The only question with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was to ask just how much it would drop after its December opening weekend number of $84.6 million. What’s a satisfactory drop with a film that front-loaded? 50%? 55%?
After Friday it looks like we might be looking at something of a 62% drop as it brought in $10.2 million to kick off the weekend, onward to something like $32 million once all is said and done. You could look at last weekend’s number and note that about $13 million came from midnight screenings and take that out of consideration, at which point we’re looking at a 55% drop, but aren’t we now just massaging the numbers to make them look better?
The box-office story for The Hobbit, however, will be told over the coming weeks. A big drop was to be expected, so now it needs to hold on. We’ll see how it does.
New in theaters we start with Tom Cruise‘s Jack Reacher, which isn’t doing horrible, but isn’t doing great. $5.1 million on Friday won’t have Paramount popping any corks, but an “A-” CinemaScore is encouraging so it could play for some time.
In third is Judd Apatow‘s This is 40 and $3.7 million just flat-out, isn’t good and neither is that “B-” CinemaScore combined with a 53% “cream of the crop” rating over at RottenTomatoes. Apatow needs to stick with comedy and forget drama, he simply can’t let go of his comedic tendencies long enough to let a drama play out.
In fifth place you find the Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand vehicle The Guilt Trip which I couldn’t bring myself to see. I’ve heard it isn’t all that bad, but it doesn’t look like it will be around long enough for many people to find out.
Pixar’s 3-D re-release of Monsters, Inc. 3D is out there making free money and serving as a feature-length commercial and reminder that Monsters University is coming on June 21. It managed $1.3 million on Friday and should finish the weekend in the $4 million range.
Zero Dark Thirty is looking at a solid $23,000 per theater average from just five theaters with $115,000 on Friday on the heels of the $229,000 it brought in on Wednesday and Thursday. If it manages to hold steady we’re looking at a $69,000 per theater weekend for Kathryn Bigelow‘s latest. A fantastic start.
And finally, in 15 theaters, The Impossible brought in $37,700 as Summit is going with the slow roll-out on this Oscar hopeful.
I have included the Friday estimates below and will be back on Sunday morning with a complete look at the weekend.
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – $10.2 million
- Jack Reacher – $5.1 million
- This is 40 – $3.7 million
- Rise of the Guardians – $1.5 million
- The Guilt Trip – $1.49 million
- Lincoln – $1.4 million
- Monsters, Inc. 3D – $1.3 million
- Skyfall – $1.2 million
- Life of Pi – $1 million
- Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away – $802,000
