WEEKLY BOX OFFICE ACTUALS & YEAR TO DATE: July 16-22

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A very solid week at the box office pushed total domestic revenues over $6 billion for the year to date, punctuated by strong opening for The Dark Knight Rises amid the real-life carnage in a Colorado movie theater.

The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume

All films in wide release playing between July 16 and July 22 grossed a solid $303 million, up 5% from the same week in 2011 and up 13% from the four-year average for the comparable week. Year to date (now over $6 billion for wide-release films) is running 8% ahead of 2011 .  Similarly, the year-to-date total is 7% ahead of the more stable multi-year average for the similar period.

Weekend Actuals versus Studio Estimate

The official opening weekend number for The Dark Knight Rises is $160,887,295.  By day: Friday ($75.7 million), Saturday ($44.9 million) and Sunday ($40.2 million).  In contrast, The Dark Knight in 2008 opened with $158,411,483.  By day, Rises had the stronger Friday, but the rest of the weekend was higher for The Dark Knight: Friday ($67.2 million), Saturday ($47.6 million) and Sunday ($43.6 million).  The comparisons of weekend actuals to studio estimates will return next weekend, when the studios return to releasing studio estimates Sunday mornings (after a tasteful hiatus to honor the victims of the Aurora massacre.  

Updated Estimates of Final Grosses

The ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Grosses (the estimated North American gross when the film ends its run) are summarized below for films released the last six weeks. Pay attention to the final domestic grosses, which are much more important than individual weekend grosses and especially weekend rankings.