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HUGO: The boxoffice story of the holiday was undoubtedly Martin Scorsese’s quasi-family film. While almost every other film of the day fell steeply or at best held around even, Hugo zoomed an astonishing 40% This probably reflects to some extent the older audience for the picture, but The Descendants, which has a similar appeal, was only able to rise 7% on Thursday In any case, it suggests Paramount does have something to build upon with Hugo, and while the film’s cost still makes profitability an uphill climb, if they can get lucky and win some early critics’ awards (the season kicks off with the NY Film Critics Circle on Tuesday), things may head in the right direction.BREAKING DAWN PART 1: Another day with a lower number and more pronounced drop than New Moon had 2 years ago, making it even more likely that Breaking Dawn 1‘s boxoffice total will slump from its predecessors.
THE MUPPETS: Although the numbers are lower, Muppets held better on Thanksgiving than Disney’s Tangled did last Thanksgiving, with only a 10% drop, and should get close to $40M over the holiday. Facing no new competition for the next couple of weeks, the picture should be a comfortable if not giant hit.
ARTHUR CHRISTMAS: A 23% drop from Wednesday was no help to a picture that needs some. Even if it can hold on in theatres for a while, it will still need some serious seasons greetings overseas.
HOLDOVERS: HAPPY FEET TWO took another bad hit, down almost 30% for the day. JACK AND JILL ran around even, while J. EDGAR, with its (much) older audience, went up a nice 18%, albeit from a number that was already low.
INDIES: THE DESCENDANTS edged up a bit on Thursday and should get to $6-8M for the 5-day weekend. That would mean a $10-15K per-theatre average Fri-Sun, solid but in need of some critic’s awards help. MY WEEK WITH MARILYN debuted Wednesday at 123 theatres, a number that’s doubling today. For the Wed-Thurs period, the picture had about a $2500 per-theatre average (compared to $5K for Descendants, which is in 3x as many theatres), and that doesn’t suggest much initial audience enthusiasm. However, Marilyn‘s long-term future is entirely about Michelle Williams’ success during awards season.
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