Christmas Box Office -> Kong & Narnia: Neck & Neck
Friday, December, 23, 2005 Title Daily Total
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, THE 8.2 141.7
KING KONG 8.2 95.5
FUN WITH DICK AND JANE 5.6 12.9
CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 2 4.0 9.3
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA 2.8 5.9
RINGER, THE 2.4 2.4
FAMILY STONE 2.4 21.6
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE 1.6 258.3
MUNICH 1.4 1.4
SYRIANA 1.1 26.8
- In a much hyped battle between Lion & Beast, 'Narnia' and 'Kong' took in identical Friday night grosses as the Christmas box office season has officially begun. After the impressive 67 million launch of 'Narnia', 'Kong' was the all odds favourite to rule the frames afterwards. But with a softer than expected bow and not as strong a hold this weekend as expected, it's getting easier to say that the mighty beast who took over Manhattan is going to have an extremely tough time reaching the 200 million benchmark everyone thought was a given.
Regardless, this weekend, both films could fly in the vicinity of 30-40 million depending how much things drop today with people doing Christmas Eve shopping and travelling, and how much things rise and stay healthy on Christmas Day and the Holiday Monday.
- We see many fresh faces to the top 10. After mediocre Wed-Thu performances, Jim Carrey & Steve Martin's latest critically panned offerings saw better starts as 'Fun With Dick & Jane' could conjure between 20-23 million while 'Cheaper By The Dozen 2' could slice up 17-20 million.
Other newbies to the crowd include 'Memoirs of a Geisha' which is seeing a surprisingly strong expansion in over 1,000 theatres. Expect something between 10-12 million. Johnny Knoxville's crude Special Olympics comedy 'The Ringer' surprisingly found a large audience and could grab 6-7 million, while Steven Speilberg's 'Munich' could sizzle up 5-6 million in just over 500 theatres. Other wide release, 'Wolf Creek', was nowhere to be found on the Box Office radar.
- The Family Stone & Harry Potter 4 are proving to be durable Holiday hits with solid holds. And despite expanding into over 100 theatres this weekend, where's Brokeback Mountain? It was top 10 last weekend in just 69. The Holiday pressure might have squeezed it out. We'll see when #'s come out Sunday.
grrr sucks that Brokeback Mountain isn't in the top 10...
Though hopefully it makes over 2.4 million since that's the amount it made last weekend. This sucks...
Its perfectly normal that its not in the top 10 because a bunch of movies opened in wide-release this week. That would push it out of the top 10 but that doesn't mean its sales didn't go up.
Well in 69 theatres, it was able to sell $700,000 worth of tickets.
#10 this week did 1.1 million. When the theatre count hit 129 this weekend, you'd think it could have made over a million the way it was going and stay top 10.
ya... seems like Brokeback Mountain is losing it's fire. But with the Golden Globe awards coming, it might help create more of a buzz if it's one of the biggest winners. and then when the Oscar nominations come out.
I saw Rumor Has It today and I'm seeing The Producers tomorrow, possibly it'll be good.
Oh and you're talking about Wolf Creek, Cry Wolf came out in September. Casanova, The New World, Wolf Creek, and the two I mentioned above came out today (Christmas Day).
grrr sucks that Brokeback Mountain isn't in the top 10... 
Casanova, The New World, Wolf Creek, and the two I mentioned above came out today (Christmas Day). 
) and I was sincerely disappointed.
