Weekly Box Office Wrap

Hey guys! We have a new column that we are going to be featuring every week, called the WEEKLY BOX OFFICE WRAP by our newest addition to the Movie Geek team, Allison. (Might I add just how fancy of a writer she truly is! Give her a very big Movie Geeks welcome and show some love!).

Allison will be giving you the box office breakdowns. What did amazing? What fell short? She has your answers right here… so take it away, lady!!!. — Melissa

December 17-19, 2010

TRON: LEGACY was number one this weekend with a light disc, not a bullet, as anticipated. The box office hopes were higher than the actual result, despite the heavy marketing campaign. They were solid figures though, averaging over $12,758 per theater (3,451 to be exact) and about $44,026,211 overall. With a budget of $170 million, it is unlikely TRON: LEGACY will recover that domestically. However, the releasing studio, Buena Vista, has had a fantastic year so far. They are behind the releases of ALICE IN WONDERLAND and TOY STORY 3 as well, which were huge at the box office and also very likely to see some Oscar nods soon.

A far away second was YOGI BEAR, a Warner Brothers release, that was actually in more theaters (3,515), but unfortunately had a much lower per theater average of only about $4,669, resulting in $16,411,322. With a small yield on their investment of a budget of $80 million, they will not likely see the profits over the mountains of Jellystone. Although, it has a very good chance of a slower drop off than would be expected due to the approaching holidays when more families are able to take the time for the family outing.

Coming in at number 8 at the box office this weekend was HOW DO YOU KNOW with a very unsatisfactory $7,484,696 on an operating budget of a staggering $120 million. Yes, a reported $120,000,000. This was a huge swing and a miss for Sony, only averaging $3,014 per theater in 2,483 theaters across the US. Despite the appealing cast, it was still not enticing enough to get the movie crowd tempted to spend their hard earned money on it.

The last two films released this weekend, in an extremely limited fashion, are RABBIT HOLE and CASINO JACK. Both did not have impressive overall dollar figures, but their per theater average was commendable. RABBIT HOLE yielded $53,778 in 5 screens making it a $10,756 per theater average. CASINO JACK averaged $4,933 per theater for the 7 theaters that were fortunate enough to show this film.

So, here is how the Top Ten shaked out for the weekend…

1. TRON: LEGACY — $44,026,211
2. YOGI BEAR — $16,411,322
3. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA:THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER — $12,388,662
4. THE FIGHTER — $12,135,468
5. TANGLED — $8,775,344
6. THE TOURIST — $8,522,287
7. BLACK SWAN — $8,383,479
8. HOW DO YOU KNOW — $7,484,696
9. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 — $5,022,361
10. UNSTOPPABLE — $1,843,696