Other Crap

Weekend Box Office Results, December 16-18, 2005

• Kong was off about $13 million from the predictions we normally cite, although other industry sources had pegged it even higher. The sum of the top ten was off by the same thirteen million.
• I think it is entirely possible to make too much of Kong's underperformance. This weekend was 22% AHEAD of the same weekend last year, and that's something which probably should be viewed as half-full rather than half-empty. Perhaps one might conclude that the predictions were just too high all around, and that it was not reasonable to expect $100-$120 million from Kong and Narnia, during a weekend which produced only $99 million from all of the top twelve films added together in 2004! If Kong and Narnia had actually churned out $120 million together, as some optimists thought, this weekend would have beaten last year by 60%. To be honest, I just don't know how much of Kong's "underperformance relative to expectations" is attributable to Kong, and how much is attributable to the expectations.
• Looking at it another way, the Konger took in $50 million on his opening weekend. Opening at the same time of year in 2001, The Fellowship of the Ring took in about $47 million against much easier competition than that faced by Kong. Ticket prices are higher now, so Kong sold fewer tickets than Fellowship, but it is fair to say that Kong approximately matched Fellowship, which went on to gross nearly a billion world-wide.
• Brokeback Mountain broke forward substantially this week. Although not expected to crack the top ten, it finished eighth overall, despite being in only 69 theaters. It accumulated a whopping $34,000 per screen. Memoirs of a Geisha also fanned its way into the top twelve, with $23,000 per screen on 52 screens.
• Although it could not match Kong hype-for-hype, the week's other opening, The Family Stone, did not get ignored by moviegoers. It did well, grossing 30% above expectations, with about $13 million in some 2400 theaters.