‘Wolverine’ claws to $34.75M Friday & Could Scratch Out $86.8M Opening! All-Time 4th-Best Performer for First-Weekend-of-May Summer Kickoff!

In my Final Weekend Tracking column posted on Wednesday, I predicted that X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) would reach $92M on opening weekend, despite soft reviews (now only 38% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). My first fearless forecast of the 2009 summer blockbuster season appears to be close to dead-on (missed by only 5%).

Star-turned-producer Hugh Jackman has scored his second-biggest opening ever and, easily, his biggest as a solo star. Wolverine has mauled the competition with a massive $34.75M opening day (including $5M or so in Thursday midnight sales). That could translate to a 3-day of $86.8M, getting Hollywood’s most lucrative season off to a spectacular start.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "Fast & Furious", 17 again, 2-d, 3-d, academy award nominee
Posted May 2nd 2009 at 5:29 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 1244022 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/05/02/estimates51/%27Wolverine%27+claws+to+%2434.75M+Friday+%26amp%3B+Could+Scratch+Out+%2486.8M+Opening%21+All-Time+4th-Best+Performer+for+First-Weekend-of-May+Summer+Kickoff%212009-05-02+12%3A29%3A38Steve+Mason

The Summer Blockbuster Season is Set to Start Huge! Spin-Off ‘Wolverine’ could Claw to $92M Opening Weekend!

The great thing about a sequel is that it has a built-in audience. The problem with sequels is that, as the numbers after the title go up, so does the production budget. Very hard to know for sure, but sources have told me that the production budget for X-Men was in the $75M range. X-2: X-Men United may have had a budget of about $110M, while the cost of X-Men: The Last Stand was, in all likelihood, as much as $210M. Why doesn’t it make sense to just churn out X-Men 4?

Look at these numbers.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 17 again, 2-d, 3-d, academy award nominee, academy award winner
Posted Apr 29th 2009 at 10:10 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 121806One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/04/29/finaltracking51/The+Summer+Blockbuster+Season+is+Set+to+Start+Huge%21+Spin-Off+%27Wolverine%27+could+Claw+to+%2492M+Opening+Weekend%212009-04-30+05%3A10%3A03Steve+Mason

America Loves a Girl-on-Girl Smackdown! Beyonce’s ‘Obsessed’ is the Biggest Last-Weekend-of-April Opener Ever with $11M Friday & a Possible $27.5M 3-Day!

Recording superstar Beyonce Knowles is building a bankable resume for herself as an actress with Sony Screen Gems’ Obsessed as the latest title burnishing her resume. Co-starring the excellent Idris Elba (The Wire), this low budget, PG-13 genre pic has scored a far-above-expectations $11M on Friday, and it will likely reach $27.5M for the weekend. That is the best opening yet for the former Destiny’s Child lead vocalist as an above-the-title star, topping 2003’s The Fighting Temptations and Cadillac Records from late 2008.

Beyonce does battle with the sexy Ali Larter (HEROES) in OBSESSED

OPENINGS FOR BEYONCE MOVIES
1. Austin Powers: Goldmember – $70.3M opening
2. Obsessed – $27.5M opening (projected)
3. Pink Panther (2006) – $20.2M opening
4. Dreamgirls – $14.1M wide break (after a platform start)
5. The Fighting Temptations – $11.7M opening
6. Cadillac Records – $3.4M opening

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "Fast & Furious", 17 again, 2-d, 3-d, academy award nominee
Posted Apr 24th 2009 at 11:11 pm in Entertainment, Political Humor, Steve Mason's Box Office | 116742No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/04/24/estimates423/America+Loves+a+Girl-on-Girl+Smackdown%21+Beyonce%27s+%27Obsessed%27+is+the+Biggest+Last-Weekend-of-April+Opener+Ever+with+%2411M+Friday+%26amp%3B+a+Possible+%2427.5M+3-Day%212009-04-25+06%3A11%3A11Steve+Mason

Hollywood’s Worst Release Date: Beyonce’s ‘Obsessed’ Could Edge Disney’s Baby Polar Bears in ‘Earth!’

The final weekend of April has never been Hollywood’s favorite release date. In fact, it is generally considered to be among the worst release dates on the calendar. Whatever opens on the final weekend of April gets absolutely crushed by the official start of the summer blockbuster season on the first weekend of May.

The 4 new wide releases and 1 major specialty release set to debut this weekend will face an onslaught of mega-hits over the next month. How can Obsessed (Sony), Earth (Disney), The Soloist, (Dreamworks/Paramount), Fighting (Rogue) and The Informers (Senator) possibly find an audience with X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros) arriving next weekend followed by, in successive weeks, Star Trek (Paramount), Angels & Demons (Sony), the combo of Night at the Museum 2 (Fox) and Terminator: Salvation (Fox) and Disney/Pixar’s Up?

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "Fast & Furious", 17 again, 2-d, 3-d, academy award nominee
Posted Apr 23rd 2009 at 5:47 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 1145145 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/04/23/finaltracking4-23/Hollywood%27s+Worst+Release+Date%3A+Beyonce%27s+%27Obsessed%27+Could+Edge+Disney%27s+Baby+Polar+Bears+in+%27Earth%21%272009-04-24+00%3A47%3A04Steve+Mason

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS with almost $12K per 3-D screen! The future of 3-D is looking UP!

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Dreamworks Animation have definitively proven that Digital 3-D is a blockbuster format. Not only has Monsters vs. Aliens seized a monstrous $58.2M in opening weekend ticket sales, Real-D (the technology provider) and Dreamworks have revealed that $25M or so of that gross was generated specifically from 3-D and IMAX 3-D. Fox is reporting that fully 43% of the total take was from the estimated 2,218 Digital 3-D screens.

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS tore up the box office this weekend - especially in 3-D

That means that the Per Screen Average for the movie in 3-D was about $11,700, while the 4,800 or so traditional 35MM 2-D engagements had a Per Theatre of just an estimated $4,780. Exhibitors who figured out a way to overcome the credit crunch and pay the estimated $100,000 to convert a traditional theatre into one that can show Digital 3-D made a killing this weekend.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 2-d, 3-d, amanda peet, amy poehler, arch oboler
Posted Mar 29th 2009 at 9:04 pm in Entertainment, Steve Mason's Box Office | 920863 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/29/monsters-vs-aliens-with-almost-12k-per-3-d-screen-the-future-of-3-d-is-looking-up/MONSTERS+VS.+ALIENS+with+almost+%2412K+per+3-D+screen%21+The+future+of+3-D+is+looking+UP%212009-03-30+04%3A04%3A22Steve+Mason

Digital Crunch: CORALINE may be the only tween girl who hates the Jonas Brothers?

Most tween girls love the Jonas Brothers, but that’s not the case for the animated eleven-year-old title character from Henry Selick’s stop action animated 3-D masterpiece Coraline from Focus Features.  Featuring the voices of Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher, critics have swooned for this high-tech gem (89% Fresh in Rotten Tomatoes), and audiences are just beginning to discover the charms of this $60M adaptation of the Neil Gaiman novel.

The film opened at #3 for February 6-8 with a better-than-expected $16.8M start. Then, the film enjoyed a nice surge over the 4-day President’s Day weekend period ringing up another $18.8M in sales. Then, Coraline dipped a mere 23% over Oscar weekend finishing second overall with an excellent $11.28M for a new cume of $53.7M. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 35mm, Coraline, dakota fanning
Posted Feb 23rd 2009 at 11:17 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Steve Mason's Box Office | 6533013 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/23/coraline/Digital+Crunch%3A+CORALINE+may+be+the+only+tween+girl+who+hates+the+Jonas+Brothers%3F2009-02-24+07%3A17%3A32Steve+Mason

Does Jen sell more tickets than Brad? – HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU easily wins the weekend with $27.4M 3-day!

The Drew Barrymore-produced romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You has made the jump from catch-phrase to self-help book to movie hit. With an all-star cast this classic ‘chick flick” appears to be winning the weekend after posting a spectacular $10.5M in opening day ticket sales. That should mean a 3-day start of $27.4M or so, easily out-pacing holdover Taken (Fox) and three other new wide releases. With this kind of opening, Not That Into You could reach almost $60M by the end of next weekend (a 4-day Presidents/Valentine’s combo), which would forecast a potential $90M in US ticket sales.

The new movie developed by New Line and now released by Warner Bros is based on the book of the same name co-written by former Sex & the City scribes Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo. The line itself has come to be a reassuring fallback for women in the dating scene (and I’m guessing single guys have adopted the mentality as well in the rough-and-tumble world of dating).

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 3-d, a tale of two sisters, a.r. rahman, aaron eckhart, academy award
Posted Feb 6th 2009 at 11:20 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 4449432 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/02/06/estimates-4/Does+Jen+sell+more+tickets+than+Brad%3F+-+HE%27S+JUST+NOT+THAT+INTO+YOU+easily+wins+the+weekend+with+%2427.4M+3-day%212009-02-07+07%3A20%3A14Steve+Mason