Saturday
31Oct2009
Box Office - A Soft Friday for 'This Is It'
Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 10:25AM
When we made our prediction on Thursday about the box office future for This Is It, I was relying on information that turned out not to be true. It was reported that the film was estimated to make $10 - $12 million on Wednesday, so I based my projections on those numbers. Still, my pick wasn't all that high for a five-day period (around $50 million), but it won't get near that number, because the Wednesday actuals were in the $7 million range.
Reader Comments (9)
Sign of the times Colin, these movies are failing because of a faulty economy. No movies are making decent money no-a-days. Its not because they are bad, and its not because they can't do the numbers, its because no one is spending money on movies anymore.
I saw the slowest Friday yesterday, and I work usher and concession at a movie theater. The movie theater I work at is losing a lot of business because we just can't keep the numbers comin in like we used to be able to. The movie industry is falling to pieces.
This saddens me a lot, I love film, I can't live without it, but one of my favorite art forms is falling hard. Its a sad sad day.
Well, I hate to disagree with you, Nick, but that's not true. When you look at the top 12 films on a given weekend, 34 out of 43 weekends this year have earned $100 million-plus. Last year, there were only 28 all year to accomplish that feat.
Regarding Law Abiding Citizen, I read this week in the LA Times that the Film Department has struck a deal with Weinstein Co. to distribute the film internationally. Also Variety reported that Paramount Pictures & Distributor Momentum will promote and distribute the film in the UK. So it looks like the film will have an opportunity to make a few more bucks.
That's good to know, Mike, thanks. I missed that news about the international distribution, and that should probably be enough to get it over that hump.
But there was a time when a film the likes of Michael Jackson's This Is It, could have made the projected $250 million in its first 5 days. It wasn't that great of a movie, but its the final days of an adored and controversial icon. The only tickets I really took at my movie theater this week were for This Is It. Wild things and Paranormal are pulling in numbers as well, but This Is It has been selling out at my theater, and its still not getting the money it should be.
You can't deny that the film industry has taken a huge hit over the past few years. Between the recession, the illegal pirating of films, and dvd sales dropping off the face of the earth, companies are crying for money right now. We've been pumping out a lot of great movies, and of course the summer blockbusters like Iron Man, Transformers, and all the big names are gonna rake in cash, but a lot of movies are released each year. Production costs alone on most movies now, are making it nearly impossible to break even during a domestic box office run. It hasn't always been like this.
I think what Sony and others wanted us to believe was that this was a major, once in a lifetime event.
It's not. It's a movie. It's not even a movie, it's a concert film/documentary.
Yes, Michael Jackson has possibly the biggest fanbase in the world (next to the Beatles) but still, this is just but a movie.
Nick, I understand your viewpoint, but this doesn't have much to do with our economy. Look at the non-hyped blockbusters of this year: "Gran Torino", "Paul Blart", "Taken", "The Proposal", "The Hangover"- people are spending there money on entertaining films, no matter how much the economy affects them. It takes a special something to get their butts in seats. These films (and others) have that something.
"This is It", unfortunately, doesn't seem to have..."It".
Nick -
There was never a time in which a film could make $250 million in five days. That's never happened. Fewer than ten films have even been within $100 million of that much, and only two are within $50 million. Those two - The Dark Knight and Transformers - pretty much refute the "there was a time" argument.
I think Vince is pretty close to what's happening: People are still spending money, just not always on the movies expected to have the biggest box office. If we finish around last year's total of $9.6 billion, it will be the sixth time in seven years that number has been over $9 billion. There's also been more competition; there were nearly 100 more movies in 2007 than in 2005. This year that number should drop dramatically, though, back to around 500 - 525 from 631 two years ago. So in a way, you could argue that this year's crop is far more profitable than any year in history. We'll know more at the end of December.
Home video is probably what's feeling the most pinch from piracy, and it's the studios' reliance on that revenue that is to blame for some of the out-of-control budgets, because prior to about 2006, they could always make so much from that revenue stream.
Recession has afterall hit our entertainment industry also. Hollywood is big and needs vast financials to produce and promote. Hopefully things will get better in the coming year.
Inspite of recession, things are going good for some.