I’m sorry, but analysis on Friday’s numbers is going to be light today. I am late and need to head out the door, but let’s first take a look at a few things.
To begin, Joe Carnahan’s The Grey had a stellar opening day with $6.5 million and a potential $17 million three-day. The film was made on a reported $34 million budget, but a B- CinemaScore from audience members seems to indicate it’s splitting the audience. Next weekend’s numbers on this one could be interesting.
In second is Katherine Heigl’s One for the Money with which Lionsgate tried the same tactic they did with The Lincoln Lawyer and offered Groupon deals for opening weekend showings and it seems to have worked. Curious enough, Variety reports the $6 coupon rate, which goes wholly to the exhibitor, is being added to weekend estimates at full-price ticket costs, artificially inflating the film’s reported gross. Fair? Foul?
And the last of the major new releases is Summit’s Man on a Ledge, which did it’s own coupon deal through Living Social, but it appears to have been far less successful with only a $2.5 million, fifth place opening for the film, which is reported to have a $42 million budget.
As far as the Oscar bump goes, it’s minimal if at all noticeable. The Descendants played in 2,001 theaters and claimed $1.7 million on Friday, The Artist remained rather limited (and silent) in 897 theaters and took in $867,000, War Horse added $520,000 from 1,861 theaters and Hugo scored $488,000 in 965 theaters.
The Friday top ten is directly below and I will be back on Sunday morning with a complete weekend wrap-up and be sure to return Sunday afternoon around 3 PM PST for our live blog of the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
- The Grey – $6.5 million
- One for the Money – $4.1 million
- Underworld: Awakening – $3.4 million
- Red Tails – $2.8 million
- Man on a Ledge – $2.5 million
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – $ million
- Contraband – $ million
- The Descendants – $ million
- Beauty and the Beast in 3D – $ million
- Haywire – $ million
