Daily Box Office Analysis for June 25, 2008

By David Mumpower

June 26, 2008

The Mini-Me sex tape takes place at a hockey game?

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Weekday box office was down for everything in the top ten on Wednesday, which is never a good thing. The problem started at the top as Get Smart, a film that had been experiencing solid weekday holdovers relative to the weekend, fell a steep 9.4% to $4,338,296. What's odd is that this was only the fourth worst decline in the top ten, indicating that for whatever reason, no one wanted to go see a movie yesterday. This would be best described as the calm before the weekend box office storm of Wall-E and Wanted.

While a detailed discussion about yesterday's box office feels a bit ridiculous, here are some key facets of what has happened this week through yesterday's revenue report. Get Smart's $4.3 million performance takes it over the $50 million barrier, giving it a running total of $52,913,568 after six days in release. The title should be around $75 million after ten days, a performance that has to please Warner Bros.

Meanwhile, the film that refused to budge after Get Smart moved to the same day of release, The Love Guru, earned $1,334,072. This is another stiff decline of 13.4%, the worst in the top ten. Its running total of $18,570,763 indicates that it won't even reach $20 million after a full week in release. This is particularly troubling when we consider that the tracking for the film indicated a $20 million opening weekend. Even by those modest standards, The Love Guru has failed. Finally, North American movie goers have done something that gives me hope. I thank you for this.

Kung Fu Panda finishes in second place for the fourth straight day as well as the tenth time out of the last 12 days. In this day and age, that's particularly impressive staying power. A modest 4.1% drop, the third best in the top ten, gives the DreamWorks Animation blockbuster $2,755,921 yesterday and a grand total of $164,492,490 after twenty days in release. For comparison, Madagascar, the best non-Shrek film the studio has released to date in terms of revenue, was at $134,137,273 at the same point in its release. Madagascar's day 20 total of $1,843,870 is a full third behind Kung Fu Panda's day 20 total. In fact, even if we simply compare the films by what they had earned by June 25th, Madagascar still falls short with $157,886,580 despite having a head start of ten days. Suffice it to say that something surprising would have to occur for Kung Fu Panda to not surpass Madagascar, thereby becoming the biggest non-Shrek film to date for DreamWorks Animation. Quality is winning out in this instance. That's two for you this month, North America!




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The Incredible Hulk, a film I failed to mention in yesterday's column had crossed the $100 million barrier, adds another $2,122,340 on Wednesday, giving it a running total of $104,160,300. The Hulk's 52.9% Wednesday-to-Wednesday decline is technically only the fourth stiffest in the top ten. Percentage-wise, however, this drop narrowly misses the worst as You Don't Mess with the Zohan claims a 56.9% fall. The entire top ten this week is an odd mix of films with staying power such as Panda, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (down only 37.5%), Sex and the City (down only 40.9%), and Iron Man (once again the best weekly holdover at 30.4%) and ones that are flaming out in record time such as The Love Guru, Zohan, Hulk, and The Happening. Get Smart and The Strangers are the only two titles behaving pretty much as expected.

As I mentioned at the start, yesterday was a bad day at the box office. Combined top ten receipts were only $15,098,888, making it the second worst Wednesday of June. Sales are down a brutal 16.3% from last Wednesday and are even off 10.4% from the lousy $16,847,289 Wednesday two weeks ago. The only Wednesday it beats is the first one of June, a $14,759,274, and it only manages this by 2.3%. We need new blood at the box office and fate is kind enough to give it to us tomorrow.


Daily Box Office for Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Rank Film Distributor Daily Gross Daily Change Weekly Change Running Total
1 Get Smart Warner Bros. $4,338,296 - 9.1% N/A $52,913,568
2 Kung Fu Panda DreamWorks $2,755,921 - 4.1% - 34.2% $164,492,490
3 The Incredible Hulk Universal Pictures, Marvel Studios $2,122,340 - 9.0% - 52.9% $104,160,300
4 The Love Guru Paramount $1,334,072 - 13.4% N/A $18,570,763
5 The Happening Twentieth Century Fox $1,018,964 - 11.4% - 53.4% $54,215,547
6 Sex and the City New Line Cinema $974,122 - 2.7% - 40.9% $135,359,596
7 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Paramount $924,772 - 5.4% - 37.5% $293,891,068
8 You Don't Mess With the Zohan Sony/Columbia $858,976 - 9.6% - 56.9% $87,129,478
9 Iron Man Paramount $503,165 - 1.8% - 30.4% $306,384,581
10 The Strangers Focus Features $268,260 - 5.6% - 54.6% $50,619,745
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations



     


 
 

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