Saturday’s $57.4 million for the top 10 films and Sunday’s estimated $49.6 million both slightly exceed the similar days in 2007 (when December 30 was also a Sunday).
Partly because of the way the calendar is configured, 2012 is catching up to the multi-year average for December 16-30 (2012 is now only 1.8% behind the $531 million for 2004-2011).
| Holiday Season — First 15 Days | |||
| Top 10 Films by Day — $ millions | |||
| 2012 | 2007 | 2004-2011 average | |
| Dec 16 | 31.5 | 37.8 | 22.1 |
| Dec 17 | 11.9 | 12.8 | 27.2 |
| Dec 18 | 13.2 | 11.9 | 28.0 |
| Dec 19 | 11.9 | 11.9 | 23.3 |
| Dec 20 | 12.8 | 13.1 | 21.0 |
| Dec 21 | 27.8 | 50.1 | 25.4 |
| Dec 22 | 37.3 | 53.3 | 30.1 |
| Dec 23 | 32.0 | 44.9 | 35.6 |
| Dec 24 | 17.8 | 22.6 | 20.5 |
| Dec 25 | 68.1 | 57.4 | 56.6 |
| Dec 26 | 51.9 | 50.4 | 59.3 |
| Dec 27 | 45.8 | 45.6 | 48.5 |
| Dec 28 | 52.1 | 53.5 | 44.2 |
| Dec 29 | 57.4 | 56.4 | 43.9 |
| Dec 30 | 49.6 | 48.0 | 45.4 |
| Dec 16-30 | 521 | 570 | 531 |
Looking at December 29 versus prior years, 2012 was actually the best in the best decade (even narrowly beating 2009’s Avatar-fueled December 29, which fell on a Tuesday). Les Miserables might be losing steam, but there is strong demand for the entire slate of movies released in the past few weeks.
| December 29: Top 10 Films ($ millions) | |||||||
| Dec 29 on Weekdays | Dec 29 on Weekends | ||||||
| Top10 | #1 film | Top10 | #1 film | ||||
| 2011 | Thu | 41.1 | Mission Impossible 4 | 2012 | Sat | 57.4 | The Hobbit |
| 2010 | Wed | 41.7 | Little Fockers | 2007 | Sat | 56.4 | Natl Treasure Book |
| 2009 | Tue | 57.1 | Avatar | 2006 | Fri | 48.5 | Night at the Museum |
| 2008 | Mon | 35.4 | Marley and Me | 2002 | Sun | 44.2 | Two Towers |
| 2005 | Thu | 38.1 | Chronicles of Narnia | ||||
| 2004 | Wed | 32.7 | Meet the Fockers | ||||
| 2003 | Mon | 32.7 | Return of the King | ||||
The rest of the holiday season should continue to track fairly closely to 2007 and to similar years (comparing December 31-January 3 to years when those days fell on weekdays, and comparing January 4-5 to to other years with those days on weekends).
| Holiday Season — The Rest of the Way | ||||
| Top 10 Films by Day — $ millions | ||||
| 2012 | 2007 | Similar Day average 2004-2011 | Average 2004-11 | |
| Dec 31 | Mon | 33.9 | 38.0 | 37.9 |
| Jan 1 | Tue | 41.2 | 44.1 | 50.1 |
| Jan 2 | Wed | 22.1 | 29.5 | 39.7 |
| Jan 3 | Thu | 19.2 | 15.0 | 22.9 |
| Jan 4 | Fri | 37.0 | 32.3 | 17.3 |
| Jan 5 | Sat | 47.9 | 39.2 | 17.9 |
| Dec 31-Jan 5 | est-195 | 201 | 198 | 186 |
| Dec 16-Jan 5 | est-716 | 771 | n/a | 717 |
| * The Similar Day average contains years with only weekdays or only weekends for each day, depending on 2012’s calendar. For example, Jan 1’s average contains only 2006, 2007 and 2008 (when that day also fell on a weekday). | ||||
It now looks like the 2012 Holiday Season is headed for about $716 million for the three-week December 16-January 5 season, even with the $717 million average from 2004-2011 and placing it just above the median for the past decade. Not too shabby after all.
|
Holiday Movie Season Top 10 films Dec 16-Jan 5 ($ millions) |
||
| Rnk | Year | Gross |
| 1 | 2009 | 981 |
| 2 | 2007 | 771 |
| 3 | 2003 | 734 |
| 4 | 2012 | 716-est |
| 5 | 2011 | 706 |
| 2010 | 706 | |
| 7 | 2006 | 669 |
| 8 | 2008 | 657 |
| 2005 | 657 | |
| 10 | 2004 | 586 |
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