Warner Brothers moved back into first place, pushing Disney back into second place in their recent tug of war. Gravity enjoyed a nice week of overseas grosses, the bulk of the Warner Brothers gain this week. Thor: The Dark World also generated some more overseas dollars, but not enough to allow Disney to keep pace. Of course, the big gainer this week is Lionsgate/Summit with the release of Hunger Games: Catching Fire, putting Lionsgate/Summit on course to pass Paramount, which is a major studio in name only.
For a complete ranking of 2013 films by worldwide performance click here.
TOTAL NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE. Looking at wide-release films in North America (those that play on at least 400 screens at some point), 2013 totals over $8.8 billion, virtually even with last year’s pace and 3% above the prior four-year average 2009-2012 ($8.596 billion). Each year-to-date period below is defined as the first Monday after New Year’s Day through the most recent Sunday. The past week generated $253 million in wide-release North American box office, 4% below the 2009-2012 average for the same week ($263 million) and 16% below the same week last year ($300 million). (The most recent week’s numbers are based on weekend estimates, which are usually at worst a couple of percentage points off from the final weekend tallies.)
| North American Box Office YEAR TO DATE | ||
| (billions) | Weeks 1-46 | |
| 2013 | $8.841 | Jan 7-Nov 24 |
| 2012 | $8.874 | Jan 2-Nov 18 |
| 2011 | $8.338 | Jan 3-Nov 20 |
| 2010 | $8.555 | Jan 4-Nov 21 |
| 2009 | $8.616 | Jan 5-Nov 22 |
Over the past six weeks, 2013 is now 7% below the same six weeks in 2012 and 1% above the four-year average in the same time frame ($1.017 billion).
| North American Box Office LAST SIX WEEKS | ||
| (billions) | Weeks 41-46 | |
| 2013 | $1.031 | Oct 14-Nov 24 |
| 2012 | $1.114 | Oct 8-Nov 18 |
| 2011 | $0.918 | Oct 10-Nov 20 |
| 2010 | $0.981 | Oct 11-Nov 21 |
| 2009 | $1.054 | Oct 12-Nov 22 |
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