November 6th marked the beginning of the holiday movie season with the release of Disney’s: “A Christmas Carol” followed by Sony’s
epic disaster saga: “2012″ on November 13th. Both films had nice opening weekends. “CAROL” did $32M+ [U.S-3 days] & dropped less than 50% in wkend #2 [very respectable holding power]. “2012″ had a very strong [and necessary] U.S. 3-day opening, printing a $19k+ per theatre avg @ 3400+ locations for $65M+. Since sony correctly launched a large scale day & date international release the WORLD-WIDE 3- day opening gross is north of $220M. This is very important considering the huge [well north os $200M] INVESTMENT Sony needs to recoup. The holding power [& international performannce] of both of these titles will determine their ultimate success in the next few weeks.
Adding to the holiday kick off we have three new entries on Nov 20TH plus the continuation/expansion of the stellar performing limited release Lionsgate entry: “PRECIOUS”. I’m mot sure if stellar is the best description of the box office performance of “PRECIOUS”, because in it’s second weekend at [a very limited] 174 locations, the pictures per theatre avg was an eye-popping $33k+ for a wkend total of $5.8M. “PRECIOUS” expands to over 600 locations this wkend. Also unspooling with huge anticipation is the “TWILIGHT’ sequel: “NEW MOON“…expectations & tracking portend a massive 3 – day opening easily eclipsing the originals $69M 3-day take about a yr a go. Next Warner Bros. has the SANDRA BULLOCK [feel good/true story] “The Blind Side” going wide in over 3100 locations…This looks like good counter programming. Also opening Nov 20TH is Sony’s animated family entry:
“PLANET 51″ in over 3,000 locations.
Continuing the holiday release program we have a few more Thanksgiving openings on WED the 25th & then some nore Holiday fare will arrive in Mid to late DECEMBER….stay tuned for more info…shortly.
