Seven-Day Summary: 'Tron' Dominates, 'Fockers' Dwindle

For the week of Dec. 17-23, Tron Legacy dominated with $68.2 million, while Little Fockers took over on Wednesday and Thursday with relatively disappointing numbers. Overall business was down 16 percent from the same week last year when Avatar led.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3027&p=.htm

That big drop for Tron tells me we have a LOT of kids going to see it!

Christmas Eve is the time when kids definitely stayed home.

Fockers is taking an absolute bath. Wouldn't be shocked to see TRON on top of True Grit or Little Fockers by early next week.

Better numbers are now in and Tron is looking better:


1 1 Little Fockers Uni. $5,100,000 -28% - 3,536 $1,442 $19,400,000 3
2 3 True Grit (2010) Par. $4,783,000 -16% - 3,047 $1,570 $16,001,000 3
3 2 Tron Legacy BV $3,974,000 -35% -77% 3,451 $1,152 $72,163,000 8
4 5 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Fox $2,225,000 -25% -37% 3,532 $630 $55,354,000 15
5 4 Yogi Bear WB $2,130,000 -35% -54% 3,515 $606 $30,115,000 8
6 6 Tangled BV $1,720,000 -35% -21% 2,582 $666 $138,980,000 31
7 8 The Fighter Par. $1,276,000 -20% -68% 2,511 $508 $20,350,000 15
8 7 Black Swan FoxS $1,065,000 -40% -58% 1,457 $731 $23,496,000 22
9 9 The Tourist Sony $875,000 -25% -66% 2,756 $317 $36,353,000 15
10 10 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 WB $705,000 -35% -47% 1,732 $407 $270,507,000 36
11 11 How Do You Know Sony $525,000 -40% -80% 2,483 $211 $12,000,000 8

The magic number for a franchise is Domestic: $300,000,000+ . It's disconcerting that Tron Legacy only a week out in release is already in third place.

bitmap74 Wrote:The magic number for a franchise is Domestic: $300,000,000+ . It's disconcerting that Tron Legacy only a week out in release is already in third place.

Wherever did that come from? It really depends on the amount of money spent so there is no one magic number.

Quicksort Wrote:Not strictly true: Twilight: 193m Sex and the City: 153m Star Trek (2009): 258m Alvin and the Chipmunks: 217m Night at the Museum: 251m All spawned new franchises, though the first three had built-in sizable fanbases. Here are some more comparable films: Inception: 293m Hancock: 228m GI Joe: 150m Terminator: Salvation: 125m Watchmen: 108m The first two are surely successes. The problem here is the ~$300m in total that Disney spent on TL. If it grossed, say, $220m domestically and $500m in foreign markets, things would be looking up. But that's hopelessly optimistic. Again, we'd be looking at Inception numbers--unlikely at best.

If the movie makes $200m domestically and about 200-300m in foreign markets we're probably fine. This movie does not need to make 700m during it's theatrical run to be a success. I'm sure Disney would love that but it doesn't have to do that nor is it realistic at this point to think it will. If Disney can make it's money back and then some I think we'll be in good shape.

Don't forget all the merchandising and DVD/Blu-Ray sales that goes along with it as well as the fact they are trying to launch a new franchise. Usually a lot more money is made on a sequel. So if they think they can use the first movie as the launching pad and build the brand into something even more successful, that's all they need.

But honestly at this point it's kinda pointless to worry about it too much. I want it to do well but it's up to Disney to decide. There's really no magic threshold where we're guaranteed a sequel at this point. If it was a runaway hit it'd be one thing, but since it's not (and it's just a very solid hit) it's really kind of a toss-up at this point. Let's just be thankful it's not going to get Terminator Salvation or Watchmen numbers. Then we'd really be in trouble!

Uprising is supposed to air Fall of 2011. It's a good franchise extender (along with the possible full series) until the sequel comes out.

bitmap74 Wrote: jonwes Wrote: Wherever did that come from? It really depends on the amount of money spent so there is no one magic number. I based my number on Transformers 2007. It grossed $319,246,193 domestic. Tron Legacy should be sitting on at least 150,000,000. Fockers and Grit should not have unseat a big budget sci-fi film with so much potential in its second week of release.

There's your problem then. That's an absolutely horrendous movie to compare Tron to. First of all, Transformers is a well-established brand name that has pretty much constantly been in the public consciousness since the mid-80's (except for a VERY brief lull between Generation 2 and Beast Wars.)

Also, that was a summer blockbuster movie. Tron is a winter movie. They have different expectations and they make their money in different ways. Summer blockbusters need to make the majority of their money in their opening weekend or by their second weekend. Winter - especially those released the weekend before Christmas - are expected to maintain legs throughout the holiday season.

A better comparison for Tron's performance are movies that opened up on a similar date:
http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/weekends/month/?mo=12&p=.htm
Again, look at the movies that opened on a similar date and made a similar amount on their opening weekend.

There is not one movie in that list that didn't get a sequel (or doesn't have one planned) except King Kong. And King Kong would have one if Peter Jackson had been interested in making it his next movie. Another thing to note is that very few of them reached the 300m range domestically. These are the exception. Most were in the 200-250m range.

A good comparison for where Tron Legacy's final tally might lie could be made by looking at National Treasure: Book of Secret's run. It ended up with about 219m (with a budget of about $130m) AND it was a sequel. If Tron can do that without a popular movie in the mainstream consciousness to bolster it, then I think there will be another one.

So all of this is to say... it's not quite as easy as it seems to determine whether something is successful and you have to make sure you're actually comparing to similar things. AND to say, that unless Tron just takes a nosedive soon there's actually more reason to be hopeful for the future than not.

TRON: LEGACY still holding strong against new releases:

via Exhibitor Relations - U.S. Weekend Gross:

#1 LITTLE FOCKERS - $34 mil, #2 TRUE GRIT - $25 mil, #3 TRON: LEGACY - $20.1 mil

TRON: LEGACY U.S. Total so far: $88,296,000

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jonwes Wrote:Not spectacular but not horrible either. Should reach $100m early next week.

Very good all things considered -- also comparatively, the Jack Black comedy "Gulliver's Travels," a 3-D adaptation of the classic Jonathan Swift story - debuted Christmas Day, and took in a weak estimated $7.2 million for the two-day weekend.where to buy abortion pill ordering abortion pills to be shipped to house buy abortion pill online

I hope it continues to reek earnings.... It is movie worth watching...