The Twelve Days of Box Office: Day Three

By David Mumpower

December 25, 2014

I think table dancing is a poor example to set.

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column
Christmas Eve box office behaved as expected, which is to say that virtually every wide release fell yesterday save for one lone exception that mimics a previous year curiosity.

While several new movies debuted today, some of which technically got their start yesterday, the number one film in the country remains the same. For the eighth straight day, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies out-grossed all other North American titles. Its Christmas Eve take was almost exactly $6 million, a decline of 39% from Tuesday’s $9.8 million.

Before all you hobbit haters start ranting about the film’s lackluster box office, this is the point during the 12 Days of Box Office when I remind you that December 24th is an anti-holiday with regards to movie theater attendance. Since so many consumers have family gatherings to attend or spend the day traveling in anticipation of said gatherings, box office goes down the tubes, at least compared to the days before and after it, both of which will bear witness to massive movie crowds.

If you are thinking that this means yesterday’s box office results are deadly dull bordering on irrelevant, I cannot argue the point. I actually feel a bit guilty distracting you from your holiday celebration today to discuss the topic. So, I’ll be brief.

Second and third place are once again held by Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and Annie. While the Jamie Foxx film kept pace the first weekend, a gap has developed during Christmas week. Yesterday, the latest Night at the Museum movie grossed $2.8 million, a respectable decline of only 33%. Annie was less fortunate, falling 43% to $2 million.




Advertisement



More alarmingly, Annie experienced a stiffer decline despite dealing with lower overall numbers. Simply stated, it is not holding as well as Night at the Museum 3. After being separated by less than $1.2 million over the weekend, the gap has now grown to $2.8 million after six days. Annie has earned $24.6 million while the Ben Stiller comedy has tallied $27.4 million.

Yesterday, I mentioned that the 33rd day for the third Hunger Games movie seemed like a positive then explained why that indicator was misleading. Today demonstrates why. Mockingjay Part 1 fell 49% to just under $1 million. For comparison, Catching Fire’s day 34 tally was $2.5 million. The difference between the two films on this particular day is simple. Mockingjay occurred on Christmas Eve while Catching Fire occurred on Christmas Day. So, the latter film’s box office was artificially inflated while the current one is artificially deflated.

Today’s numbers for Mockingjay will spike due to the holiday, bringing it back in line with Catching Fire. The one caveat to this is that the 2013 iteration of The Hunger Games never fell under a million until day 46. It is troubling that Mockingjay has already fallen under that mark 13 days sooner than its predecessor.

With regards to the film that increased yesterday, it was P.K.. The UTV release represents history repeating itself. Since Bollywood fans in North America are less likely to have Christmas obligations, the distributor has cleverly started counter-programming during this spot on the movie calendar. In 2011, Tees Maar Khan increased 62% on Christmas Eve while every title in the top 10 experienced a decline.

The same phenomenon has recurred this week, as P.K. first increased 42% to $540,000 on Tuesday and then added another 19% for $640,000 yesterday. In the process, it snuck into the top 10 in eighth place. UTV should be lauded a great deal for the cleverness of their release strategy.

Christmas Day promises to be explosive at the box office. In fact, early reports place Into the Woods and Unbroken in the $10 million range for their opening days. Amusingly, even though those two films are a slam dunk to finish first and second at the box office, the biggest story being tracked is The Interview. Released in only 10% of the theaters expected, it still has a chance to earn a spot in the top 10 due to its tremendous demand from free media attention.


Daily Box Office for Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Rank
Film
Distributor
Daily Gross
Total Gross
1 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Warner Bros. 6.0 114.0
2 Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Fox 2.8 27.4
3 Annie Sony 2.0 24.6
4 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Lionsgate 0.97 294.0
5 Exodus: Gods and Kings Fox 0.95 42.7
6 Big Hero 6 Walt Disney 0.84 193.8
7 Penguins of Madagascar Fox 0.68 67.0
8 P.K. UTV Communications 0.64 5.1
9 Wild Fox Searchlight 0.59 9.3
10 Interstellar Paramount Pictures 0.44 173.4

     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Friday, March 29, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.