BEHIND THE WEEKEND BOXOFFICE – 12/9/12

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There was no miraculous Saturday save for the weekend’s one pitiful arrival.

OPENINGS:  PLAYING FOR KEEPS (FilmDistrict) rose only 11% from Friday to Saturday, and since it’s claiming one of the lower Sunday drops in the Top 10, once the real tickets are counted it may not even hang on to its current $6M estimate for the weekend. It’s already a dim memory.

HOLDOVERS:  SKYFALL (Sony/MGM) was the best of a strong group of long-running hits, with $11M in its 5th weekend.  The film also made another $20M overseas, for current totals of $262M here and $657M everywhere else, putting it at $919M.   It could reach $300M in the US and $1B worldwide, a quantum increase for the Bond franchise in its 50th year.  RISE OF THE GUARDIANS (DreamWorks Animation/Paramont) had the best hold in the Top 10, down only 21%, but that still only gave it a $10.5M weekend, with $100M far away from its current $62M total.  (Worldwide, it’s made $153M thus far.)  THE TWILIGHT SAGA:  BREAKING DAWN PART 2 (Summit/Lionsgate), down a heavier 47%, is now running ahead of all the Twilight movies in the US except Eclipse, which was the only summer opening of the series–globally, Breaking Dawn 2 is now the biggest hit in franchise history, with $751M.  LINCOLN (Disney/DreamWorks/20th) was down only 32%, with $97M already and seemingly on the road to $125M by the end of the year.   LIFE OF PI (20th) also fell just 32%, but it cost double Lincoln‘s $65M budget, and at $8.3M for the weekend and $61M to date, it faces a long road to try and reach $100M.  WRECK IT RALPH (Disney) and FLIGHT (Paramount) both fell about 30%, and should get to around $175M and $100M respectively.  KILLING THEM SOFTLY (Weinstein) fell 60% from its ignominious start.

LIMITED RELEASE:  HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (Focus/Universal) opened with an OK $21K average in 4 NY/LA theatres.  RUST AND BONE (Sony Pictures Classics) added 2 LA theatres to its 2 in NY, and had a mediocre $13K average.  HITCHCOCK (Fox Searchlight) expanded to 183 theatres with a tepid $4K average.  SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (Weinstein) held at 371 theatres and is currently claiming a slight 28% weekend drop and a $6K per-theatre average–but its Sunday estimates have been consistently unreliable (which is to say exaggerated), and those numbers may not hold up tomorrow.  ANNA KARENINA (Focus/Universal) increased its theatre count by about 10% to 422, and dropped 32% nevertheless for the weekend, with a $3600 average.