster picture, and it sold more tickets in five days than such past summer crime movies as Road to Perdition and Collateral. In its advertising, Public Enemies hit the right notes people enjoy in crime pictures, from the swagger to the shoot-outs, and it helped having Johnny Depp in the lead, playing a different kind of pirate. Distributor Universal Pictures' exit polling indicated that 53 percent of the audience was male and that there was a near even split between those 25 years and older and those under 25. Among nationwide releases, The Proposal had the smallest decline, easing 31 percent to $12.9 million and lifting its total to $94.3 million in 17 days. The summer's most eye-popping breakout hit so far, The Hangover, crossed the $200 million milestone on its 30th day. It's no longer out-drawing Wedding Crashers and There's Something About Mary on a weekend basis, down 34 percent to $11.3 million this time out, but it's way ahead overall, even after adjusting for ticket price inflation.
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Wednesday, 29 July 2009 03:13 | 
Author: Admin | 
