4th of July, 2006
(5 Day Totals)
THTRS = Number of Screens
* Denotes new release.
Click on title to read CB Review
| 1. | Superman Returns * |
| $73,980,000 Total: $106,038,000 | |
| LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 4065 |
| 2. | The Devil Wears Prada * |
| $39,550,000 Total: $39,550,000 | |
| LW: N WR: 1THTRS: 2847 |
| 3. | Click |
| $29,000,000 Total: $87,518,000 | |
| LW: 1 WR: 2 THTRS: 3764 |
| 4. | Cars |
| $22,054,000 Total: $190,076,000 | |
| LW: 2 WR: 4 THTRS: 3706 |
| 5. | Nacho Libre |
| $9,508,000 Total: $68,281,000 | |
| LW: 3 WR: 3 THTRS: 3082 |
| 6. | The Lake House |
| $6,675,000 Total: $40,901,000 | |
| LW: 6 WR: 3 THTRS: 2645 |
| 7. | The Fast and the Furious:Tokyo Drift |
| $6,250,000 Total: $53,485,000 | |
| LW: 4 WR: 3 THTRS: 2670 |
| 8. | Waist Deep |
| $4,606,000 Total: $16,469,000 | |
| LW: 5 WR: 2 THTRS: 1006 |
| 9. | The Break-Up |
| $4,580,000 Total: $111,820,000 | |
| LW: 7 WR: 5 THTRS: 1911 |
| 10. | The Da Vinci Code |
| $3,700,000 Total: $211,193,000 | |
| LW: 10 WR: 7 THTRS: 1384 |
Happy Independence Day!
4th of July is underway and the people who make such educated guesses have already estimated what they think you're going to spend at the box office tonight. I got my extra movie watching in last night but tonight I have better things to do than go to the movies. The experts seem to be expecting most of America to do something similar. As well we should - after all, they don't serve freshly grilled brats and burgers at the cinemaplex.
In an interesting twist of events, The Devil Wears Prada, actually did better over Monday and Tuesday compared to the three day weekend ( View 3-Day Totals) by relative percentage performance than Superman Returns (how's that for a statistic). In other words, Superman Returns slowed down a little more going into the holiday than Prada. Both did better than they would have on a non-holiday but neither did as well as they might have expected to on a holiday like Memorial Day. Independence Day just doesn't give movies that same holiday boost.
It's a victory for Superman in the sense that he broke the $100 million mark in his first week. It's a hollow victory though, kind of like finding out that the police found your stolen car but it's in a million pieces on the floor of a New Jersey chop shop. Superman Returns will still struggle to turn a profit for Warner Brothers. The international receipts for the film jumped to $20 million bringing the movie's grand total to $126 million, barely half way to recovering the production budget. I would be more optimistic about the films chances of hitting that mark but it has serious competition on the way.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest arrives on Friday and while reviews mark it as being not quite as good as the original, it still comes across as more fun than the emotionally baggaged Superman Returns. This is summer time and people are out for a good time. I expect Captain Jack Sparrow and crew will leave Superman floundering in their wake.
All this talk about Superman has left some people feeling like I'm calling Superman Returns a failure. Bear in mind, I speak only in relative financial terms. The movie may be out performing Batman Begins, but it only had a $150 million budget to recover. That movie actually did turn quite a nice profit for Warner Brothers while Superman is shaping up to barely break even. It's always great to know that a good movie is making good box office money, but the movie isn't a financial success until it earns more than it cost to be made.
