FRIDAY JUNE 8 BOX OFFICE RESULTS: Audiences Return in Droves

• Tweet
• Email

• Tweet
• Email

The box office is roaring back to life this weekend after three weeks of unimpressed moviegoers.  The 23rd weekend of 2012 is looking like a killer $183 million for the Top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up 38% from this weekend last year and up 25% from a more normal second weekend in June.  As expected, Prometheus served the adult and male sci-fi crowd well, while Madagascar 3 nailed the family and kid audience especially well.    

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted from Paramount/ DreamWorks opened with $20.3 million Friday and is headed for an estimated $61.1 million opening weekend, exceeding the $50.5 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast by a comfortable margin.  The film should average a very solid $14,400 for the weekend at a very wide 4,258  theaters.  Madagascar 3 is headed for a preliminary $204 million in North America, now on track to beat the original’s $193.6 million domestic gross in 2005 and Madagascar 2‘s $180.0 million in 2008.  Critical reviews have held at a solid 76% positive at RottenTomatoes, and look for Mitch Salem’s review later today.  A complete international revenue update for this and all other films in wide release late Sunday.

Prometheus from 20th Century Fox opened with slightly more on Friday ($21.1 million) but won’t have the stampede of young children and their parents Saturday and Sunday afternoons, but the weekend is still headed for a strong $55.8 million, a touch above the $54.5 million ShowbuzzDaily forecast.   Playing at fewer theaters (3,396), the film should average a very good $16,400 per theater.   Prometheus is headed for a preliminary $159 million domestic gross.  While its RottenTomatoes average is decent for a sci-fi film (74% positive), its CinemaScore of opening night attendees is a soft “B” grade (compared to Madagascar 3‘s “A”).  Read Mitch Salem’s take on Prometheus here.

The returning films are returning exactly as expected.  It’s a good sign to see five films with weekends over $10 million, rather than the standard three movies the past several weekends.

In case you missed them, click to see this week’s Weekend Predictions.

Note: The table above summarizes an early look at the weekend.  The first column is a reminder of each film’s ShowBuzzDaily Forecast for the weekend (in brackets).  The second column, on which the films are sorted, displays the new weekend projection for each film, based on the Friday numbers (the third column).  The final column is a preliminary estimate of the ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Total number for the film’s total run in North America.  A “++” indicates the Domestic number has been upgraded; a “–” indicates a downgrade.

Total Box Office Volume

The Top 12 Films this weekend are looking like $183 million total Friday-Sunday, up 38% from the same calendar weekend last year and up 25% from the average for this weekend the past four years.  In normal years, the second weekend in June is lucky to get one movie to open above $50 million.  This year two films exceeded that benchmark, setting a new standard for this particular weekend.

Check back tomorrow morning for updated weekend figures and revised estimates for domestic final grosses, as well as updated international figures later in the day Sunday.  On Monday, we will update the ShowbuzzDaily Summer Movie Fantasy Draft, as well.

###

###