Weekend Wrap-Up

Potter Roasts Box Office Over Turkey Frame

By John Hamann

November 28, 2010

He's gonna hate it when she cuts her hair short.

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column
Finishing second this weekend is Disney's Tangled, supposedly the last of their long line of "princess" films (I love a business strategy that says "abandon what made you famous"). The 3D animated flick grossed $49.1 million over three days and $69 million over five days. This is a stellar result for Disney, hearkening back to the late 1990s and Disney's dominance of the Thanksgiving frames. Tangled got out to 3,603 venues, and earned a venue average of $13,28. Considering that Potter only won the three-day portion of the weekend by a million bucks, Disney has to be delighted with this result. It will help them save some face, as the LA Times reported a $260 million production budget for the animated musical, which is almost a dinosaur in today's CG world. Tracking was looking for a $30 million (or lower) three-day and a $40 million five-day, so with Tangled we have a definite breakout success. Too often these type of films end up more on the downside, so I think Disney will be especially pleased.

Not only will Disney be happy with the box office result, they will also be pleased with critical and public opinion of the film, which will lead to outstanding merchandising opportunities down the line. The Cinemascore for Tangled is an A, and the reviews are of the rave variety. At RottenTomatoes, 99 reviews were counted, and of those 87 were fresh, giving this one a strong 87% fresh rating. Top critics gushed even more, with 23 out of a possible 25 giving a thumbs up, good for a 91% fresh rating. This is Disney's biggest Thanksgiving weekend opening since 2007's Enchanted. The Amy Adams film grossed $34.4 million over the three-day and $49 million over five days. Enchanted finished with $127 domestically, a number Tangled will have no problem taking down.




Advertisement



Proving it's a huge family movie-going weekend, Megamind finishes third – down only one spot from last weekend – despite four new films entering the fray. Megamind earned a solid $12.9 million this weekend – its fourth - despite what should have been crushing competition from Tangled and Harry Potter. It took in $17.6 million over the five day portion of the weekend. Megamind dropped 20% compared to its $16 million take last weekend. Over the Monday-to-Friday portion of the week, Megamind earned $8.3 million, a significant increase over the $4.5 million it earned over the similar period the week before. It has now managed to match its $130 million budget stateside, as it has a cume so far of $130.5 million.

Fourth place goes to new release Burlesque, Screen Gems' shot at November glory. The musical, starring Cher and Christina Aguilera, earned $11.8 million over three days, and $17.2 million over five. Unfortunately, this one cost $55 million, so it needed to open with $5 or $10 million more to prove effective for the studio, unless it is big overseas. It was too much camp for critics, as the folks at RottenTomatoes gave it a rotten rating of 32%, a score that's just not going to work for this kind of musical.


Continued:       1       2       3

     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.