>Final box office grosses for the weekend came in late, and the top three movies were somewhat lower than projected on Sunday. For example, the Paranormal Activity 3 opening weekend was projected to gross $54.0 million on Sunday, but the actual number came in at $52.6 million. Looking at all films in release, the past week (seven days ending Sunday) is down 13% versus last year’s comparable week. After being down 20% or more throughout most of the spring, year-to-date box office had worked its it way down to -3.2% two weeks ago. After two rough weeks though, box office year to date is now down -3.8% versus last year.
(millions) 4yr vs vs
Week #42 $160 $146 $140 -13% – 4%
Year to Date $8331 $7883 $8017
-3.8% +1.7%Paranormal Activity 3 $112 million (82 percentile)
Real Steel $93 million (75 percentile)
Dolphin Tale $76 million (70 percentile)
Moneyball $75 million (69 percentile)
Footloose $59 million (56 percentile)
The Ides of March $43 million (50 percentile)
50/50 $36 million (43 percentile)
Courageous $28 million (31 percentile)
Abduction $26 million (30 percentile)
Killer Elite $24 million (26 percentile)
Dream House $20 million (21 percentile)
The Three Musketeers $20 million (21 percentile)
The Thing $16 million (18 percentile)
What’s Your Number? $15 million (13 percentile)
Johnny English Reborn $8 million (4 percentile)
The Big Year $8 million (4 percentile)
Weekend Actuals vs Sunday’s Studio Projections
The weekend Studio Projections (Friday and Saturday actual numbers with estimates for Sunday’s box office) for Paranormal Activity 3, Real Steel and Footloose ended up being overly optimistic — the Sunday business was not as strong as estimated, with the actual weekend grosses coming in lower than projected. Paranormal 3 was over-stated by $1.4 million Sunday morning (about a 3% error). By day, the horror-suspense film grossed $26.3 million Friday, $17.2 million Saturday, and $9.1 million Sunday. This pattern is almost identical to Paranormal 2‘s (just at higher levels each day): $20.1 million Friday, $13.0 million Saturday, and $7.5 million Sunday.
Real Steel and Footloose were each overestimated by half a million dollars (a 4% and 5% error, respectively). Blame the generally good weather across the country Sunday for keeping some people out of the theaters.
Paranormal Activity 3 (Par) $54.0 $52.6 $112
Real Steel (Dis) $11.3 $10.8 $ 93
Footloose (Par) $10.9 $10.4 $ 59
The Three Musketeers (Summit) $ 8.8 $ 8.7 $ 20
Ides of March (Sony) $ 4.9 $ 4.9 $ 43
Moneyball (Sony) $ 4.1 $ 4.0 $ 75+
Johnny English Reborn (Uni) $ 3.8 $ 3.8 $ 8
The Thing (Uni) $ 3.1 $ 3.1 $ 16
50/50 (Summit) $ 2.8 $ 2.8 $ 36
Read the International Box Office Numbers round-up in its new format if you haven’t seen it already.