Box Office Actuals: May 20-22, 2011

Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:

Estimates were spot on with the fourth entry in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series as "...On Stranger Tides" kickstarted its run with $90.1 million, helped with also having the widest opening of 2011 at 4,155 locations. Aided by higher 3-D prices, a little more investigation learns why this biggest opening of 2011 was viewed as "soft" and a "disappointment" in North America.

When calculating numbers, Box Office Mojo reports that this "Pirates" suffered the lightest attended opening since the first film launched in 2003. That first offering drew repeat business again and again and grossed $305.4 million domestically and $654 million worldwide. As reported here yesterday, the "Pirates" films have generated ticket sales of more than $2.2 billion thus far and if excitement was muted in North America, Disney and Buena Vista were downright giddy with the worldwide reception of "...On Stranger Tides".

Audiences were galvanized by the return of Captain Jack Sparrow to the tune of more than $256 million in foreign receipts counted. Already, "POTC:OST" has grossed $346 million worldwide. In looking at the 50 biggest grossing films of all time worldwide, the three previous "Pirates" films all rank on the list. Moral of the story? Stay skeptical if you hear that "Pirates" is a disappointment.

The Top 40 Films of the Weekend and a luminous "Midnight" after the cut!

Box Office Bulletin: "Pirates" arrive with a "soft" $90 million opening!

Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:

Delivering the biggest opening weekend of 2011, "Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" opened to an estimated $90.1 million in total receipts, easily winning the box office weekend. While $90.1 million is never a number to discount or place in ill regard, reports declared this opening as "soft" or "underwhelming". Comparatively speaking with the previous "Pirates" films, this was the lowest grossing and lowest attended opening weekend for the film franchise, at least in North America.

Overseas counts told a much different story as "Pirates" amassed a staggering $256.3 million, rolling its worldwide cumulative total to $346.4 million. Deadline reports that with the production and marketing budgets added together, this film cost $420 million to bring to the screen, a figure which is already within sight after just 5 days of being on screen.

Delving further into the "soft" opening for a moment, 2003's "Pirates...The Curse Of The Black Pearl" started at $46.6 million in July 2003 but earned more than $300 million domestically. The film also earned Johnny Depp his first Oscar nomination and springboarded the sequel, 2006's "...Dead Man's Chest" to $423.3 million and a ranking as the 8th biggest grossing film of all time in North America. The third entry, 2007's "...At World's End" returned closer to the numbers earned by the first film in the series, but still cleared $309.4 million. Worldwide the films have grossed more than $2 billion dollars, not counting the sums calculated for "...On Stranger Tides".

All of that to say, this may be the first film in history to earn $90.1 million stateside and $256.3 million overseas and be viewed as a disappointment.

"Pirates..." opened unchallenged as Mel Gibson's "The Beaver" saw its wide expansion muted to just 168 locations, a gain of 105 new sites. However, one new film delivered a stunning opening with 6 locations hosting it.

NEW OPENINGS:

"Midnight In Paris", directed and written by Woody Allen, reversed Allen's recent troubles in delivering a worthwhile opening. Allen consistently generates a film a year and his films often are given small platform releases. His last sizeable opening, 2008's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", a film which earned Penelope Cruz a Supporting Actress Oscar, started at $3.8 million at nearly 700 screens, but for a platform opening, you have to go all the way back 2005's "Melinda and Melinda" which started at $74k on 1 screen to find anything comparable to this start. The film also earned Allen his best reviews in years and Oscar talk has started to float around the film's screenplay. This is Allen's third straight film to be released by Sony Pictures Classics and has already banked $5.9 million overseas.

Some lovely "Bridesmaids" keep people's attention after the cut...

Box Office Actuals: May 6-8, 2011

Via Box Office Mojo, The Numbers, Deadline, and other sources:

Despite being one of the few films to have its weekend totals overestimated, "Thor" cruised to a strong opening of $65.7 million to win the box office derby by a slightly more than 2:1 margin of last week's chart topper, "Fast Five". While "Thor"'s opening pales when compared to the comparable "Iron Man" or "Iron Man 2" (which opened the same weekend in 2010), the Marvel Comics adaptation landed the second biggest opening of 2011 thus far.

In some circles, the more impressive story may center on the TriStar/Sony release, "Jumping The Broom", which was underestimated by nearly $1.5 million when initial counts were taken. Made for a mere $6.6 million, "...Broom" surged to a $15.2 million start and had a big Mother's Day attendance, padding its numbers. For Pastor T.D. Jakes, a co-producer on the film, this is already Jakes' highest grossing film, exceeding the $10+ million gross for 2009's "Not Easily Broken" and the $6+ million take for 2004's "Woman Thou Art Loosed!". "...Broom" also had the third highest per screen average for wide releases, netting almost $7,500 per site.

Also underestimated but equally overshadowed is the romantic comedy, "Something Borrowed", which also drew a better than anticipated Sunday attendance and finished the weekend grossing $13.9 million. If the film can hold a decent second weekend, the film should finish near $40 million for its overall gross, exceeding its reported $35 million budget. Critics lambasted the film and audiences were reportedly not too enamored with the film however and it will be interesting to see if female audiences jump to the edgier R-rated "Bridesmaids" and what the effect on "Something Borrowed"'s second weekend will be.

Two other holdovers fared well Mother's Day weekend and saw smaller than expected dropoffs. "Water For Elephants" became profitable this weekend, losing just 35% of its audience in the third weekend and raising its bar to $42.1 million. As audiences shift their attention to bigger and bolder summer fare, it will be interesting to see if "Water...'" can retain its appeal with audiences. "Elephants" looks likely to hit its projected $55 million final gross at this point.

Hanging in the lower reaches of the Top 10, "Soul Surfer" slid just 31.5 % and retained a #8 ranking, with $2.3 million earned and a cumulative $36.9 million gross. People are returning to this film again and again and it has developed a loyal and passionate base of support. "Soul Surfer" has now doubled its production budget, making it a surprising and breakout success.

Within the rest of the Top 10, every other film except "Rio" lost more than 50% of its previous weekend's attendance, largely due to theater counts being slashed with the arrivals of "Thor" and "Fast Five". Then again, it is the transition from spring to summer and large amounts of screens were slashed from films such as "Source Code", "Insidious", "Hanna", and "Scream 4".

"The Beaver" debuts, a "Cave" continues to amaze, contrary to reports - there were no dragons after all, and a possible new record in infamy may have been set. More analysis after the cut:

Can Mel Gibson salvage his career and image with The Beaver?

Well, that remains to be seen, but the potential is certainly there, considering the script for The Beaver is kind of brilliant. I go over it in my Script Review of the film here, but suffice to say, Gibson has got an Oscar worthy role to play with (not to mention juicy supporting parts for supporting players Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence). The early word from screenings was very positive as well, so if audiences are willing to pay to see Mel again, this could be not just a critical hit, but a commercial one as well.

Here's an excerpt from our exclusive Script Review:

In terms of awards potential, I’d look at Best Original Screenplay as where the best possibility lies. If the movie is a hit, Best Actor is where the love should go, though don’t count out Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress (Lawrence), or even Best Director. I don’t know that it’ll be the Academy’s cup of tea, but the potential is there.
Overall, ‘The Beaver’ is one of the best scripts I’ve read in a while. It’s different, but not in an off-putting way. It’s incredibly
touching, and while some may not be thrilled with its choice of denouement, I found it perfect and apt. The premise may be a hard sell, but I can assure you, this will be worth your time. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the movie. If the script is properly executed on screen, this could easily be one of the best films of 2011.
--

Go check out the latest Awards Circuit Script Review (the first of 2011 after The Social Network and Buried were two of the prominent ones featured last year) and let me know what you think!

The Beaver debuts to a strong reception at SXSW!

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Summit made a wise choice in choosing SXSW and Austin to first show its potentially troubled drama The Beaver to a regular audience. From the rousing applause of those in attendance at the Paramount Theatre after the Jodie Foster-directed film finished to the supportive reactions to questions about beleaguered star Mel Gibson, it seemed that the crowd was in an encouraging, forgiving mood.

In a strange way, the fact that Gibson is playing a deeply depressed, barely functional husband and father in the film -- whose message is about the need for connection and helping those who are sick whether you like them or not -- while providing major marketing challenges is also the key to its success with audiences. And thus it has no small potential to buoy Gibson's public reputation.